Pheidippides’s BodyBlog

Last week I read online that Boston Marathon registration going much faster than last year, so I decided to go ahead and sign up.  I had no idea just how fast it was going, however, because registration closed one day after I signed up.  In by a whisker.

So, anyway, I AM signed up, and I’m well into my training program.  The plan is to get my base weekly mileage up over 40 mpw by mid-December when the more intense portion of the training will start, and to max out around 55 miles per week in February.  That’s more mileage than I’ve ever done, so I’ll have to be careful to avoid injury.

Needless to say, all my fitness training will be focused on the marathon until April 19.  I’m looking forward to it.

I decided not to run the December marathon here in Sacramento, because my mileage is not quite where it should be, and decided instead to set a longer term and more audacious goal: run the Boston Marathon in April 2010 and finish it in under 3 hours.  That will be very hard to do.  I completed a half marathon in good conditions in under 1:30, so I will have to train to double the distance that I can run that pace.

I believe I have the raw ability to achieve this goal.  The key is going to be sticking with the training and preparation plan.  The key components:

1.  Lose 10 pounds.  According to my body fat measurements and my eyeball appraisal of my waist line I can lose 10 pounds around my midsection without compromising strength or speed.  After a 10 pound loss my body fat percentage will probably be somewhere around 12 percent, which is low for someone my age but not ridiculous.  The weight loss should enable me to run significantly faster over distance: I’ve read the difference can be as much as 2-2.5 seconds per mile per pound.  Assuming 2 seconds is right, that means a 10 pound loss would result in a drop in time in a 5K of one minute.  Over an entire marathon it would mean a difference of 8 minutes and 40 seconds.  Since by my estimate I am in shape to run a 3:10 to 3:12 marathon right now, weight loss alone can get me close to my goal.  The key to losing weight is a very careful diet, which I have begun.

2.  Increase mileage.  I’ve never been able to sustain really high mileage because of injury.  My plan is to get my mileage up to 40 miles per week by early December, from a current level of 26-30 miles per week.  I will try to achieve as much as 55 mpw during the peak of my training in February and early March, before tapering.  The most important component of training is continuity: steady running results in steady progress.  If I do nothing more than increase my mileage in small increments and run 5 days per week between now and April 2010, I will significantly improve by then.

3.  Protect against injury through strength training and stretching.  I need to do core work and various exercises that strengthen the muscles around my ankles, calves, knees, hips, and abs.  I’ll continue doing lots of pushups to maintain upper body strength and definition while I lose weight. 

4.  Speedwork.  I intend to follow a modified Daniels plan, with 4 phases of run training.  Phase 1, 8 weeks, will consist of increasing mileage, not running too much speed work, but throwing in some assessment runs, like time trial for one mile and 10 x 800 meters (Yasso 800).  Phase 2, six weeks, will emphasize improving my aerobic capacity and building leg strength and speed.  Emphasis will be on aerobic max intervals and some hill training, with an increasing emphasis on tempo runs as the phase enters its later weeks.  Phase 3, six weeks, will be the hardest, with an emphasis on tempo runs, long tempo runs, and goal marathon pace (6:52 min/mile) runs.  Phase 4 (five weeks) will consist of more speed work to stay sharp, but decreased mileage to make sure I am rested and fit for the race.

 The all important key to success is simply this: stay healthy.  Right now my body feels as healthy as it has since I started running again three years ago, with no pain in my Achilles tendon when I run and no pains anywhere else.  To stay healthy I need to build slowly and listen to my body.

My repeated weight loss attempts have gone nowhere because of a lack of focus, clear plans, and commitment.  So — I’m starting a new plan.  I want to lose weight, first, because I want to lose the roll of fat that has existed around my middle since junior high school, and, second, because I want to see how a significant loss of overall weight will affect (and I hope improve) my racing potential.

Today I measured 173.8 pounds and 17.1% bodyfat.  My waist is about 36 inches, measured right below the navel (it seems to vary a bit from day to day).  I will give myself 12 weeks, starting this Monday, Oct. 26, the day after my half marathon, until January 18, to reach goals of under 161 pounds, under 12 % BF, and under 33.5 inches on my waist.  I will not stop until I have reached all three goals, meaning I probably will get under one or more of them to reach all three.

I will start in earnest this Monday, since I can’t diet too much right before a half marathon, but I’m going to start eating better right away: sharply limiting alcohol intake to two drink equivalents per week, eliminating sugary foods, eliminating junk carbs like crackers, chips, and french fries, cutting back on portion size, eliminating all junk food, and finding substitutes for snacking.  I will keep track of my weight, BF, and waist on a daily basis to make sure I’m staying on track.

