Category Archives: aidsmarathon

Getting back up to speed

0, 07mi, aidsmarathon

Start time: 07/09/06, 7:00am
Location: Downtown Washington DC
Distance: 7 miles
Run:Walk ratio: 5:1
Average pace: 11:00min/mile

Rick Carter: “Sounds like you’ve been doing everything right to get back from your injury.”
Me: “Yeah, but it’s still hard to accept slowing down for a bit.”
Rick: “So true!”

This morning actually went really well. Once I’d accepted on Friday morning that I couldn’t run in my 9:30 group (more on that shortly) and needed to slow down, my return to the training program was a breeze. I ran with the 11:00 group this morning; a little quiet but very nice. No alumni in the group, so I got questioned a bit on what it’s like to run a marathon (things like packet-pick-up, starting corrals, and sports gels). Really good people, and I wouldn’t mind running with them another week. I still haven’t figured out exactly what group I’m going to run in for the 8-miler…

…and therein lies the problem. When I ran the 4-miler, the fastest group was me and Stephanie as the 9:30 pace group. There were five or six people in the 10:00 group below us, and I was hoping that perhaps they’d merge with ours. Instead? I got there today and the fastest group I could definitively recognize as being one was the 10:30 group. No sign of Stephanie (who’d said she might be running on some Saturdays, but I wonder if me being out two weeks made her decide to shift there entirely) or anyone from the 10:00 group at all. Hmph. The 10:30 group had a whopping 3 people in it; while I’ve run in a small group (2002 in particular) I must admit that I’m happier with higher numbers.

Hopefully some of the 10:00 people will come back. Or perhaps once grok is back up to speed we could run together on Sundays? (I have no idea what his training pace will be, although I know he’s still a bit faster than I.) If not, I guess 10:30 will be it, which is a bit disappointing, but doable. Still, we’ll see. There’s a long training season ahead, who knows?

Here We Go (Again)

0, 04mi, achilles, aidsmarathon, injury

Start time: 06/18/06, 7:00am
Location: Downtown Washington DC
Distance: 4 miles
Run:Walk ratio: 6:1
Average pace: 9:30min/mile

At long last, my training season has started up again. I’m training for the Florence Marathon, and raising money for Whitman-Walker Clinic. This year I’ve agreed to raise a record high of $3700, so every little penny will help!

Anyway, after Tuesday’s run I decided I was doing good and ready to start up training this weekend. I wasn’t sure if I was going to run with the 9:30 or 10:00 group but decided I’d give 9:30 a go; if it was too fast I could always slow down, but I had a feeling that if I didn’t try it out I’d never attempt to move up. When I got there (along with jabulous) I saw there were two names on the 9:30 sign-in sheet from last week, and one person who had just put her name down this week. I added mine to the list, and introduced myself to Stephanie. Little did we know… we were it for the 9:30 group. Meanwhile, the 10:00 group appears to be Boyztown or something. Hmmmmm.

We headed out onto the course, and it was about a mile and a quarter in when I felt a sudden twinge in my left calf. Oh hell, I thought (or perhaps it was something a little ruder), not again.

Within about ten seconds, though, the severity of it went from a 5 to about a 3 (versus the initial incident which was probably an 8) so I decided to keep moving. If I had to I could always stop when we hit the two-mile point and hitch a ride back with Soyini. It never got any worse, though, more uncomfortable than anything else. Still, not something I’m willing to have happen every week. We finished up in exactly 40 minutes (which once you add in the required walk to kick off the run is pretty good) and I talked a bit with Coach Karen and Coach Julie Ann. They reiterated my need for more stretching with the achilles tendon and calf; I think tomorrow at work I’m going to set up my Outlook to auto-remind me twice a day to do the stretches. After jabulous‘s group finished up (not far behind me at all) we headed back home, and from there it was some stretching, ice, and a bit of ibuprofen. It’s still sore at this point, bah.

