Training Recap (and Revelry!) : Week 12, Jan 23 - 29

53 miles this week, not too bad! This is the second time running more than 50 miles in one week.

M: 4.6mi in a snappy 30:42 that almost didn't happen. A planned solo run led to waking up 30 minutes later, then hearing the coffee machine sound its ready alarm. Thankfully my temperature sensor pictured here "spoke to me" and kept the workout plan intact! I felt great from the start so it was just a matter of getting out there.

T: 7.7mi including 20x 200m tempo intervals (14 of them under 6:00/mi pace). A real mental challenge to not think about the big number (20) of reps. A trick I used: think about how many you've already done and set the (immediate) goal to finish the next one. Training partner Joe Loureiro mentioned after 17 that we had just 3 to go - incorrect! 17 done and 1 more to get to 18! Then we talk again.

T ("XT") - Team Red Cross kickoff event at the South End Athletic Company in Boston!  Check out the photo gallery from this great event, provided by Kat Powers of the American Red Cross. Kudos and thank you to Dan Fitzgerald of SEAC, team manager Nicole Marcotte and everyone from the American Red Cross who organized a fantastic social and fundraising event for our cause!

W: 10.1mi in about 1:14, 7:19/mile
T: 6.8 mi: 6mi + 6x 150m strides at the end of the run. Snowy roads
T("XT") JJ Grey & Mofro concert in Boston! Now providing additional musical inspiration for my marathon campaign!

F: off
S: 20mi in 2:24:45 (7:16/mi) marathon specific workout!

• 2mi warmup
• 4mi at goal marathon pace (mp 6:50/mi plan): 6:53, 6:46, 6:33, 6:45
• 4mi recovery
• 4mi mp: 7:01, 6:38, 6:54, 7:00
• 4mi recovery
• 1mi "all out" - I couldn't pull this one off, did 7:20 while Joe and Will were able to push here. First venture into 20 mile distance and a pretty solid effort in above 8 mile tempos left me drained
• 1mi survive to the finish!

Food for thought - that 7:16/mi pace would get you a 3:11 marathon...

S: 4.5mi recovery in 34:43

Ken, Joe and Paul!

Team Red Cross Power Shot!

Training Recap: Week 13, Jan 16 - 22

Another busy week. It doesn't get any less interesting, I will say that. Here is how it went:

M: 5mi in 35:29

T: 7.5mi tempo: 1.35mi warmup, 4x {1mi at goal half marathon effort 6:31/mi, 3 min recovery jog}, 0.8mi cooldown. That was the plan, but Mother Nature said we had to run through an inch or two of snow on the roads so the tempo intervals were slower. All four intervals were between 6:44 and 6:57/mi so not wildly off.

W: 10.1mi beginning at recovery, then progressing to aerobic pace. The progression was more sudden for me, again with the urge to go faster than plan kicking in. 7:45 first mile, then a few 7:20s and speeding up, by mile 8 it was 6:54. Slowed down to about 7:05/mi for the final two miles due to fatigue and also running directly into a stiff headwind on some stretches. 40+ degrees at the start but windy - and temperature dropped before we were all done with this one.

T: 7.85mi tot: 5.85mi of steadily increasing paces 7:40, 7:20s, 7:10s, 6:34/mi for the last .85mi. And then 15x {15seconds "up" hill sprints, walk down recovery taking approx. 1 min.}, with .4mi cooldown home. We mixed up the start of the sprints by leading with the "wrong" foot, then facing backward, and finally (the master stroke) lying prone on the ground (hello pavement!) to begin our sprint. It's tough to do that and press the watch lap button (try it at home!). I didn't mention yet it was only about 10 degrees that day (hello pavement!).

F: off
S: 14mi. The BallardVale Runners hosted friend Scott Graham for an early a.m. long run (especially) up and down and around town. Scott, we like and respect you a great deal but this is the way you have to treat your running guests I think :-) Perhaps you owe me one. Just not up Mt. Washington please - like everything we do in this sport - that's just crazy!
S: off

Next week it's challenge time on the long run - first 20 miler is coming up. And that one is not going to be ordinary. We'll be going for a "marathon specific workout" inspired by Dick Beardsley, via Nate Jenkins blog and adapted for our use by my training partner Joe Loureiro.

Summary after 10 weeks of training for Boston:

You're Invited! Team Red Cross Kickoff Party Tuesday January 24th

Please take a look at the following invitation, and feel free to share!

