A Confession

Ok, here goes. I hate the 'long run' (defined as runs at or exceeding 17 miles).

I know, I know...

..but you're a marathon runner. How can you hate the long run? Isn't that contrary to what you're training for? To what you supposedly enjoy?

Well, allow me to explain.

I do indeed love race morning. The nerves. The excitement. The energy. And once that gun goes off, the race with yourself and the clock to see just how much you can push yourself in those 26.2 miles is definitely a challenge I enjoy rising to meet.

And I do love training. Anything between miles 4-14 I like. Heck, I've even learned to enjoy speedwork to some extent. But the long run...eh, not so much. It's more mental for me than physical. Leading up to them, I dread 'em. The preparation, all the liquid I have to bring, the rest I need the night before, the time I have to devote to it, the latter miles when I'm drenched in sweat and the legs feel like lead...all of it to me is sheer misery.

I do know this: the long run is the most vital and important aspect of marathon training. And I for one am sick and tired of falling apart from miles 18+ and finishing in a crampy whimper at the finish in races.

This is my first formal marathon training program. 18 weeks long. Weeks maxing out at 55 miles. I'm at the halfway point now entering my 9th week. There are plenty more long runs to come. Yes, I need to get over it.

Hell, I need to learn to love it.

Long Run Sunday: 20 Miles

Back from my 20 mile long run this morning. 9:39 min/mi pace overall. 53 miles for the week.

Pre-run: half of a PowerBar Performance bar
During: 2 Gu's + 22 oz Gu2O + handheld water bottle
Post-run: PowerBar Recovery bar, 32 oz Gatorade, 2 glasses of ice water

Glad that's over with. Have a great day everyone!

Rest in peace Paul Newman.

Tempo Friday

Tonight's tempo run was...in a word, HARD.

Running in my new Mizuno Wave Elixers for the first time, I laced up and headed out the door as soon as my work day ended. Today called for 11 miles total with 6 miles at tempo pace (!). Yikes.

The most I've done to date was 10 miles w/ 5 miles @ lactate threshold/tempo pace about 10 days ago. Tonight proved to be a challenge no doubt.

I used the first 3 miles as a warm-up, then picked up speed to tempo pace and held it for what seemed like an eternity (target pace: 7:49 - 8:10). The last two miles of it, I thought I was going to collapse. But I made it through all 6 and then mercifully, was able to take the last two miles to recover on the route back home. 11.02 miles completed.

Here's what it looked like mile by mile:

Mile 1 - 9:08
Mile 2 - 9:29
Mile 3 - 9:36
Mile 4 - 7:32
Mile 5 - 7:54
Mile 6 - 7:34
Mile 7 - 7:38
Mile 8 - 7:45
Mile 9 - 7:01
Mile 10 - 10:55
Mile 11 - 11:29

After taking a shower, it's now time for pizza and watching the first Presidential Debate on tivo!

Love is...

..a grown man and his (3!) new pairs of Mizuno running shoes!


To clarify - the Mizuno Wave Nirvana 4's are my regular trainers, the Wave Elixers are for speedwork and the Wave Ascend for the trails. I've never splurged on shoes like this, but a) desperately needed to replace my old ones, and b) just couldn't pass up the opportunity.

Thanks to my new favorite running store in the beautiful city of Baltimore for the sweet deals.

Long Run Sunday: 18 Miles

18 mile long run done. Set out to cover this distance at 10-20% slower than my goal marathon pace of about 8:20 or so.

Yesterday, I ran a little over 8 miles while the sun was still out in full force and paid for it. Thank god for cloud cover this morning because it was tough enough as it was. Got a later start than I would have liked (at 8am) but like I said, it was cloudy on the west side/beach. Started at home and headed west on Venice Blvd.

