Running on Beer

We rejoin our hero in the battle of the pavement in the fifteenth week of his marathon training plan for the Columbus Marathon. His marathon is October 20, 2019. Our hero is following the Pfitzinger 18/55 plan again, and is on the first of three taper weeks.

The heat came back again this week, with morning temps in the upper 60s and highs expected in the 90s, which is record-breaking weather in this area.

Monday: 8 miles with 5 x 600 @ 5k pace. Kept this in the park, and the weather was doing interesting things – there were cold spots and warm spots. Splits were at 7:01, 6:48, 7:14, 7:10, and 7:11 minute/mile pace, which are all good except that 6:48 – it was a little bit faster (I was shooting for a goal pace of 6:55-7:15). Overall, 8.05 in 1:10:50 (8:48 min/mile pace).

Tuesday: Rest. Since today was a rest day I decided to run 3 easy miles in the park. It was warm, but the temperature on my phone seemed higher than what it felt in the park. 3.24 miles in 29:24 (9:04 min/mile pace).

Wednesday: 4 miles + 6 strides. Kept this one easy because I knew what was coming tomorrow. Again, the temperature on my phone felt warmer than what it felt like in the park. 5.01 miles in 43:26 (8:40 min/mile).

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Thursday: 10k tune race. Another day with temps that didn’t feel as hot as the phone says. There were some warm spots, but there was a cool breeze (especially after sweating A LOT). Ran a warm-up mile and then bust out a 10k. The 10k portion was 50:18 (8:06 min/mile pace), which is 4:09 off my watch-PR (my race PR is 51:49, but that’s a few years old – I don’t run many 10ks). Overall with warm-up and cool-down was 8.35 in 1:10:27 (8:26 min/mile pace). I did take water with me on this one.

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Friday: LSD 16 miles. Fall came back! it was not at all a warm morning, and it was perfect sleeping weather, so naturally I overslept. I set out in the park after some peanut butter toast and made it about 5 miles before needing a pitstop. I took a Gatorade Gel at 8 miles and drank Gatorade Endurance every other mile. The legs felt good after the gel until around mile 12 or so when some fatigue started setting in. I kept at it, and finished the last 0.15 mile or so on grass (which felt sooooo gooooood!). 16.01 miles in 2:21:18 (8:50 min/mile pace).

So September ended this week, and I finished that month with 213 miles ran. The week was just under 41 miles. On to the next taper week!

In other news, it looks like the TQL Beer Series races is going to undergo more change. This series started as the Christian Moerlein Beer Series with the Bockfest 5k, Little King’s Mile, and the Hudepohl 14k. Bockfest is a spring beer celebration (think Oktoberfest in March, and instead of the lovely Marzen and Festbier styles, people drink Bock and Doppelbock styles). Little Kings Cream Ale and Hudepohl 14k are both local beers – both have a long history in the region with the working class drinkers of the post-WWII era. The series is ‘served up’ by the Flying Pig, so this is a great series to run – they know how to do races! Recently (maybe two years ago?), the series was renamed to the TQL Beer Series, and more recently the mile race was renamed to the 50 West Mile, after 50 West Brewing Company.

Last year (and maybe the year before, too), Christian Moerlein cut back on their Oktoberfest celebration – the Uberdrome (the big tent over me in the pic below) was not setup and the post-race celebration was moved to Second Street, where all the Oktoberfest booths were open.

Fast forward to last Thursday. After dinner, I was filling out a post-race survey for the Hudepohl 14k, and there were questions about changing the distance to a 10M or a 10k, and if it was renamed. Given that Cincinnati Beer is undergoing some market correction and squeezing, it might be that Moerlein is feeling a pinch. Historically, their beer hasn’t been bad. However, I went into Moerlein Lagerhouse to get a pint of Fifth and Vine – a beer I really enjoyed in the past – and it was lighter than I remember and had a distinct candy sweetness that is way out of style for a Marzen.

Anyway, I don’t know what will happen (and while I might have a chance to get some inside info when I volunteer for the Queen Bee Half Marathon in a few weeks), it won’t be posted here. As long as the series is still ‘served up’ by the Flying Pig and has beer at the finish line, I’ll run the races and enjoy them. 😎

We rejoin our hero in the battle of the pavement in the fourteenth week of his marathon training plan for the Columbus Marathon. His marathon is October 20, 2019. Our hero is following the Pfitzinger 18/55 plan again, and is on the final week of the race prep phase prior to tapering.