Cheers,

-Ken

Training Recap: Week 14, Jan 09 - 15

Well, since this experience of marathon training is new to me, you can be sure that there are going to be lots of personal records and milestones achieved. It really does feel good (no joke)! This week was no different. I set a personal distance record for the week (53 miles) and for one individual training run (18 miles)! I'm planning another personal distance record in 2 weeks (20 miler!) and the ultimate ecord (for me) on April 16th!

Here is how this week went day by day:
M: 4.4mi default aerobic pace planned, but pushed final two miles in the 6:30s/mi. Sometimes I just can't control that urge to get to the finish line (see Saturday!)

T: 8mi tot: ~7mi default aerobic pace + 6x 150m strides at the end

W: 10mi recovery run in about 1:14, 7:15/mi overall.  Also was hampered by another night of poor sleep due to tendon pain in my finger. It strikes only before 10 mile runs apparently (just like last weekend). Oh well.


T: Monster tempo run 8.5mi tot: warmup + 16x {400m "on", 200m recover}, cooldown. The 400m tempo runs were done at 1/2 marathon, 10K, 5K, and 3K effort (repeated 4x in that order). Our goal paces were: 1/2 marathon (6:31/mi), 10K (6:10), 5K (5:57), 3K (5:40.8).  However, my split paces looked roughly like this: 6:45/mi, 6:20, 6:03, 6:00. I'll take it!

F: off

S: 18.1mi in 2:12 (7:18/mi overall)! This one was supposed to be done slower. Joe, Will and I set out early but it didn't take long before I got this internal "drive" to push at a little bit faster pace. Well before you know it I'm out there on my own pushing ahead. I just went with it and ended up with 13 out of the final 14 miles (and the final 11 miles in a row) run at a faster pace than I would need to qualify for Boston 2013 (7:26/mi).  Wow! And sorry boys I'll try to behave myself in the future!

S: 4.5mi recovery pace in 3 degrees temperature! Luckily no real wind to speak of. But when it's that cold you pretty much have to throw everything in your outdoor running gear wardrobe at it (and I did)!

Summary after 9 weeks of training for Boston:

A Day of Service and Team Building

On Saturday January 7th I worked alongside a large group of dedicated volunteers including some from Team Red Cross, at the Boston Food Pantry. I drove in from suburban Boston to the food pantry on Mass. Ave. The weather that morning was beautiful, and in addition to it being just after the holidays, there was an expectation that we would distribute emergency food supplies to a very large number of families in need. It turned out to be true - 631 families visited that day!

I arrived at 8:30 a.m. and worked continuously at a very fast pace through 12:00! I worked behind the scenes outside in the warmth of the sun (thank goodness!), first sorting through some produce to ensure we only distributed fresh, quality food items. Others on the volunteer team greeted patrons and distributed a variety of meats, produce and non perishables. There were some families lining up outside and it felt a little awkward to be tossing out some of the unfit produce into dumpsters while they observed our efforts. It also struck me that I was making a personal judgment about the quality of food on behalf of another family I had never met, driving home to me the seriousness of the need and a desire to to the best job I could on their behalf.

Following this I worked alongside a group of Red Cross teammates and some other volunteers including some from Boston Cares - to prepare bags of non perishables. We worked very hard, but enjoyed great conversation and teamwork along the way to prepare hundreds of bags. A few of us were hustling back and forth from the palettes, keeping the "assembly line" table full of the necessary supplies, where the rest of the group assembled all of the items into shopping bags.

Occasionally I brought supplies to the front area where families were entering the building. Seeing children waiting in line, a very unfortunate reality, reminded me of my previous service experience in high school at a local soup kitchen. There, we prepared and served hot meals to families. One of my most vivid memories from that experience is that I got to help some of the kids with their homework -  that has really stuck with me over the years.

Now as you know I am very excited about my upcoming first marathon. It is so exciting to me that I will be able to run in my "home town" of sorts in Boston (I grew up in NH). There are so many landmarks I am thinking about passing as I run the race next April - most notably Heartbreak Hill and especially Fenway Park, home to my beloved Boston Red Sox! But as I take those thousands of steps from Hopkinton to Boylston Street I'm also going to be thinking about another part of Boston that while not located on the course and not as widely recognized, is just as deserving of consideration and personal inspiration!

This was really a rewarding experience for me and reinforces why it is so important to support this worthy organization. If you agree and would like to help, please make a donation at this link.

Team coach Dan Fitzgerald, Isaac Burrows, captain Karen Teller, Yours Truly, and Paul Garcia

Training Recap: Week 15, Jan 02 - 08

39mi total this week. A theme this week was "sticking to it" even in the face of some annoyances that could have easily gotten in the way and provided for some "excuse making".

