I decided I wanted to get back into speedwork this week. My body has long been recovered from the marathon and recovered from the back strain.
Monday: 7 miles. Ran in the park and the neighborhood next to it on a chilly, rainy morning. I felt slow, and my paces reflect that. 7.23 miles in 1:05:12 (9:01 min/mile pace).
Tuesday: 6 x 0.25 mile intervals (1 mile warm-up and cool-down). Ran these in the park on a cold morning. It was still wet out from Monday’s rain, but fortunately it wasn’t cold enough to form ice (it was getting close, though). The interval paces were 7:39, 7:28, 7:42, 7:36, 7:27, and 7:24. The goal pace range for these was supposed to be 6:55 – 7:15, but my watch was set for 7:26 – 7:42… It’s probably time to clear out everything from Garmin Connect and redo all my workouts (spoiler alert: that’s coming). I started the morning with form drills and ended with some squats, single-leg deadlifts, and six pull-ups. Overall, 4.86 miles in 42:48 (8:48 min/mile pace). Right at the end, I took a few pics for #runChatHunt.
Wednesday: 4 mile recovery. And recovery it was. I felt slow, and this was slower than the norm. I woke up late… well, actually early but fell back to sleep immediately. I did manage to take a few pictures for #RunChatHunt, one of which was featured by @theRunChat. It was chilly, around 32F and a tad breezy. 4.22 miles in 38:24 (9:06 min/mile pace).
Thursday: 5 miles + 6 strides. This was so far the coldest day of the season. It was around 29F. I wanted to run, but I did not want to be in the cold (so I ran in the cold). I’m not sure what lit a fire under me, but I blasted through all except for a few of the 30 second breaks between the strides (and by “except”, there were 3 of those that went into the 9s… for 30 seconds.). Started this with form drills and ended with squats, single-leg deadlifts, and six pull-ups. Overall, 6.01 miles in 51:32 (8:34 min/mile).
Friday: 10 miles. Attempting to capitalize on the feeling from yesterday of not having my watch beep at me every mile, I set the watch to the workout distance and let ‘er rip. I did push a little, although maybe it was last night’s food (a cheap hamburger) slowing me down. It was warmer (43F) with rain forecast at 8 AM. I felt some drizzling rain with just under 3 miles to go, and that went away. Then, with 1.75 miles to go, some more steady rain, but it didn’t last long – maybe until 1.25 miles to go. 10 miles in 1:28:28 (8:51 min/mile).
That’s it for the week. 32 miles and speeding up. Nothing actually on the calendar, although I might try a trail race soon. I looked at a race recently, but the sheer mess of a website has me turned off from it… and this:
25-29, 30-34, 35-39, 40-49? Ok, is that because of the older age groups… no, 50-54, 55-59, 60-64, 65-69. 🤦♂️
We rejoin our hero as he travels the continent alone searching for purpose… never mind, he just runs!
Monday: 7 miles. Cold morning run. This was interesting because it was not intended to become a progressive run, but it did. As I saw the laps clicking by, I saw what was happening and pushed it for the last lap.
Overall, 7.05 in 1:00:23 (8:34 min/mile pace).
Tuesday: 5 miles. The weather got a little warmer, so less clothes. Ran around the park and the subdivision next to it. 5.09 miles in 45:08 (8:52 min/mile).
Wednesday: 3 miles. Back to 5 days/week, and I couldn’t be more sore. Legs were tired and sore from the past two days of running. It was raining and somewhat windy, so I stuck to the subdivision, and the wind meant that I didn’t use a hat… which would have been nice to protect my eyes a little. 3.34 miles in 30:44 (9:12 min/mile pace).
I’m actually smiling, you just can’t tell.
Thursday: 6.2 miles. My own personal Turkey Day 10k because fuck that noise in downtown Cincinnati. I was still sore-ish and in no real shape to go fast. The run felt good, though. Overall, 6.33 in 55:41 (8:48 min/mile pace).