Monday: 10 miles with 4 x 1.2k @ 5k pace. It’s another Monday, and the thing that had a case of the Mondays was my watch. Again. After an attempt to get things that were once synced to be synced again, I gave up and tracked intervals manually. It was a bit warm at 68 and rainy out, and my legs were still feeling it from the race on Saturday. I wanted my intervals to be between 6:50 and 7:15 min/mile, they were 7:23, 7:38, 7:41, and 7:49. Overall, 10.15 in 1:26:57 (8:34 min/mile pace).

Tuesday: 7 + 6 x 100m strides. Fall came by for a visit today. It was in the low-50s, which was nice. The legs were feeling good, probably better than I thought they were. My strides were FAST. Overall, 8.01 miles in 1:08:00 (8:29 min/mile).

Wednesday: 11 miles. Fall stayed around, and I ran at East Fork. There’s two things about East Fork – one is that it is hilly. The other is that it is the one place I can’t seem to run without taking a pitstop. I didn’t run all the way into Williamsburg, and instead ran by the lake (which takes me down and back up a very big hill). 11.07 miles in 1:40:37 (9:05 min/mile pace).

Thursday: 4 miles recovery. I was supposed to wake up in Ft. Wayne, Indiana, but Hotels_dot_com had my reservation a week later (incidentally, this is the SECOND time I’ve been on the receiving end of that problem – the other was a reservation made by someone else for me). I woke up early because I ended up driving to Ft. Wayne, and was very tired (my legs were tired twice over, because I’m not sure I was fully recovered from yesterday’s hills). Also, it was warm – 70F. 4.17 miles in 37:46 (9:03 min/mile pace).

Friday: LAST CHANCE 20 MILE RUN. This is the exclamation point at the end of the race prep phase. I went to bed early to get up early to run the park and neighborhood next to it. It was a chilly morning. I successfully found the ONE good person in the entire subdivision (they saw me coming and waited without blocking the sidewalk). Shame that one good person was right down the road from a construction crew that started up (complete with a concrete truck, unlit loaders beeping around, and a trailer mostly blocking someone’s driveway) at 6:00 AM.

I hydrated with Gatorade Endurance mostly, and every other mile. My water was leaking (fortunately, the vest protected the phone just enough), and I did take water at some odd miles towards the end. I fueled with Gatorade Endurace Mango at 7 and 13.5.

I decided early on to fast-finish the last two miles. After the first 18 miles in 2:41:16 (8:58 min/mile pace), I finished the last two in 8:26 and 8:29. Overall, 20.02 in 2:58:18 (8:54 min/mile pace). THE HAY IS IN THE BARN.

That’s it for the week and for the race prep phase of training. All that remains is tapering. 53 miles this week. Just under 8 hours spent running. 🍻

This is the thirteenth week of my marathon training plan for the Columbus Marathon. The marathon is October 20, 2019. I’m following the Pfitzinger 18/55 plan again. This is a week that departed from the norm because of one of the funnest races on my calendar: the Hudepohl 14k.

Monday: 8 w/5 x 600m @ 5k pace. Kept this in the park to keep it relatively flat. I somehow got my watch’s calendar to sync and was able to use the workout on the watch (and the audio coach). Interval paces were 7:02, 6:57, 7:12, 7:06, 7:12; the goal was 6:55 – 7:15, so all were within pace. Overall, 8.05 in 1:10:12 (8:43 min/mile pace).

Tuesday: Medium Distance 11 miles. Ran this at East Fork to get my hills on early. It was a weird weather day, as most of the run was on the chilly mid-60s side, but there were some places where it felt very warm. I probably negative-split this one. Saw two skunks near the road, fortunately they were running away from me. 11.03 miles in 1:40:01 (9:04 min/mile pace).

Wednesday: 4 miles + 6 x 100m strides.

