Pages

Thursday, February 24, 2011

The Fall Marathon is Berlin!

I decided that my fall marathon will be in Berlin on September 25, 2011. This race will be my third world major marathon as I have previously done New York City (3 times) and Chicago (3 times).  I am very excited about it because Berlin is a world record course, flat and fast. Berlin has been on my list for more than 3 years, I decided this morning that it was time to act and register to run it. My decision implies that I will have to adjust my training plan a little bit so that I can run my spring marathon in late April or early May. Running in early May will give me almost 21 weeks to fully recover and complete a full training plan toward Berlin. This decision also implies that I do not necessarily have to attempt running a sub 3 hr marathon in early/mid May. I am training hard to run fast in the spring but I need to be careful in my training as I wouldn’t like to get injured.  The possibilities for spring are the New Jersey or the Cincy Marathons… I am leaning toward New Jersey currently.

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Intensity, endurance and consistency for the next 4 weeks

I like what I see so far.  My legs recovered from the NOLA half and am ready to shift the focus of my training to intensity, endurance and consistency. The race in New Orleans was a good parameter that allowed me to gain some information about my fitness. I felt good during the race but the recovery was slow and painful. But my legs are back and my mind is ready to take on 12 very intensive weeks of training leading to my next marathon. A year ago my objective was to qualify to Boston. I now think about running a sub 3 hr marathon. It's not an easy task but I am going to try it. A few months ago I read an article saying that to run a sub 3 hr marathon one has to have some special attributes. It's not all about the fitness, the mind also plays an important role. Fitness is something that one can always improve with constant workouts, but the state of mind, and the determination are characteristics that one can difficult improve regarless of the mileage. They are inside of you, waiting to be awaken.

I am healthy, faster, and commited to log hundreds of quality miles. I have learnt that it's not about the quantity of miles I run. Rather it's all about the quality of those miles. I know that I have to run many, many quality miles before attempting to run a sub 3 hr. marathon and I am ready to do so. It's time to prove that I can maintain a fast, consistent pace for 26.2 miles.

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of the NOLA half...

I ran the New Orleans Half Marathon in 1:30:32. This is my second best time ever in the half marathon. It was a beautiful day for running a distance race. I woke up at 4:15 am to eat my usual breakfast (a coffee, a banana, and a bagel) and to shower. The race started at 7 am so I had to get ready as soon as possible and leave to the start. The organization at the start was good, it was very easy to find my corral (corral 1) so I had plenty of time to warm up. The temperature was in the high 40’s when the race started… beautiful, beautiful! 

I ran a very consistent race, but the lack of racing in the past few months certainly affected my performance. I didn’t really know how fast I could go. The first miles were fast but I then slowed down a little. I ran by myself almost the whole race and that also had an effect on my pace and ultimately on my time. Yet I am satisfied with the result, I ran 45 seconds slower than my half-marathon PR with only 5 weeks of serious training.  I had good speed but lacked stamina and endurance in the final miles. It’s normal, I am far from my peak and am sure my stamina and endurance will be very good in a few weeks. I am happy because my legs hurt after the race, which suggests that I had a great workout.
So here is the good, the bad, and the ugly of the NOLA Half:

The Good:
1.      Racing again after 4 months
2.      The consistency, I ran almost even splits the whole race
3.      The weather
4.      My uniform

The Bad:
1.      I was only 45 secs off my PR
2.      The roads are in terrible shape!!!
3.      I ran by myself almost the whole way
4.      It was a very expensive race
The Ugly:

1.      My legs and left arm hurt after the race and still hurt a bit
2.      It has been a painful and long (3 days) recovery

My splits were:  6:45, 49, 47, 50, 51, 49, 53, 53, 55, 58, 54, 55, 50.  I can run faster than this. I have done three recovery sessions this week. My legs are feeling better and I am going to try an interval session tomorrow. 12 weeks til I come back to run a full marathon… I will be strong!

Friday, February 11, 2011

48 hrs...


Training has been good this week.  I decreased my mileage in anticipation of the NOLA half-marathon.  My workouts have been shorter but faster.  I did a great fartlek on Tueday (20 min. w/u; 9x 1 on/1 off; 20 min. c/d); 6 miles easy on Monday and Wednesday; and a short tempo run yesterday (12 min. w/u;  3 mile tempo; 12 min c/d).  I will take today off and do a very short fast paced run tomorrow morning (2-3 miles with 3x400 pick ups) to recover and get ready for Sunday.  I have good sensations about my new training regime… I am getting faster.  

I will run this race without having high expectations about my performance. It’s too early in the season to think about running a half-marathon PR, it’s also too early to see results of my new plan. I will let my legs go as fast as they want to go. Hopefully, they will have enough gas to go strong for 13 miles.  There are two key differences between this race and my previous half-marathons. First, I don’t have to run a marathon any time soon, so I can go fast if I’d like to. Second, I am not going to set any limits… I am going to go for it. I train really hard every day and I can’t limit myself in race day. I train to run hard and I am going to run hard. I have the feeling that it is going to hurt but I am not going to quit…

Monday, February 7, 2011

First Race since Chicago


I have some minutes to spare at Cleveland (thanks to a delayed flight) and I decided to update my running blog. Work has been busy but I have been able to get some good runs in the last 10 days.  I am adapting to my new plan, which includes three quality runs each week (speed/hills, tempo, long run).  The idea is to get faster and stronger. My easy runs are faster and my long runs include 3-4 miles (at the end) @ marathon pace or faster.

I guess we will see how I am doing this Sunday. I already registered for the  Mardi Gras Rock and Roll Half Marathon in New Orleans.  I have not raced since last October and I have no idea how my legs/body are going to respond.  I think I can run fast but I am not sure how long I can sustain a hard effort.  I am just finishing my base training period… It will be interesting to see how I run on Sunday.  This is the first time (since I train seriously) that I am going to run a half-marathon before starting with the heavy-mileage training.  I should be faster than in my previous halfs but the question, as I said before, remains as to how many miles I can run at a 6:50/7:00 min pace.