Friday: 10 miles. Ran this one in East Fork for the first time in forever a while. I got to the lot an realized that I forgot my watch and RoadId. 🤬. Strava tracking to the rescue, and I’m fairly certain it’s not as accurate. Or my watch isn’t, but at least it’s precise. Oh well, it got done (slowly) and I felt good. 10.01 in 1:07:39 (9:46 min/mile pace).
My first picture of RunChatHunt. I could have added two more, but timing (in the early morning) and the pictures (pointing at someone’s house or at a closed brewery) weren’t really great ideas.Interesting sight. There’s no real reason for this (a cairn), as they are meant to mark “not so well defined trails” (source). However, this is next to a paved trail, which is pretty well defined to anyone – even those with vision impairments.
That’s it for the week. 32 miles. This must be what a comeback feels like. November ended with 73 miles, down from all other months due to injury and recovery. 🍻
I got back into it this week (pun not really intended).
Monday: Started slowly with three laps around the park at a mid-9s easy pace. It was a chilly 32 out, but not really too bad once I got started. 3.76 miles in 35:40 (9:29 min/mile pace… I said I started slowly!!!).
Tuesday: went a little faster, but I still didn’t push it in terms of speed. I did go a little further though. It was a mildly eventful day, as when I went downstairs to go run, I heard beeping in the basement. It turns out my sump pump had died AND the backup sump-pump had died. I went running, did a little work, and then fixed the pump…
Since the sump pit was full and there was no repairing the main pump, so I knew I was going to be out to get another. I got it installed and running and focused my attention on the backup pump. The pump itself was not dead, but the battery was over-discharged (it was down to 6.something volts (out of 12 volts). I had it unhooked while working on the main pump and it came back to 11.4 volts so I plugged it back in after giving it a day to charge, it was up to a full charge (12.4-ish volts). Note to self: don’t plug the battery charger into the same GFCI-protected outlet as the pump!
Anyway, the run was 5.18 miles in 46:15 (8:56 min/mile).
Wednesday, I took the day off. I took my FIL to a medical appointment in the morning and did some work and then went out (with him and my family) to dinner. Pizza. Carbo-loading for tomorrow!
Thursday was an identical route and distance to Tuesday, but a minute faster. Today was warmer, and it was calm until the last 1.5 miles or so when the wind picked up. I had some odd outlier miles – mile 2 was 8:34 and mile 5 was 8:26… I didn’t think I was going that fast. Overall, 5.18 miles in 45:21 (8:45 min/mile pace).
Friday was still a long run, and I did 8 miles. For the first time since the back injury, I branched out of the park and into the subdivision next to it. My paces were all over the place, partly because of hills, partly because my legs felt tired. I got it done, though – 8.02 in 1:11:15 (8:53 min/mile).
That’s the week. 22 miles, which is a long shot from what was actually intended (35 miles for this week, based on Pfitzinger’s recovery plan) and a looong ways from pre-marathon training. Next week I’ll be back up to 5 days a week and getting my legs back into it. 🍻
FMB = Fuck My Back. Not literally, please don’t try.
I decided my back would be ready when I could get up without pain and go one entire day without pain. I also decided that I’d ramp back in starting with 3-4 miles working back up to the schedule.
During the week, I went from taking Aleve a few times a day to not taking any pain pills quite quickly.
I decided to not push it and scrap any thought of adding another race in November (I had originally considered the Hungry Turkey Half, but probably next year). I may do a five mile trail race in December – one I’ve been familiar with but never ran despite it being in East Fork (although it is on the other side of the lake from where I normally run).
For being the first week after the time change, I didn’t wake up as late as I expected. I’m still in the recovery phase from the marathon.
Monday: 5 miles. Started in the park with some form and mobility drills, and then ran once around the park before heading out into the subdivision next to it. Kept this mostly easy, despite having two carb-laden dinners on Saturday and Sunday evening, my legs felt heavy… probably from working on my basement bathroom over the weekend. 5.03 miles in 44:35 (8:53 min/mile pace).