This was a "mini taper" week with the key workout being the 10K "time trial" on Saturday.  The objective was to get a guage of our fitness relative to a training program that is pretty much based on shooting for a 3 hour marathon (not saying I'm going to get that on my first go at 26.2). More on pace and marathon projections at the end. Here's the day by day report:

M: 4.9mi in 33:49 with increasing effort each mile: 7:37, 6:55, 6:41, 6:41, 5:52/0.92 (6:23/mi pace)

T: 6mi tempo: 1.44mi warmup, 6x {600m tempo effort, 2:00 recovery jog}, 0.83mi cooldown. Tempo paces were 6:24/mi, 6:15, 6:12, 6:04, 5:54, 5:45!!! I love seeing those strong (for me) paces after the fact when I sync up my GPS watch. When you're in the heat of the battle, so to speak, you may not be monitoring your times but just trying to get through the workout - especially in the early a.m. darkness. We rely on the GPS watches to give us audible "go" and "rest" signals.

W: 9.2mi in 1:07 in the bone chilling 7 degree weather. Here's to "sticking to it" (more on that on "saturday" entry below)! We haven't seen what New England can really throw at a Boston Marathon trainer yet so still consider myself very lucky here. And another mild week ahead is in the forecast.

T: 5.34mi tot: 5mi + 4x ~100m strides
F: 3.33mi in 23:25 just under 7:00/mi

S: 10.5mi tot: 2mi warmup, {6.21mi 10K "time trial" in 40:18 for 6:29/mi pace}, 2.3mi cooldown.
OK, the story here is that it could have gone a lot worse and I'm happy to have actually participated in (and finished) this workout. Some of you know that in addition to my running I play basketball. Well, as part of that little "cross training" adventure I have ruptured a tendon in my small finger (shooting hand no less!). Well, friday night my healing finger that has been in a splint for weeks decides that it's time to introduce throbbing pain with "shooting" nerve pain every 60-90 minutes while I sleep. Well I decided to still get out there at 5:15 a.m. since I had already convinced a training partner Joe Loureiro that I needed to get an early start, and he agreed to move his start time earlier.

S: off due to lack of sleep - thank you once again to my aging/injured joints, tendons, etc.!

So, we have been using McMillan Running's calculator as one way to determine pace goals for those tuesday tempo interval workouts, and as a fun way to project future marathon performance. Let's take a look at some recent training/race performances and play "back of the envelope" calculation games:

• August 2011 Yankee Homecoming 10mi race in 1:09:36 projects to a 3:15 marathon (according to above calculator)
• October 2011 Bay State Half Marathon in 1:27:34 projects to a 3:04 marathon
• This Saturday's 40:18 for the 10K projects to a 3:09 marathon

If you plug in 2:59:59 into the McMillan calculator it provides targets of 6:10-6:23/mi for tempo intervals, 1:04:16 for a 10mi race, and 1:25:20 for a half marathon.

 Summary after 8 weeks of training for Boston:

Training Recap: Week 16, Dec 26 - Jan 01

48 miles this week, a personal record I believe!

Tue - Thu workouts were with Joe Loureiro, Saturday with Will Swenson and Sunday was a solo effort (Joe & Will ran the early shift). Although we had several days of varying vacation/travel and work schedules I think we all had a very solid week.

When I saw the plan (distributed by Joe on sundays) I thought it would be very challenging since it included tempo/track work, a hill workout and another 17 miler representing our longest training distance in the Boston campaign to date. This in addition to our mid-week medium distance run that currently stands at 9 miles in distance and will increase as we get closer to race day.

M: 4.5mi
T: Tempo 8.2mi tot, 1.4mi warmup, 5x {1200m "on", 3:00 recovery}, 1.25mi cooldown. Tempo paces were 6:21/mi, 6:11, 6:11, 6:08, and 6:01
W:  9mi 1:05, recovery run but maybe a bit fast - the majority of these miles were run at 7:10-7:20/mi
T:  Hills 5.6mi, 1.25mi warmup, then 8x {60 seconds uphill, 2:00 recover downhill}, 1.9mi cooldown
F: off
S: 17.1mi weekly long run, 2:07 tot and 7:27/mi pace overall. There were no pace goals but we ended up with a few late miles near 7:10 that are quite satisfying in retrospect
S: 3.33mi  after originally thinking I would skip this day after logging 44+ miles already and still recovering from Saturday's 17 miler with tight legs. I spent some lazy TV time doing leg stretches and exercises, then decided I was ready to give it a go.

Summary after 7 weeks of training for Boston by week and by individual run: