Making of a Marathoner

22 miles in 4:50

This was a challenging run!  Today was dubbed the Celebration Run.  It's our longest training run, a full 26.2 miles winding through Golden Gate Park, the Presidio and the Sunset.

Our coach said the purpose of running 26 miles is not to do a "practice marathon" or see how quickly we can run the distance.  The purpose is to push back "the wall of endurance."  This wall is quite real: each long run has made the previous ones look easy.  During the 18 mile run, for example, it was easy to reach 16; during the 20 mile run, it was easy to pass 18.  So in theory, this was run was meant to push our endurance past 26 miles.   

It is only three weeks until the real marathon, however, and recovering from a long run like today's can take several weeks.  That brings me back to today's purpose: to add endurance but to go slowly, take our time, and above all avoid injury.

As the title indicates, I made it to the water station at mile 22 before stopping.  My feet and legs were just too stiff to continue.  Some running days are good, others are not so good, and today was definitely one of the latter.  I started out a little sore and never quite found my stride.  So instead of running through the pain and risking injury, I stopped.  I got some snacks (the water stations on our training runs are fully stocked), then put my feet up and rested for a few minutes before walking over to the finish line.

To our surprise, there was a balloon arch over the finish and a small crowd of cheering AIDS Marathon volunteers waiting to congratulate us.  Despite the slightly cheesy "You are heroes" tagline on the banner, it felt really good. Here's a picture of my pace group, the Teglas.  You can click on the picture to see the others I took.

I'm not too worried about only going 22 miles today.  I made it to 23 miles a few weeks ago and felt much stronger throughout the run.  Running is a day to day thing.   And as a beginning marathoner I expect my performance will continue to vary until I turn pro.  (Just kidding, Mom.) 

And besides, I had to slow down or stop during the 14 and 18 mile training runs too, and at the time those runs pushed me to the limit.  Now, after six months of training, I could run 14 miles on a lark!  And 18 sounds almost as easy.  26 will come with time.

23 miles in 4:27

Today was a milestone in the training program.  We completed 23 miles.

We started at 7 AM with an easy 4:1 walk/run ratio.  Averaging the walk intervals with the 10 min/mile running pace works out to about a 12 min/mile combined pace.

Although the Galloway run/walk method is the great enabler of mere mortals like me running a marathon, I'm starting to understand how it can become a doubled edged sword.  During longer runs, transitioning from walking to running becomes painful.  And the longer you walk, the more your muscles adjust and the less they want to start running again.  Today, we often extended our walk intervals to two minutes or more in order to stretch, or finish eating goo, or whatever.  This was, in my opinion, a debilitating mistake.  Common sense would tell you that the longer your recovery interval, the stronger you'll feel for the run interval.  This is not the case, and I think most of my group would agree.  Hopefully next time we can strictly limit our recovery intervals.

Today's run was draining, both mentally and physically.  After coming home, eating, showering, and taking a nap, I'm still wiped out.  Recovering from the 20 mile run took about 24 hours. 

On a positive note, I took a bunch of pictures.  The scenery offered by Shoreline is hard to beat.

Here is the remainder of our training schedule:

June 17	8 miles
June 24	8 miles
July 1	10 miles
July 9	26 miles
July 15	8 miles
July 22	8 miles
July 30	Race Day!

I'm looking forward to it.  Sunday, July 9, is the "celebration run" where the South Bay and East Bay groups join the San Francisco group for a massive run in the city followed by a BBQ. 

Two weeks of recovery

We ran 10 mile "recovery runs" on each of the last two Saturdays, building up to tomorrow's 23 mile training run.  There's not much to report about those runs except that I never thought running 10 miles would be that easy.  Both days were so clear that we could see the San Francisco skyline (>30 miles away) from atop the Shoreline hills. 

I will be adding photos to my Flickr page tomorrow morning as I take them from my phone. 

20 miles in 3:58

Twenty miles!

Before the run this morning, our coach said that 20 miles was more of a mental challenge than a physical one.  She was right.

Our course looped all around Shoreline and included three hills.  Here is the first half and the second half.

I ran with the 10:00 pace group again, but our run/walk ratio was diluted even further to 4:1 for today's mileage.  This means we ran at the same pace but walked more frequently, so the actual pace worked out to about 12 minutes/mile.  We finished just under the expected four hours.

Thanks to some hard work in a new exercise program this week (crafted by Wella, of course), I didn't experience any of the knee problems that pained me during the last three long runs.  Now I'm more secure about actually finishing the marathon.  It's amazing what a few targeted exercises can do to your muscles.

Don't get me wrong: twenty miles was not a breeze.  My legs were tired by mile 14 and I wondered whether I could finish.  The question was underscored by the fact that the course went by the finish line first at mile 18, so anyone needing to skip the last 2 miles would be able to.  At least one runner from our group said she would be stopping at 18.  My legs hurt and the idea of stopping sooner seemed like a totally evil, disappointing, insidious, yet very tempting option.

When we came to mile 18, though, I was totally determined.  Suffering what felt like defeat two weeks ago, I wanted a strong finish at 20 miles.  So I decided that I just didn't care how much it hurt.  We looped around Shoreline Rd, Charleston, and Amphitheatre Rd for the last two miles and even though everybody was sore, we finished 20 at full stride.

9 miles in 1:31

Our "easy" recovery run this week was "only" 9 miles. 

Since I ran into a few problems last week, I switched to the next slower pace group.  It's only marginally slower (10:00 versus 9:30), and honestly I think the only difference is that the 10 min/mile group walks slower.  And takes slightly longer walks when it's time to snack.  I couldn't tell much difference in the running pace.