Once I hit the beach after 4.25 miles, I ran north up through Venice/Santa Monica/Will Rogers Beaches. At the halfway mark (9 miles) in Will Rogers, I took a few minutes to take my Gu and catch my breath before making the grueling journey back. I take that back - it was half joyous, half grueling. I hit a bit of what's commonly referred to as a "runner's high" during miles 10-12. Felt absolutely invincible and like I could run forever. I had hoped to hit the final 5 miles at a faster clip, only to have some knee pain and lactic acid build up slow me down. The last 2-3 miles were tough but made it home in one piece.

Post-long run ice bath

Final tally = 18.1 miles, 9:34 pace.

Weekly mileage total = 56 miles - a new weekly mileage PR!

11 Miles in the Books

After getting home around 7:30pm, I allowed myself a few minutes to decompress, do some e-mail/Facebook-ing, before heading out the door a half hour later to get my 11 miles in. Equipped with my sports drink mix, headlamp and camera, I made my usual venture west into the quiet suburbs where I would zig zag my way through completing the necessary miles.

Lately I've been giving thought to will myself to become a 'morning runner' but boy, I tell ya these evening runs are so therapeutic for me. It allows you to go over the day in your head and rid yourself of any unnecessary stress accumulated from the previous 12 or so hours. The neighborhoods I run through are perfect too because while semi-major streets border and frame the rectangular edges of them, once you enter the confines, it's nothing but solitude and empty, open roads with nary a city sound to be heard.

The first few miles, I had to keep reminding myself to pull back on the reins a bit. The purpose of these particular miles is to just keep my aerobic fitness level up - not what you would characterize as 'speed work'. Once I hit mile 9 or so, that ceased to be a problem as I started to feel some fatigue. Needing a tad bit of energy to get through the last two miles, I pulled out my iPod shuffle. It proved to be as effective as a shot of Gu at that precise moment. And no - no "Free Bird" this time.

A common sight around here in Los Angeles

I arrived at home in a little over an hour and a half when it was all said and done with 11.08 miles completed at an 8:57 average pace. It was a good run overall as I'm well on schedule to hit my mileage PR by Sunday at 50+!

My Late Night Tempo Run

It's been a busy couple of weeks for the Burger and while I may have carped that getting my training in has seemed like a second job at times, I still love doing it - otherwise I would not devote so much time to squeezing it in day after day. Last night after a full day of work + class from 7:30am to 7:30pm, you would think that running would be the last thing on my mind. But as the day wore on, it was ALL I could think about.

So as soon as I came home, I threw down my bags and put on my shorts + running shoes + new headlamp + GPS/HRM (heartrate monitor) and jammed out the door. Schedule called for 10 miles with 5 miles at tempo pace. Bring it on.

The headlamp while effective, had a hard time staying on my cro magnon forehead as I started to sweat. After warming up for the first 3 miles, I decided to ditch it in place of my ipod (have a pouch in my hydration belt) and on came my Pink Floyd (RIP Wright), Radiohead and a little "Free Bird" (yes - I cop to liking this song...but only for my tempo runs, I swear!).

With a target of 7:49-8:19 min/mi, I started jamming doing laps around my local park for the next 5 miles. It was strenuous but felt pretty great to let loose a bit. The first 3.5 miles flew by, while the latter 1.5 was akin to watching a not-yet boiling pot of water. But I got 'er done and used the next couple of miles to recover. When it was all said and done, I ended up covering 10.44 miles. Here were my mile splits:

Mile 1 - 8:58
Mile 2 - 9:47
Mile 3 - 9:24
Mile 4 - 8:01
Mile 5 - 7:31
Mile 6 - 7:08
Mile 7 - 7:22
Mile 8 - 7:11
Mile 9 - 9:14
Mile 10 - 9:17
Mile 10.44 - 4:47

Heart rate and everything else were all on target and felt that I ran my tempo pace almost entirely in that 'sweet spot' of 80-90% effort.

Dare I say that I'm actually starting to enjoy speedwork??

Trail Run: Santa Ynez Canyon

Sorry for the sparse writing lately, it's been a busy couple of weeks around these parts. Then again I haven't really been on too many noteworthy runs, opting to adhere to the Pfitz 18/55 marathon training program down to each and every mile. To tell you the truth, it's become somewhat like another job after a few weeks into it.