So, right now I’m leaning towards not running for the next week or two, coupled with really making sure I continue to stretch every day and take proper care of myself. Which, let’s be honest, totally stinks to be sidelined again and so very early in the training process… but better for it to be early than later on, right? Ah well. I’ll catch up quickly. And who knows, maybe I should take it easy and hang out with Boyztown when I do get back. (Don’t get me wrong, Stephanie is super-nice, I like her a great deal. But at the same time…)

Last recovery run

0, 08mi, aidsmarathon

Start time: 10/22/05, 8:00am
Location: W&OD Trail
Distance: 8 miles
Run:Walk ratio: 5:1
Average pace: 11:00min/mile

Saturday morning was our final group recovery run (and only one of a handful I did with the group because of speed training). It was nice to see a bunch of my fellow pace group members again, and good to see Steve and Christa one last time pre-marathon (since they’ll be off in Ireland next weekend supporting the AIDS Marathoners running the Dublin Marathon). The run itself went well; most of the group was doing fine, although Julie turned around early and just ran 5 miles because of her still-healing toe (and Kris did the same because of his knee problems).

Now all I’ve got is a couple of maintenance runs ahead of me. All this rain better go away stat, though.

Oh, and as an added bonus, there was a mini raffle/prize giveaway and I ended up with a warm hat for running in the winter. Yay! Now that I have virtually no hair on top of my head, I could use one.

Need for Speed, part 7

0, 04mi, aidsmarathon, speedwork

Start time: 10/16/05, 8:00am
Location: American University
Distance: 4 miles
Average pace: 9:30min/mile

Ah, the final speed training pre-marathon… it went surprisingly quickly, being just 4 miles this time. No crazy final miles this time through, since we’re getting close to the marathon. (Although the last mile was accidentally a 9:05. Excited, much?) Fall has finally arrived and everything was cold in the shadows (which was half of the track) so there was a bit of shivering going on, but breakfast afterwards took care of that. More importantly, post-marathon some of us will keep doing speedwork and I like that idea very much.

Need for Speed, part 6

0, 06mi, aidsmarathon, speedwork

Start time: 10/09/05, 8:00am
Location: American University
Distance: 6 miles
Average pace: 9:30min/mile

Today was the first of our two final speedwork sessions, where we’re doing less and less milage. For me and Mark (and anyone else who’d done twelve, like grok) that meant 6 miles. (Julie banged up her foot on an ottoman and wisely is resting it; fortunately the bruising is already gone.) For the first four miles, Mark and I (along with speedwork running pal Jeff) were hitting our pace almost exactly. Jeff finished up at that point, and Mark and I finished our fifth mile a little fast.

“Are you going to try and bust out a full eight-minute mile for the final mile this time,” Mark asked. “I’m game if you’re game,” I replied.

Well, we took the first eighth and the last eighth a little off-pace, so we didn’t hit 8:00… instead it was… um… 7:27.

Bad Greg. Bad Mark. And no, we weren’t gasping for breath afterwards. This speed training stuff really works!

(“The 9:30min/mile pace group is my bitch next year,” I was heard to remark when we were done. Three miles at under an 8:30min/mile (without breathing hard) is not the daunting prospect it once was.)

(Mile times: 9:33, 9:33, 9:28, 9:31, 9:08, 7:27)

26 down, change to go

0, 26mi, aidsmarathon

Start time: 10/01/05, 7:00am
Location: W&OD Trail
Distance: 26 miles
Run:Walk ratio: 3:1
Average pace: 12:45min/mile

Ta da! The last long run of the season was today… aka the big 26-miler. Like any distance over 14 miles, we ran at a slower pace than our normal training pace, in order to keep from hurting yourself. We were supposed to hit a 13:00min/mile pace, but I think everyone was just too amped up (and it’s hard, to be honest, to slow yourself down two minutes per mile) and our average (not including very long water stops and several bathroom breaks for the group) was really closer to a 12:45min/mile.

We had a lot of people out on the trail, both in our group and out there in general. It’s always fun to see familiar faces: grok was coaching, jhim was running, and threegoldfish was water volunteering. All of them brought big smiles to my face every time I saw them; it makes such a huge difference out there.

Our group did a great job of staying together; we had one person stop after 6 miles because they were suffering from a cold and belatedly realized that discretion was the better part of valor, and two runners zoomed off into the distance with about three miles to go, but no real incidents were going on. Everyone was looking good and strong, and I was proud to be both leading the group as well as running with them.

Best of all? Despite being at a deliberately slower pace than what’s planned for race day, and with some hugely long stops for people to use the restrooms and such, both Julie and I beat our finishing time for the 2004 Marine Corps Marathon. (Generally speaking, the rule of thumb is that the practice marathon will be about an hour longer than your real marathon.) Quite honestly, barring disaster I think we’re going to have a tremendous race on the big day itself. 29 days and counting!