Regardless, I stayed with the group for the whole run.  My left knee started hurting a bit around mile 5 but didn't become painful enough to slow me down.

On the upside, Wella took another look at my legs and gave me a few new exercises.  I hope that if I do these once or twice a day this week that I'll be able to finish the full 20 mile run next Saturday.

18 miles in 3:28

We drove up to San Francisco again today for our 18 mile run.  This one was daunting, and ultimately a little disappointing.

We met at 5:45 AM and carpooled up to the starting place in Golden Gate Park.  The course was another beautiful tour of the city, this time running down Ocean Beach and around Lake Merced. 

My knee started hurting again around the middle of the run, but it wasn't too painful until mile 13.  At mile 16, I decided to drop back from the group and walk the last two miles.  I was right at the point that continuing to run would have crossed the line from soreness to injury.  And injury is the ultimate nemesis: it can set me back weeks if I'm not careful. 

I had already adjusted my gait slightly to compensate for my stiff knee; I concentrated on using my hamstring and gluts to power my stride and lowering my kick to more of a shuffle.  But this strategy was short lived, as it only caused those other muscles to tighten up.

I finished only a few minutes behind the rest of the group, but it was demoralizing.  I was beaten.  I couldn't even limp down to the ocean to ice my spent legs (not that it sounded like a good idea, anyway...) 

The only good news is that thanks to the Myoplex protein shake I brought with me, this might be the quickest recovery yet.  Eating right after the run makes a big difference.  I'm starting to feel a little better. 

16 miles in 2:48

Bryan, Julie and I drove up to San Francisco for our 16 mile training run on Saturday. 

Coach Scott set up a course that was like a tour of the northern part of the city.  We ran past Fort Mason, the Marina, Coit Tower, the Presidio, and the Exploratorium.  There were great views, but also great hills.  Here is an approximate map of the course.

I was anxious about going for 16 miles since I had some problems during the 14-miler two weeks ago, when I had to drop back from the group for the last two miles because my legs were too sore. 

To combat the longer distance this time, our coaches had a surprise: each group's run/walk ratio dropped back one notch.  Our's went from 6:1 to 5:1, which slowed our pace from 9:30 to 10:30 min/mile.  I made it all the way through the course on pace, and although the last mile was a little painful I wasn't nearly as wiped out as after the 14-miler.

I 'm beginning to learn that in running, 90% of the challenge is mental.  My body didn't change all that much between those two Saturdays (although the exercises Wella gave me for my gluteus medius and tibialis anterior definitely made a difference.)  What did change was my attitude.  I did a better job of pacing myself mentally.

Sometime after the middle point I start to count down the miles.  It's amazing what happens when you think, "only 5 miles left," "only 3 miles left," "one mile, come on!"  I realized that when I do this, I'm basically telling my body that it's allowed to quit at some moment looming in the near future.  This is a defeatist way of thinking.  As soon as I start thinking about being done, I am.

I made it to the 13 mile mark without thinking much about how many miles were left.  But as soon as I started counting down, my body started begging to quit.  Suddenly the two miles ahead looked longer than the fourteen miles behind me.  This was the lesson that 16 miles taught me.

As I promised in my post two weeks ago, I now have documentary evidence that runners do in fact walk into the ocean after our training runs!  I snapped a few shots of the lunacy that I again failed to avoid.  The water is painfully cold, mind you, so I bundled up in a fleece jacket this time.  Here are the other photos.

7 miles in 1:04

Saturday's recovery run went smoothly. 

We were all thinking, "seven miles, that's easy!"  And amazingly enough, it was easy.  I never thought it would be easy to run seven miles, but here I am.

Ana was the only one in my group who showed up today.

14 miles in 2:38

For a change of scenery, today we met up with the training group in San Francisco for our 14-mile run.  This was our course:  http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=109596

Much of the run went through Golden Gate Park.  We also ran up to the Presidio and down through the Outer Sunset neighborhoods, finishing near the beach.

It was a productive training run by most counts.  We met new people, had great weather and took in the sights of the city and the ocean. 

I had plenty of energy, but around mile 11 my knee started getting sore again.  Wella has now narrowed my "diagnosis:" it's a combination of my gluteus medius, IT band, and tibialis anterior.  Those are the three muscles that go from the buttocks down to the ankle on the outside of the leg.  I need to improve the endurance and strength of those muscles.  In the mean time, they will continue to hurt whenever I do a high mileage run.  I have some exercises for these muscles, so I hope I can get stronger before marathon day!

Since I was hurting, I had to drop back from my group.  Ana stayed with me for the rest of the run.  We came in about 10 minutes behind Bryan, Julie, Dave and Erik.

Afterwards, lots of people were wading into the ocean to cool off and "ice" their legs.  Apparently the San Francisco training groups do this after most runs!  I thought they were crazy because that water is cold! I was so stiff, though, that I figured anything would help. I was planning on icing my leg when I got home anyway, so why not get it over with sooner?

I took off my shoes, hiked up my pants and walked into the ocean up to my knees.  It nearly took my breath away.  "You'll get numb soon!" shouted someone who had been in the water a few minutes.  I shouted back a friendly expletive.  It occurred to me that the dozen or so people within view on the beach must have thought we were deranged.  I held out for about ten minutes in the artic water and then raced (stiff-legged) up to the beach.  Someone from the group snapped pictures just after I left; if I can get copies I'll post them here.  I know I wouldn't quite believe this episode without seeing it.

6 miles in 1:01

Yesterday was a "recovery run."  These shorter runs are interspersed with our longer runs for the rest of our training.

It was mostly uneventful, except for the miracle lack of rain.  It rained before and after, but somehow we were spared yet again.  I'll have more to post tomorrow about training and fundraising.