Tuesday: 5 miles. Rainy morning, so I kept it in the park and had generally a good run. The rain wasn’t too bad, and I didn’t push the pace. 5.13 miles in 45:11 (8:48 min/mile pace).
Wednesday: Rest.
Thursday: 7 miles + 8 strides. Another rainy morning, but not too bad temperature-wise. Ran a loop around the park and embarked into the neighboring subdivision. As I was going up a hill just past the first mile, I felt pain in my back. It was not an ‘ignorable’ pain, so I took it down to a walk and ended up walking back. Made it to 1.94 miles. 😖
Friday: I could barely get out of bed, so running was out of the question.
As the weekend progressed, my back did start feeling better (courtesy of rest and Vitamin S – Sodium Naproxen), but next week will miss a few days as it comes back to healthy. Overall, I ran 12 miles out of the intended 27.
This week started out with some chilly temps that reached a crescendo and crashed.
Monday was 5 miles around the park and the subdivision next to it. It was a chilly low-40s morning. 5.17 miles in 44:27 (8:36 min/mile).
Tuesday was 5 miles just staying in the park. It was a chilly upper-40s morning. 5.07 in 44:48 (8:50 min/mile).
Wednesday was a rest day.
Thursday was a very rainy morning with temps in the upper 50s/low 60s. Ran six miles in the park and the subdivision next to it. 6.15 53:57 (8:46 min/mile).
Friday was COLD. Like 32F cold. On Thursday, the temp dropped from that 59-60F down to 35 in the evening (Mother Nature, do you hate kids??? That’s trick-or-treat night!). Ran 7 miles trying to get the 7 in under an hour… missed it by 30 seconds. About a mile in, my AfterShokz started reminding me that I should have charged them… right at 7 miles they turned off. 7.22 in 1:02:20 (8:38 min/mile).
That’s it. Not a lot of miles this week – just 24, but they were all enjoyable miles. October clocked in at 145 miles
On October 20, I ran the Columbus Marathon. This was my second full marathon for the year.
Training
I used the same training plan that I used for Glass City – the Pfitz 18/55 plan. Training did not go as well – many times I dealt with extreme heat. It seemed as if summer was hotter this year than last. I dealt with dehydration and heat exhaustion during parts of the summer, and hitting both of those issues to the extreme. Many of my quality sessions weren’t the best, as doing things like “18 with 14 at M pace” at 70F when I start running is just… harsh.
However, I did nearly all my training runs – I recall missing one because I had to fly to and from Chicago one day, and I made one adjustment to try to nail the Bulldog Blast 5k (narrator: “which he did not PR”).
Nutrition-wise, I felt like I was losing weight and the scale did not agree. A week before Glass City, my weight shot up about 4 or 5 pounds, and it hasn’t gone up or down significantly since then.
Pre-Race
I left Cincinnati around noon and headed towards Columbus, stopping in Grove City to grab some forgotten breakfast items and fuel up at Meijer. After driving around downtown Columbus, I found a parking spot near Elevator Brewing and walked to the expo. This was one of the longer times I’ve spent at an expo, not so much because of it’s size but because I wanted a discount voucher for the Flying Pig and spent some time talking to the ambassadors.
Ralphie!
FRAH-GEE-LEE! Must be Italian!
Interesting sponsor of the pace team.
I found a hotel room at the Sheraton near the Capitol Building. It was okay, there are some places where it shows it’s age, but otherwise decent. I went to OH Pizza and Brew expecting a good pizza and good beer. The pizza was great, the beers were great, although the selection was a fucking joke (there was ONE Columbus beer on tap – I drank a Rhinegeist Truth and an Elevator Dark Force – a dark lager).
Pizza! With pineapple!
Beer! Dark Force lager.
Backside of the state capitol building.
Part of the evening was me watching the Bearcats football game and working while sitting on the bed. Part was getting my post-race bag and morning clothes and stuff together.
Working + watching the Bearcats.
Had to try it on. It’s NICE!
Flat-me, preparing for tomorrow.
I turned on my alarm, cranked up the volume, and placed it on the desk next to the adjoining room because they didn’t seem to understand how to be quiet (and I think they even got a visit from the hotel staff telling them to STFU). Pro-Tip, don’t be an asshat to the room next to you in a hotel unless you want to find out what time THEY wake up. And don’t tempt them to leave Nick Jr on the TV loudly when they leave (I didn’t do that because they did get quiet, but I was tempted).
Race Morning
I got my gear bag together and headed to the start line around 6:15 AM. When I went to the lobby, they had a bunch of water bottles sitting out, so I took one and started the 1.2 mile walk to the start line. After making it to the start area, I located the bag check tent and went towards the corrals. Despite using the toilet before leaving my room, I kinda felt like I had to again… but the line was a mile long. Partly because it seemed like half the race was in the A corral. I’m not sure what their criteria was, nor do I remember what I predicted my time at, but I registered before Glass City, so maybe 3:45 or 3:40? Regardless, I found a place in the herd to hang out before the pacers made their way to the corral. Turns out, I started behind the 3:50 pacer 😡.
The weather was warm-ish at around 50F. I took a jacket I bought from Goodwill with me and threw it aside when the gun went off
The Race
I started conservatively. Part of it was because I nearly tripped over people that seemed to be very scared of the start mat. I was close enough to the start line that it should have taken me 30 seconds to cross the start line, and it took 90 seconds.
I ran the first five miles in 41 minutes, which is around 8:12 min/mile. All those miles were below 8:10 except the first, and I expected that. There’s some hills through there, but overall not bad.
The second five miles didn’t feel as good on the course, but was better. 40:37, so 8:07 min/mile. The terrain was a little flatter through here. Of the five miles: 8:02, 8:16, 8:04, 8:15, 7:59… there’s a bit of variation here.
The third five miles got through the southern part of the course (Downtown, Bexley, and German Village) and to the northern part of the course. Mostly flat according to the data, but I remember going uphill just past the split. 40:09 through the segment, and two sub-8 miles. The pace through the segment was 8:02 min/mile.
The fourth five was where the wheels started coming off. First off, there’s a hairpin turn in mile 17. I honestly hate those (they have one on the Flying Pig Half Marathon course that I loathe, but at least they close six lanes of traffic on a road with a median and give it all to us – this is a two-lane road with no median. Then there’s a two-mile long hill in miles 18-19. Then, because the marathon starts at 7:30 AM, we’re hitting this at 10:00 AM… when the heat kicks up. Time in this segment was 42:28, pace of 8:30 min/mile.
The fifth five wasn’t anything better. Gassed from the hill and dying from the heat, I trudged on as best I could. Parts of this (mile 20) was in full sun, parts had some shade from being in an older part of the town. However, as the miles dropped off, the area became more suburban and in full sun. Then, to cap it off, mile 25 began on old brick… normally I wouldn’t be bothered by this, but the unevenness of the brick didn’t feel good. At all. Then the 3:40 pacer passed me. I tried to keep in view, but the brick and the fatigue kept THAT from happening. This segment was 43:23, a slow pace of 8:41 min/mile. As I continued through this segment, I saw more and more runners slowing to a walk and some that were getting medical attention.
The last 1.2 saw me speeding up as two things came together. One was the fact that I was 1.2-ish miles away from the finish line. The other was the downhill slope into downtown. I made my way through the turns to Nationwide, High Street, and Long Street and into the finishing zone, passing at least one that needed a chair (and even my finisher’s video shows a medical volunteer taking a wheelchair back onto the course). Crossed the finish line in 3:39:23. Not a PR.