Need for Speed, part 5

0, 12mi, aidsmarathon, speedwork

Start time: 09/25/05, 7:00am
Location: American University
Distance: 12 miles
Average pace: 9:30min/mile

Last Sunday was the final mileage jump for my speedwork sessions, up to 12 miles. It went really well; I ran the first eight miles with Mark and Jeff, and the last four with just Mark since Jeff was done for the day. There were lots of attractive people in the forms of the AU Women’s Soccer Team and their Coaches, so as I said that day there was something for everyone. (There was also a stupid little kid riding around the track on his bicycle, but thankfully grok and Rick put an end to that quickly.)

The best part of the day for me, though, was the final mile. Four laps around the track is one mile, so since I was running 9:30min/miles that meant each lap needed to be around 2:22. Rick had already said that the final mile is “the fun one”, and right as Mark and I were finishing up the first lap he called out, “If you’re smiling that much Greg, you clearly aren’t working hard enough.” I promptly thought to myself, Hmmmm… I wonder? and then sped up. I finished the second lap at 2:01… the third at 2:03… and the fourth at 2:00. Being able to shift up to an 8:00min/mile for the last three quarters of the mile felt fantastic, and a nice finishing time for the mile at 8:23.

My next year goals will get hashed out in a month or so (I still need to go through my goals from this year like tahiggins wisely suggested) but right now I’m thinking that landing in the 9:30min/mile training group next year should very much be in reach. Yay!

Our final two speedwork sessions will be in a couple of weeks; the next one will be half our previous longest distance at speedwork (so 6 miles) and then the final one will be 2-3 miles for everyone. Can’t wait!

(Mile times: 9:45, 9:33, 9:20, 9:27, 9:41, 9:31, 9:23, 9:25, 9:25, 9:24, 9:31, 8:23)

Group In Recovery

0, 08mi, aidsmarathon

Start time: 09/17/05, 7:00am
Location: W&OD Trail
Distance: 8 miles
Run:Walk ratio: 5:1
Average pace: 11:00min/mile

After last week’s 23-miler, throughout the week I ran… nothing! No guilt about it, either. It was a really busy week and with everything else going on, I wanted to try and get a little running time to just let my brain reset, but in the end a week off after a long run was just fine in my book.

Apparently it was also just fine for almost all of the rest of my group to skip the 8-mile “recovery run” scheduled for this Saturday. Out of the 20+ people in our pace group, we had a whopping total of… six. That said, it was a really nice run. Julie, Carla, John, Laura, Katie, and I went at a pretty good clip, and it was just nice to have a small group with which to chit-chat about anything and everything under the sun. (And apparently the race staging ground this year will be in the North Pentagon Parking Lot instead of Rosslyn. Naturally this change was made now that I have moved just a leisurely stroll away from the old starting area in Rosslyn. Bah!)

Don’t get me wrong, there were a lot of good people who weren’t at our run site, but there’s something to be said for the nice small group. Having speed training instead of recovery runs has been fantastic but with only three recovery runs scheduled I have sort of missed the small-group-experience.

Rapidly Approaching the Endgame

0, 23mi, aidsmarathon

Start time: 09/10/05, 7:00am
Location: W&OD Trail
Distance: 23 miles
Run:Walk ratio: 3:1
Average pace: 13:00min/mile

Hard to believe there’s only one more “long run” to go at this point, now that the 23-miler is history. We were back in two lopsided groups today, with more and more people unable to tolerate having to run with the Bickersons. Oh well, not my fault. Our group did really well; I ended up setting the pace, and aside from one or two hiccups we really nailed the pace. Perhaps a little too much dawdling at water stops, but it was 5 hours of running, I can understand the want for another 30 seconds to grab some more Starbursts. I felt pretty strong, though. Towards the end I was just feeling tired and a tiny bit sore, but really nothing major. This isn’t like several years ago where it was an, “Ow, ow, ow” sort of thing. It’s amazing how much my body’s adapted to the abusive workout that I put it through.

Best of all was this morning, though, when the sun wasn’t making an appearance and we were running through lots of fog and mist. It finally got burnt off, but the lack of direct sunlight provided for a really pleasant running environment. Don’t get me wrong, no humidity would have been nice, but at least the humidity helped us out instead of hindering us for most of the marathon.

Oh, and a great side-benefit of the new haircut; I swear, I sweat less as a result. Maybe it’s just evaporating faster, but whatever the reason I’m just thankful.

Final long run: October 1st.
Marathon: October 30th.

Tick tick tick tick tick…