Since I’m not planning to do the marathon the diet shouldn’t interfere too much with my efforts continually to improve my running.  Once I’m done with the 10K on Thanksgiving I’ll basically enter the running "off season" and won’t be training specifically for any races for a little while, so the time to lose weight will be perfect.

My last half marathon was only two weeks and a day ago, and I’m already looking forward to another one this weekend, Oct. 25.  I’m running this one with a group as part of a school fundraiser, so I can’t back out.  I won’t really be running "with" the others because I’m a bit faster than they are and I’ll be going for a PR, but there are about 7 to 8 of us that will run the race.  At least I’ll be there at the finish line to cheer everyone else across.

I rate my prospects of getting another PR as decent but not certain.  This course is a bit harder than the one two weeks ago.  But I’m feeling confident after the last race, and I think I can set a slightly faster starting pace because the first few miles are downhill.  I’m going to attempt to run under 1:29 this time, after finishing in 1:29:52 in the last race.  I plan to go out around 6:40 during the first downhill mile, then try to level off at 6:45 for the first 6.5 miles, then try to hang on around 6:50 over the last half when the course gets a bit hillier.  The last mile is uphill and promises to be a killer, so we’ll see.

On other fronts, I’ve decided NOT to run the December marathon this year.  My mileage just hasn’t been high enough after recovering from my late summer injury to make it worthwhile. So maybe I’ll plan to run Boston next Spring, and just focus on shorter stuff for now.

I’m also completely fed up with my diet, or lack of it, right now, and am forming a plan to get very strict so I can lose weight once and for all.

I achieved the first goal of my fall fitness plan yesterday at a local half marathon.  My goal was to beat 1:30 in the half marathon, an average 6:52 min/mile pace.

Conditions were absolutely perfect: sunny, temperature at race start about 49 degrees, no wind.  My Achilles tendon felt completely healthy, and I felt aerobically fit and well rested.  The only downside was my weight, up to around 174 pounds and well over where I want it to be, and my relatively low weekly mileage total of about 30 or so, owing to the fact that injury forced me to stop running altogether 10 weeks ago for 18 days and I had to ramp up slowly.

My race plan was to start out right at goal pace, find a group to run with at that pace, and run even splits over the entire race.  I pretty much did that.  I ran the first mile in 6:54, and my mile splits from that point forward varied from 6:45 to 7:00, with most of them right around 6:51.  The pace didn’t feel too hard aerobically, but it was tough enough that I felt a lot of overall fatigue by the last two miles.  By the last mile, though, I knew my goal was in sight and I wasn’t going to let it get away, so I toughed it out to get to the line in time.  Interestingly, over the last mile I passed I guy who had passed me earlier in the race - the same guy I’ve written about before who has consistently started behind me in other races and passed me over the last half to beat me.  With half a mile to go I saw he was slowing down and knew I had to pass him to reach my goal.  I did.  With about 100 yards to go I could see the clock next to the finish line ticking closer to 1:30.  I couldn’t bear the thought of getting so close and not making it so I poured it on, and crossed the line with about 2.2 seconds to go (gun time).  My chip time ended up being a bit better than that, since I had started a few rows behind the starting line — 1:29:54.2.

So now I’ve achieved two of my running goals for 2009: a sub-20 minute 5K (19:22) and a sub-1:30 half marathon.  Next up is the toughtest goal yet, a sub-40 minute 10K, on Thanksgiving.  Then in December I run the marathon yet, but I haven’t quite set my goal for that one.

If I could get my weight down more I would really improve my chances.  Each pound of weight loss, up to a point, is supposed to translate to 2 to 2.5 seconds faster time per mile, so by losing 8 pounds I could run a 10K as much as a minute and a half faster.

Since taking up running again three years ago I’ve raced a lot of distances from 5K to marathon, and I’ve incorporated virtually every distance into interval training, but I hadn’t really timed myself in an all out mile.  I vaguely recall timing myself at an all out mile between two mile markers on the bike trail near my house when I was in my early 20s.  As I recall I ran something under 6 minutes, possibly as fast as 5:45, but I never wrote it down and I’m not really sure.  In the last three years I’ve run mile intervals, and I’ve occasionally timed myself to see how fast I can run a mile, but I’ve never really made an all out attempt to run one mile as fast as I can.  My fastest timed mile in the last three years had been a bit over 6:01 over the first leg of one of my 5K races this year.

Yesterday I decided to see, once and for all, how fast I can run a mile.  The previous day I had run 11.2 miles, so I knew my legs might be just a bit heavy, but they felt O.K.  I started running at about 9:30, and the temperature was still decent but climbing rapidly (it reached 100 degrees yesterday by late afternoon).  I ran slowly (ave. around 9 minute pace) down to the river and along the trail to the 11 mile mark, about 2.1 miles from my house.  I took my Garmin with me to help me pace myself, since I knew it would be hard to keep pace without it.  I used the training assistant feature, which, when I started my mile, would tell me at all times how many feet I was ahead or behind my goal time.  I set a goal time of 5:55 minutes, got a start running toward the mile mark, and pushed start as I sped past the mark.

Since I hadn’t really tried running this distance like this, it felt unfamiliar.  I’ve run half mile intervals that fast but not miles.  After 400 meters I was well ahead of my pace, 60 feet or more ahead, but that number started dropping after that.  I managed not to fall behind pace, though, and with 300 meters to go I pushed harder to see how fast I could go.  I finished in 5:52.  It was tiring but not exhausting; under race conditions I think I could have gone under 5:40, but it’s very hard to keep pushing yourself at that speed when you’re running alone.

So, my first mile ended at 5:52, and that gives me a good bench mark to try to improve upon.  I think I can realistically get that time down to 5:35 this fall, although it may be difficult if I don’t concentrate on the mile as a goal distance.  Focus now is on the upcoming half marathon, then the 10K in November, then the marathon in December.

I’ve added to my goals for the fall to dovetail with my running goals. Today I weighed and measured myself, with the following results: weight: 170 lbs; BF 15.3%, waist 36 inches.  The weight is better than I expected, and the BF is about the lowest measurement ever.  My goals are fairly modest; I want them to complement my marathon training program rather than to distract attention and effort from it.  My goal date is Friday, November 20, a bit more than two weeks before the marathon (and, notably, before Thanksgiving — I’m not a masochist!).

The goals:

1) Reduce weight from 170 pounds to under 165 pounds

2) Reduce bodyfat from 15.3% to under 14%

3) Reduce waist line (as measured at the widest point just under the navel) from 36 inches to just under 34 inches.

Of these goals, weight loss is most important.  The other two measurements should follow if I really do get my weight down to under 165 pounds.

Running is going well, but I have a lot of work to do to make up for lost time from my summer injury and ramp up my weekly mileage.  Last week I ran three times for a total of 30.3 miles.  My long run on Sunday was 15 miles, and my legs were quite sore.  Today I ran 9.3 miles, including fast intervals of 3 x half mile and 1 x one mile, average pace 6:23 min/mile.  Achilles tendon feels great — no soreness right now.

Summer is over, with mixed results.  On the plus side, I achieved my pushups goal of 55 in one set before Labor Day, the first time I’ve done that in my life.  I lowered by bodyfat percentage a little bit, and I achieved personal best times in the 5K, 8K, 10K, and 10 miles between May and September (O.K., the 8K and 10K were my first races at those distances, but still).

On the negative side, I injured my Achilles tendon in July, setting me back in my running a little.  Now that it’s over it doesn’t seem to have hurt my speed much, but my mileage base is way off where I wanted it to be.  I had hoped by Labor Day to be running 40 plus miles per week, and I’m only at 20 miles per week.  I plan to get that over 30 this week by the end of Sunday, but I still don’t have the base I wanted to have to train for the December marathon.  My legs feel pretty strong, though, and I think I can ramp up.

The injury hurt my diet plans, too, because I suddenly wasn’t burning the calories I was when I was running 35 to 40 miles per week.  So I essentially have lost no weight since May, after some initial very encouraging loss in June.  My body seems to want to hold steady at 172 pounds, and it resists any effort to get under that.

My goals for this fall:

1.  Run California International Marathon again, and improve my personal best marathon time by at least 10 minutes and finish under 3:10

2.  Finish a half marathon (probably the Cowtown in three weeks) in under 1:30.

3.  Finish a 10K in under 40 minutes (this is the most challenging goal)

4.  Get weight under 168.

5.  Hold my ability to do 55 pushups in a single set (I’ll concentrate on improving it later)

6.  Get bodyfat percentage under 15%, from current level of somewhere around 17 something % (it varies a lot day to day)