Post-Race
I immediately walked past the heat blankets and to a bottle of water and a misting fan. After a few rounds of that, I moved on through the finishers area. They handed us a bag and we basically trick-or-treated our way through several people handing out food. I kept a bagel in my hand to munch on, although I only made it halfway since it was tough and difficult to eat. I drank a cup of Gatorade and finished my water. Thinking there was beer outside in the post-race-party somewhere, I exited the runner’s post-race area and pushed through the crowd of people too stupid to give us room to actually leave the runner’s area, and made my way to gear check. I realized I messed up and forgot a second pair of compression socks, so I just sat down and ultimately put on my jacket.
I walked around the “party” area. I saw several tents, most seemed vacant or under-utilized except one for a running group. I saw nobody with beer except one that had a can (and it looked like they were trying to keep it ‘under wraps’). I went back towards the runner’s exit hoping to score another bottle of water, but no bueno. I then went to a booth that was handing out coconut water bottles. I got one that was pineapple flavored, and found it to be quite disgusting.
I threw it in the trash and found a Monster booth that was also handing out waters (some flavored energy hydration bullshit water). I asked the young lady there if they tasted better than the coconut water at the neighboring booth, to which she replied “Yes! Well, I think so, and this is sugar free…” I cut her off and asked about Splenda or Sucralose (which I cannot have), to which she replied “yes, but this other one doesn’t” and before handing me that other bottle, she double-checked the ingredients list 😊.
Since there seemed to be no shot in Hell in getting a beer, I slowly made my way back to the hotel to clean up and get checked out. Of course, they were rushing me (it amazes me that these hotels can’t figure out when someone says “I’m running the marathon this weekend” that they don’t automatically mark them for late checkout).
Obligatory Medal Selfie
Front of the state capitol
White salt dried on my skin. Thanks Mother Nature.
After getting cleaned up, I refilled the Monster water bottle from the sink and took that with me for the drive home. Fortunately, I made it home as my car started missing during the trip, particularly when under high acceleration.
Post Race Analysis
What I found interesting was when I looked at this race in context to others and the other two marathons.
Overall, I was 634th out of 3,594 people. At Glass City, I was 349th out of 1,278. At the Flying Pig 2018, I was 704th out of 5,829. In terms of finishing percentile, the races order in reverse of time – Flying Pig then Columbus, then Glass City. Age group percentile is a little different – 80th percentile for the Pig (note: age group was 35-39), 55th percentile for Glass City, and 77th percentile for Columbus.
Looking at top fives and stuff is even more odd. Columbus’s top M40-44 ran 2:23:00 – blazingly fast compared to the same place at Glass City (2:46:48) and Flying Pig (2:50:39). Mind you, Flying Pig went into yellow-flag that year. Columbus had a faster field overall, though.
Endnotes
At this point, I don’t know what’s next. I still have time in this fall season to do something, although here it is nearly two weeks post-race and I haven’t registered for anything. This was a humbling experience, though.
Oh, and the car. I had reduced it’s use to only going around the corner to the park to run. After a recovery run or two it was getting really bad – to the point that I took the brand new van one morning. I had to move the car to get my mower out around that time, and had just had some spark plugs delivered (and the car was throwing a service engine light, so I scanned it and it told me Cylinder 4 was misfiring). I went to replace just that plug and found the wire loose. So I added some dielectric grease and plugged it back in, and that fixed it for the time being.
Since I ran the Columbus Marathon on Sunday, this is a short running week. No running on Monday and Tuesday and let my legs rest. The week was chilly, which was a welcomed change from the midday heat of Sunday’s marathon finish line.
Wednesday I went out for a short four mile run in the park, and kept it in the park where it is mostly flat. And I was sore af. My watch crashed at the end and Garmin Connect only took 4 miles (Strava didn’t make it to 4 miles 🤬). So 4.0 in 38:28 (9:37 min/mile pace).