Thursday: Medium Distance 10 miles. I struggled as to what to do with this day of running. At one point I was going to do a 17 mile long run, but I decided I wanted to have a great race on the weekend and 17 miles is not the way to do that! So I settled on 10. I ran this in the park and the subdivision next to it. I didn’t push hard except one mile when some asshat backed out right in front of me. 10.26 miles in 1:30:40 (8:50 min/mile pace).

Friday: 3 miles easy/shakeout. I kept this in the subdivision because I was running a little later than I wanted and it’s only 3 miles. One of my neighbors must made several calls to the police and complained that cars were going too fast past their house and the police put up a radar gun. I did try to get it to register me going at about 5:50 min/mile (which is around 10 MPH), I was unsuccessful. Perhaps I should have yelled, but I’d prefer to wake people up over unleashed dogs and stupidity that can cause me harm (drivers doing stupid things).

Saturday: Hudepohl 14k…

Hudepohl 14k Race Report

Woke up to 70 degrees at 5:30 AM, which ultimately became a sunny day. Did my normal race-day routine of coffee (which went with me) and peanut butter toast. Drove downtown and parked at Sawyer Point, which gave me a mile to walk/run as a warm-up. Visited a port-o-let at the right time (no lines and open potties when I entered, lines when I exited). After a few minutes of mingling with my old boss and a Runnitor, we were off with some Polka music in the background.

My basic strategy was to take Gatorade at all stops, since it was a scorcher.

Miles 1-2 are uphill. I handled these better than I thought I would. The second hill – up Reading and Liberty – are a doozy and I traded places with another runner or two during this stretch. 7:27 and 7:48.

Miles 3-4 go down and back up to a hairpin turn. This is one of the two traffic-heavy places on the course, with one stupid person driving around an officer and into our way (I hope he was ticketed, but I doubt he was). 7:31 and 8:03. Damn, blew my streak of sub-8 minute miles on this race. After the hairpin turn, I got a view of all the people behind me. There was quite a few.

Miles 5-7. This is all downhill with some slight exceptions. It seems that the race decided to put more cheerleaders (volunteering) along this part of the course. It was becoming more difficult due to the sun and heat. At one point, I started pushing a little to be in a group when going through some of the intersections. This is the other of the two traffic-heavy places, and sometimes the cops will allow people to cut through between runners. 7:26, 7:36, 7:55.

Miles 8-end. This is downhill, but about 0.75 miles into this segment, we’re reunited with the 7k course, and of course it’s all walkers at this point. There was a water stop through here that I completely skipped due to the walkers in the way and knowing that I was not far from the finish. The end has a slight uphill, but it’s difficult to slow down with other runners and cheerleaders along the course through here. 7:36 and 5:07 for the final 0.69 (7:25 min/mile pace). Overall official time was 1:06:24. Last year (which was 10 degrees cooler and overcast), my time was 1:04:51, so I was up 1:33.

This is the twelfth week of my marathon training plan for the Columbus Marathon. The marathon is October 20, 2019. I’m following the Pfitzinger 18/55 plan again. I’m keeping with the Star Wars theme for calling out the weeks, and this was going to be The Runner Strikes Back, but then Garmin and the Weather struck first.

Monday: 8 miles. Kept this reasonably easy, although I was enjoying chiller weather than what I’ve had, so it was nice. Ran in the park and the subdivision next to it. 8.04 in 1:13:40 (9:10 min/mile pace). Hydrated with water, no fueling. Ended the run with seven pull-ups.

Tuesday: 9 miles with 5 x 1k @ 5k pace. So the run started with this…

After over 20 minutes of a delay, the watch NEVER synced my workout. I ended up manually tracking laps since I had no other option. I started it with 2 miles warm-up, I started tracking the kilometers based on 0.6 mile increments, which means I was staring at my watch a lot more than normal. It also means that I muffed the last interval because my vision (particularly through sweat-covered and semi-fogged glasses) isn’t the best – I ran 0.53 instead of 0.6. Then I later realized it should have been 0.62 (and similarly, the lower-intensity phases should have been 0.31 instead of 0.30).

My paces were 7:19, 7:15, 7:30, 7:38, 7:33. The goal was 6:55 to 7:15 pace, and constantly looking at my watch and not having the audio cues to speed the 🤬 up didn’t help at all. Overall, 9.01 in 1:16:18 (8:28 min/mile pace).