Seeking to rediscover some of the 'fun' that comes with running, I decided to meet up with the Trail Runners Club yesterday morning to run the approximately 10 mile route in the Santa Monica Mountains. And since summer is officially over, the start time moved back 30 minutes to our original meet up time of 6am. Once most of the crew gathered, the caravan took us to the base of Santa Ynez Canyon and at approximately a half past, we were off!

For the first couple of miles, it was a lot of rock-hopping, poison oak dodging and climbing up the single track trails of the cool, lush canyon. Once we were up in elevation, there was even more climbing until we hit the Santa Ynez fire road which took us past Trippet Ranch and up the Musch Trail. The morning until this point was foggy and slightly damp. After some more climbing, all of a sudden we were above the clouds and under the sun.

I was running with Sara and Jes for the most part but we somehow managed to catch up to Mieko and Thomas who were marking the trail. The 5 of us ran for a little bit together but since Jes knew the trail, the 3 of us broke off again and began the descent down the Santa Ynez trail. Unfortunately, Sara (who was running in front) took a spill and scraped up herself up pretty good. Shaken but undeterred, we soon began running again and finished up the final mile or so back through Santa Ynez Canyon. Final mileage = 10.65 miles.

After cleaning Sara up, it was the usual yuks and snacking with the rest of the crew before parting ways. Some more pics:

The group starting out in Santa Ynez Canyon

Running down the fire road in Santa Ynez

Jes running through the morning fog

Mieko - above the clouds

War wounds

In Remembrance

Long Run Sunday: Palms-Venice-Marina and Back

Got in my long run this morning. On the schedule, Pfitz called for 17 miles. To beat the heat, I got up at 6am and was out the door by 6:30am. Another reason for getting up early was to watch the bicycle portion of LA Triathlon that would run through Venice Blvd, about a block away from my place.

I started on my initial 4.25 mile trek towards the beach, heading westbound on Venice. While the road heading west was already closed off, I did not see a single road bike for awhile. Taking advantage of the empty street, I decided to run down the wide asphalt.

Venice all to myself!

At around the 5K point, I saw the lights of motorcycle cops followed by the first group of the elites flying down on their $5000+ road bikes. When I finally neared the beach, I saw the huge crowd at the bike transition area along with supporters/spectators seeing their loved ones off. I paused here for a couple of minutes to take it all in, before continuing my way down south towards the Marina.

Swim-to-bike transition area of the LA Triathlon

Since my plan was an 'out-and-back', I knew I couldn't turn around until roughly the 8.5 mile mark. It took a lot of zig-zagging through Marina Del Rey, but I finally hit it. After a GU and water break, I turned right back around and started retracing my steps back towards home.

Bikes going eastbound down Venice Blvd

By the time I made it back to Venice Blvd, more athletes started leaving the transition area on their bikes. I started the eastbound trek back home, trying to encourage on some of the bikers as they whizzed by since the crowd support was very sparse. Those spectators that were on Venice Blvd however started cracking wise and yelling out at me, "you forgot your bike!". Yeah, it wasn't funny the first time and it certainly didn't get any funnier the 4th and 5th time I heard it.

Anyway, I finally made it back, covering 17.11 miles after about 2 and a half hours of running. All told, I thought it was a successful run. Was pretty good about running at a slightly slower pace than my goal marathon pace (which is around 8:20), as Pfitz recommends a 10-20% reduction in speed when performing long runs.

After soaking in an ice bath, it was off to meet a friend at a bar for Week 1 of the NFL...only to see my Bengals get their asses handed to them.

Premiere Night: Running for my Father

Oh...wow. What can I say?

Last night, we had the premiere of our little short running film "Running for my Father" at the Ince Theater in Culver City and it was fantastic. Absolutely exceeded my expectations.

Probably somewhere in the neighborhood of 120-130+ people, packed house, standing room only, and a standing ovation for Cody at the end. My mom, my sis, and most of my close friends were there to make the night even better. A special thank you for all that showed to make the night a rousing success!