Thursday was another 4 mile run, but a fair bit of the DOMS was worn off and I was able to go a little faster. I took this out of the park a little in the subdivison next to it to get some more hills. 4.09 miles in 36:01 (8:48 min/mile pace).
Friday was the longest run of the week with five miles. I ran this mostly in the subdivision next to the park. Ran 5.11 miles in exactly 45 minutes (8:48 min/mile).
That’s it. One of my shortest LWIR reports. 13.2 miles.
This is it. This is the last blog post in this training journey culminating with the epic battle of the pavement! Our hero has battled high temperatures, dehydration, fatigue, heat exhaustion, and a blister between his left big toe and the one next to it (index toe?).
This part of the plan is weird because this plan (as do most) expect that people do their long run on Saturday or Sunday. I do mine on Friday. However, at this point I transition to the plan.
Monday: Rest day.
Tuesday: Recovery 6 miles. I’m not sure what I’m recovering from, but this is what the plan said. I ran the full lap around the park and neighboring subdivision. It was a chilly morning under a full moon and I ran easy. 6.12 miles in 53:11 (8:41 min/mile pace).
Full moon!
Wednesday: 7 miles with 2 @ M pace. This was pretty easy, and I initially struggled to stay slow enough to keep within the M pace range. I kept it up to 8:10 min/mile, the goal range was 7:50 – 8:15, and I could have gone faster. Overall, 7 miles in 59:13 (8:28 min/mile pace).
Thursday: Rest day.
Friday: 5 miles + 6 strides. This was a cold run that felt like a struggle. GI issues didn’t help. 6.01 miles in 54:01 (8:58 min/mile pace)
Saturday: 4 miles loose. It was a chilly morning, somewhere in the upper-30s/low-40s and I had spaghetti the evening before. I ran this pretty effortlessly. Ran this in the park, which had a handful of dog walkers and a few other runners. 4.01 miles in 33:54 (8:27 min/mile pace).
Sunday: 26.2 mile race! I’ll post a race report soon, but the gist of it is that the race was brutal. The pre-race temperature was about 50, but it climbed up to the mid-60s by the time I was crossing the finish line. I didn’t PR. 3:39:23 (8:22 min/mile pace).
This week is really after the miles of trials and mostly an easy week with a few hard days thrown in. This was week 16 of 18 in preparation for the Columbus Marathon on October 20.
Monday: 7 Miles. It was 55 and a little rainy. Ran in the park and the subdivision next to it. 7.23 miles in 1:03:40 (8:48 min/mile pace).
Tuesday: Ran Wednesday’s workout because I wanted the week to be more balanced. 8 with 3 x 1 mile @ 5k pace. Kept these in the park where it’s mostly flat. It was a foggy morning, which was not really easy to run in because of glasses, but I got it done. The interval goals were 6:55 to 7:13 min, the interval times were 7:13, 7:12, 7:13. Overall, 8 miles in 1:07:15 (8:24 min/mile pace).
Wednesday: rest day!
Thursday: 5 miles + 6 strides. Kept this one in the park since it’s kinda short. 6.02 miles in 52:39 (8:45 min/mile pace).
Friday: 12 mile – last chance long run. Ran this in the park and the subdivision next to it. It was a little warmer today, but not too warm. Hydrated with Gatorade Endurance, no fueling. I did get a late start, but got it done and kept it easy. 12.01 in 1:46:32 (8:52 min/mile pace).
Overall, 33.25 miles. My paces are speeding up, partly because of the weather. Next week is a weird week with runs on T, W, F, S, and the big one on Sunday.
On Saturday, I volunteered with the Queen Bee Marathon, which was mostly uneventful (that’s a great thing!). I only took two pictures, which are below.
Local media at the starting line – the woman on the right is a meteorologist and probably ran in the half.
This is the wet-bulb thermometer used to determine if the race should go to yellow or red flag conditions. Fortunately, conditions didn’t approach that!