Wednesday: 12 miles. Ran this in East Fork, which is always a difficult run. It also got pretty warm – 70 at run time, a full 10 degrees higher than the past two days. Hydrated with Gatorade. 12.04 miles in 1:51:57 (9:18 min/mile pace).

Thursday: 5 miles recovery. Kept this in the park because it’s four laps around the park. 5.16 miles in 45:28 (8:49 min/mile pace).

Friday: 18 miles with 14 at M pace. The run-time temperature for this was 71, and that’s a little toasty for pace running, and I’m not even sure if my watch was setup for it. I did push a little during the 14, which was ultimately at 8:47 min/mile. Alternated water and Gatorade Endurance at each mile, and took Gatorade Endurance Gels at 6 and 12. Overall, 18 miles in 2:41:19 (8:75 min/mile pace).

That’s it for the week – 52 miles in the books.

This is the eleventh week of my marathon training plan for the Columbus Marathon. The marathon is October 20, 2019. I’m following the Pfitzinger 18/55 plan again. I’m keeping with the Star Wars theme for calling out the weeks, and this is A New Month!

Monday: 8 miles with 5 x 600m @ 5k pace. Ran this entirely in the park, starting late due to having to clean up after one of my cats. The interval goal was 6:55 – 7:15, my splits were 7:05, 7:14, 7:10, 6:48, and 7:06, so pretty solid. Hydrated with plain water. Overall, 8.05 in 1:07:59 (8:27 min/mile pace).

Tuesday: 11 miles. Ran this at East Fork, which is normally a tough run anyway. It’s worse when GI issues start when you’re 4 miles in (which means about 4 miles away from the nearest unlocked bathroom). Had significant issues for a few miles before relief. Hydrated with Gatorade Endurance. 11.09 miles in 1:49:07 (9:50 min/mile pace).

Wednesday: 4 + 6 strides. Ran these entirely in the township park since it wasn’t a long run, and kept it easy due to the heat and the knowledge of the next morning’s run. 5.08 miles in 44:38 (8:47 min/mile).

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Thursday: 12 mile mock race. After a 10 minute delay caused by my watch “updating”. Once I gave it a three-finger salute, I set out FAST. Two laps in the park before venturing into the subdivisions for a few laps (and the gap is now fully paved, so that was good… but offset by stupid people with unrestrained dogs). 12.01 miles in 1:36:25 (8:02 min/mile pace). My correct pace MAY have been faster, it seems there was a GPS issue (see the video below).

Friday: 17 miles. Set out early after some peanut butter toast and making a bottle of Gatorade and a bottle of water. I initially drank the Gatorade every other mile because it was not exactly warm outside. I was sluggish a little, but 17 miles after a day of 12 at pace will do that. Took Gatorade Endurance Gels at miles 6 and 11.6. After mile 11 I started feeling a bit dehydrated and took some of the water, and at one point (maybe mile 15), drank A LOT of the water in one swig. Later, I found that I was pretty severely dehydrated (but nothing a pot of coffee wouldn’t fix!). 17.03 miles in 2:35:25 (9:08 min/mile pace).

That’s it for the week. 53.26 miles. Nothing to sneeze at. It was another tough week. Three weeks left before tapering…

Next Races
September 21: Hudepohl 14k
October 20: Columbus Marathon

This is the tenth week of my marathon training plan for the Columbus Marathon. The marathon is October 20, 2019. I’m following the Pfitzinger 18/55 plan again. I’m keeping with the Star Wars theme for calling out the weeks, but plot twist: the 11 mile + 12 mile + 20 mile runs struck back before a new month!

Monday: 7 miles + 6 strides. Ran this in the park and the subdivision next door AND crossed over to the other subdivision by running on the gutters for the connector (see last week’s ‘Mind the Gap’ for a better explanation). It was a little cooler this morning and some light rain started about halfway through. Overall, 8.01 miles in 1:10:13 (8:46 min/mile pace).

Tuesday: 11 miles with 7 at M pace. Ran in the park and the neighborhoods next to it (which are soon to be connected). Warmed up slow, but held it to an average of 8:14 min/mile pace during the M pace portion – the goal range is 7:50 – 8:15, so given the heat, it’s all good. Overall, 11 miles in 1:34:46 (8:37 min/mile pace).