With a little help from my friends

Showing the film some love

The team: yours truly, Karen (Cody's mom), Cody, Julia (his wife)

And of course, nothing caps off a night like a burger and beer from Father's Office! Congrats again Cody for a job well done man. Your (our) father would be proud.

On the Eve of Premiere Night..

We got on a national podcast!

Thanks to Kevin Patrick and the good people at Endurance Planet, Cody was interviewed to help promote the premiere of our little short film tomorrow night, Running For My Father.

Check it out on their website (podcast for Thursday, Sept. 4th), or you can download and listen directly by following this link.

Feelin' the Tempo

Today, the Pfitz 18/55 plan called for 9 miles with 4 miles @ tempo pace. In the madness that was my day today, I was not able to lace up for this run until well after 8pm. But lace up I did, and off I went.

My goal for the tempo was to do the entire run by effort/heart rate. I feel that in the past, I've been doing them more to achieve a certain pace time rather than running them in the 80-90% sweetspot that Pfitz writes about. So tonight would be a little experiment to (gasp) actually do it right for a change!

The plan broke down like this: 3 miles warmup, 4 miles at tempo pace and then a 2 mile cool down/recovery. I also wanted to do a progression run of the tempo miles (again by effort) to build from 80% of max. heart rate to finishing around 90% by the final mile.

Here's a breakdown of the run that transpired:

Mile 1 - 9:22 avg. HR 146 bpm (target = >150)
Mile 2 - 9:52 avg. HR 148 bpm (target = >150)
Mile 3 - 9:58 avg. HR 151 bpm (target = >150)
Mile 4 - 8:07 avg. HR 164 bpm (target = 160)
Mile 5 - 7:16 avg. HR 171 bpm (target = 170)
Mile 6 - 7:19 avg. HR 178 bpm (target = >180)
Mile 7 - 7:15 avg. HR 180 bpm (target = >180)
Mile 8 - 9:53 avg. HR 158 bpm (target = >150)
Mile 9 - 9:49 avg. HR 152 bpm (target = >150)

A total of 9.1 miles when it was all said and done.

Legs still don't feel as strong as they could, but I'll just attribute that to the wear and tear that goes into a formal marathon training program. My right leg in particular (from the heel up) has been bothering me since the barefooted beach run a couple of weeks ago, but hopefully it'll go back to being a 100% soon.

All in all, it was a pretty solid effort tonight I thought. Sorry for the incredibly boring post - this one was mainly for me. Good night folks!

Running Conversation with: Willis

As a carry-over from my last blog, I decided to continue a feature where I interview an interesting subject relevant to my site. In this case obviously, that would be someone in running.

My first victim is none other than Willis, aka 'Agarose', a radiology resident by day, marathoner by er...morning. A native of Long Island, I met Willis via the forums on Runner's World and then in person at a dinner for San Diego Marathoners back in June. He has been chasing that oh-so-elusive Boston Qualifying time (for him = 3:10:59 or under) and has catastrophically fallen shy in his past attempts due to unfortunate set of circumstances. Not one to make excuses, he just kept plugging away on his training to inch closer and closer to his goal.

Unfortunately, fate dealt him yet another setback when a stress fracture was recently discovered on his foot. While he could have mired in self-pity, he instead discovered new ways to maintain his level of fitness through cycling, aqua-jogging, etc.

Willis, myself, and fellow forumite Charlie

Via the following converstion, we delve more into the life and training habits of the man, the myth, the legend...Willis.

Ok, let's start with the most obvious question - why do you run marathons?

Willis: I should ask you the same question! I used to think I did it for the "wow" factor but in retrospect, I never really enjoyed that aspect of it. I much prefer the conversations with dedicated runners who knew what it was all about, and weren't all that impressed with the 26.2 mile distance. That said, I still think marathons are impossibly hard, even in the best of shape. Impossibly hard is definitely the correct term!