Wednesday: 12 miles. Ran this at East Fork to get my hills on. It was a foggy warm morning, but mostly uneventful except the moron that lives in a city-sized lot and can’t be bothered to control his dog. 12.26 miles in 1:52:42 (9:12 min/mile pace).

Thursday: 5 mile recovery. What a recovery this was! It was in the mid-50s outside, so I wasn’t an overly sweaty mess when I was done. I ended up starting this from the other side of the park because they sealed the rear parking lot where I normally park. That being said, I didn’t even go all the way around the park because I was unsure if I could cross the driveway to that lot. Glad they’re taking care of the place, though, and this wasn’t any sort of an inconvenience. 5.3 miles in 47:07 (8:53 min/mile pace).

Friday: 20 miles. The fake fall from yesterday didn’t last… at all. The run was hot and sticky, not as bad as some of the others, but not good, either. Stayed in the park and the subdivision next to it, having to make a pitstop about 5 miles in. Fueled with Gatorade Endurance Gel at 7 and 13.5 miles, hydrated with water and Gatorade Endurance Lemon-lime. 20 miles in 3:01:27 (9:04 min/mile pace, although I fast-finished the last mile with an 8:34 mile split).

That’s it for the week and the month. The week finished at a tough 56.6 miles, which is the highest week of the plan. The month finished at 230 miles, most of which were run in tough heat.

This is the ninth week of my marathon training plan for the Columbus Marathon. The marathon is October 20, 2019. I’m following the Pfitzinger 18/55 plan again. In keeping with the Star Wars theme, this is the revenge of the soup… because there wasn’t enough soupy weather last week, apparently. This week feels like a pull-back week, and I think it is, considering it’s 43 miles down from 49 last week and next week is looking like 56 miles.

Monday: 8 miles recovery. Took this one slow, although my legs felt like they were going faster than my watch says they were, but I didn’t push it because I know what the schedule says for tomorrow. Ran mostly in the park until I took a pitstop, and then into the adjoining subdivision, where I noticed that they’ve made a lot more progress on getting the gap in the streets to fill in (more below). 8.03 miles in 1:12:24 (9:01 min/mile pace).

Tuesday: 8 miles with 5x800m @ 5k pace. Ran this entirely in the park since it was intervals. The warm up was pretty slow, but the intervals were mostly within paces: 7:03, 7:14, 7:09, 7:10, and 7:22 – the goal pace range was 6:55 – 7:15, so the last one was a little slow. It was quite warm, so I was happy with most of them being within pace (and on the last one – if I was four seconds faster, it would have been within pace). Overall, 8 miles in 1:10:10 (8:46 min/mile pace). I was also treated to a light show. Finished the run with some weights and SIX pull-ups (up from 5 last week!).

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Wednesday: 5 miles recovery. Kept this mostly easy, although that went off the rails for the last two miles where I started posting mile times in the 8:15 range.

Thursday: 8 miles + 8 strides. Went up to East Fork to get my hills on. I got there under a little bit of a light show and a threat of rain in about an hour. The rain started about 3.25 miles in, and by mile 5.25 the wind and rain were fairly extreme – I was having difficulty seeing because the wind was blowing the rain into my eyes and the light from my RunLites couldn’t cut through that much rain – there was THAT MUCH rain coming down. Overall, 9.1 miles in 1:23:44 (9:12 min/mile pace).

Friday: 14 miles. Got up and heard rain. Didn’t really want to run and got back in bed, and even thought I’d run in better weather (both cooler and less rainy) on Saturday. Got back up a few minutes later and decided I’d run in it since a RD wouldn’t cancel a race over rain. It did stop raining after a while… a loooong while. Ran in the park and the subdivision next to it. Then right at 14 miles, my watch froze. 14 miles in 2:05:47 (8:59 min/mile pace).

Saturday: got up to my wife telling me the water was off. There was a water main break near my subdivision. Between Facebook posts and reality, water was turned off sometime around 3:45 AM and it wasn’t back on until after 1:00 PM. So I guess it’s a good thing I ran in the rain.

This week was 44 miles and change. This is a down week, next week is going to be up to 55-56 miles with the second 20 mile run of the plan.