Have you always been a runner? How long have you been at this?

W: I've been a self-identified runner since joining the junior high X-country team in 7th grade. I've been training ever since, almost nonstop. I wasn't really any good though, never becoming a scoring member of my high school X-country team (a PR of 20:50 in the 5K as a senior) and played a lot of basketball in addition. In the past couple of years, I've made a bigger commitment to running in terms of doubling my training volume to 70 miles per week and sticking to the "Pfitzinger Advanced Marathoning" training schedule, which has definitely made me the fastest I've ever been at age 32, with a 5K PR of 18:41. I wish I could have run that fast in high school!

Share a bit about why you want to BQ (Boston Qualify) and what that would mean to you?

W: The BQ goal just happened to be a convenient land-post en route to a quest for greater fitness. Training for a BQ has elevated my fitness to levels I never dreamed possible, even after 15 years of serious running. I'm still not there yet, but I suspect it will happen in the next year or two. If not, I'm going to sandbag and enter my name as "Norma Jean Williams" in the Female 60+ division and see if I'll make the qualifying cutoff that way - it's still pretty hard!

What would you consider to be your best marathon to date?

The San Francisco Marathon. This was my breakthrough race in terms of marathon performance; it came following my first completion of the Pfitzinger 18 week/70 miles (max) per week schedule. I ran this race strictly by "feel", going only roughly by my watch pace, and starting at what felt like a conservative pace. I ran a 30 minute PR in this race, beating my time from 16 weeks prior by over 40 minutes, and racing to a flying finish. That race experience hooked me for life on the marathon.

Talk about some of the more disappointing races you've had in your pursuit of Boston.

W: Actually, I have had many disappointing races. Besides the San Francisco Marathon, I'd characterize nearly all of my other races as disappointing, often running 15+ minutes slower than my projected times based on my half-marathon ability despite my solid mileage base. I seem to be much more suited for short-speedy races than marathons.

The all-time biggest disappointing race however, was definitely the 2008 Houston Marathon where I trained for 80-100 miles per week - my highest volume ever - to only sprain my ankle 2 weeks before the race, and then suffer a horrendous gastroenteritis the morning of the race. All of this and there were about 1,000 people who were tracking me online, only to watch me crash! After all that training, I ran 40 minutes slower than I had planned to on an easy course in perfect conditions, and started cramping as early as mile 6. In contrast to the SF marathon, this race result was nearly enough to make me want to quit running altogether. On the bright side, after suffering this ignominious defeat my other race "let downs" haven't been nearly as bad.

How difficult is it to sacrifice so much time outside of work to train for marathons as you have?

W: I honestly think marathon training is the hardest thing I've ever done. I work extremely hard at it, despite my very busy work schedule as a radiology resident, and I've sacrificed so many things for it. Yet 2 years later, I still haven't achieved my perceived mid-range goal. Despite my seemingly good race performance times, I don't think I'm talented at all at running, as I need to run more miles than most to outperform at a similar level. I'm clearly much better at many other activities in my life, but in terms of self-motivating to overcome challenges, training for a BQ marathon while being a radiology resident definitely takes the cake as the hardest thing I've ever done.

Any other long term running goals besides qualifying for Boston?

W: Interestingly, I don't really have any long-term running goals besides the BQ as of yet. To me, the marathon at BQ pace is so difficult and challenging that I really can't plan or comprehend trying to exceed it in terms of distance and pacing.

The only real endurance event that still draws me strongly besides the marathon is the Ironman Triathlon, although it will be years - if ever - before I get myself to a position in which I can race that insane distance satisfactorily. Probably my biggest long-term running goal however, is to be able to run marathons at approximately age-graded BQ pace well into my late 60's and beyond. If I can accomplish that, I will honestly feel that I've accomplished my true running goal of long-term fitness and performance.

...and short term?

Go running with Billy and the Trail Runners Club!

Thank you Willis. Best of luck in your BQ quest and all other endeavors!

For more on Willis, you can visit his running blog here.