Mind The Gap

While I’d almost prefer to run my very long runs in downtown, I’m a half hour away and that really takes a lot of time out of my schedule. So a lot of my runs are around Batavia Township Park, which is a minute or two from my house (it’s so close that I could run from my subdivision to the park using the other subdivision, but I’d be running on a 45 MPH roadway).

When I run in the park, it’s a 1.25 mile loop (the blue line in the map above). Adding part of the next subdivision (it connects with a sidewalk at the NW corner, and a partially-paved connection in NE corner – both the purple lines in the map), I can add another mile or so.

When the weather is dry enough, I can use a dirt connection between the two subdivisions. They are building a street to connect (if you click on the map above to zoom in, you’ll see that both sides are named Autumnview Drive). The eastern (larger) portion is about 3-3.2 miles all the way around. The smaller portion is a little over a mile in one direction.

I tend to start at the SE portion of the park, where the big parking lot is south of the baseball fields). I found that one full loop and one partial in the park (2 miles), then going into the smaller section and running it to the connector (2.5 miles cumulative), then running four loops in the larger section (15.4 miles cumulative), finishing the small section (16.5 miles cumulative), and coming back the other way and back into the park (18 miles cumulative) and then doing the remainder of the loop and another loop gets me to 20 miles. Once the new street is in place, I expect that I’ll be doing full loops, which are going to be somewhere around 5 – 5.5 miles for a single direction. It’ll be nicer that way.

I noticed Friday that they have the curbs set, so hopefully by next Friday they’l have the road in.

This is the eighth week of my marathon training plan for the Columbus Marathon. The marathon is October 20, 2019. I’m following the Pfitzinger 18/55 plan again. In keeping with the Star Wars theme, this is the week of the Soup Wars.

Monday: 6 miles recovery. Ran 6 miles in the park and the subdivision next to it. It was a decent morning out – 64 with relatively low humidity. 6.03 miles in 52:52 (8:46 min/mile pace).

Tuesday: 14 miles. This was a hot and sticky run in East Fork. I arrived later than I wanted and started getting abdominal cramps halfway between East Fork and Williamsburg… and of course the bathrooms in Williamsburg Community Park were padlocked shut. After getting back into the park and taking a pitstop, I ran down to the lake, leaving around 4 miles left, and my headphone’s battery died. It was very hot and sticky and slow. 14 miles in 2:15:44 (9:34 min/mile pace).

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Wednesday: 6 miles recovery. Woke up to dense fog advisories. It wasn’t foggy when I started running, but it was by the end. Ran in the park in basically the same arrangement as Monday. The temperature was warm and the humidity was high – I had to wring out my shirt. 6.03 miles in 53:05 (8:48 min/mile pace).

Thursday: 16 miles with 12 at M pace. Ran my long run early because of the race on Saturday. It wasn’t as bad as the last two days, but it was still soupy. Despite my house’s air conditioner going out the evening before, I got decent sleep and the spaghetti for dinner helped (it also helped me figure out that the AC stopped working). Took the two mile warmup conservatively, and then maintained a fast-but-conservative pace for around 10 of the 12, and then heated it up for the last two miles of the set. The cool down was at a much slower pace, but after the prior 14 miles, it felt tough but good. Fueled with Gatorade Endurance Mango gel, hydrated with water at odd miles, and Gatorade Endurance Lemon-Lime at even miles. The 12 mile M pace portion was at an 8:22 min/mile pace, which is a little slower than the 7:50 – 8:15 target, but given the heat and humidity, I’m okay with it. Overall, 16 miles in 2:17:37 (8:36 min/mile pace).

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Friday: The original schedule was for 6 miles. I decided I was crazy to do that much and just did 3 considering I have a race on Saturday. I took it very slow and just kept it in the park. 3.34 in 31:44 (9:30 min/mile pace).

Saturday: RACE. Ran the Bulldog Blast 5k. I’ve run this race two other times, and it’s a low-frills race. The course is kinda messy with multiple loops/hairpins, and they added more – it used to be four loops and one area that gets congested for the midpack. Now, the congested area doesn’t exist, but there’s now six loops/hairpins. I thought that I might have a shot at a PR (narrator: “but that wasn’t in the cards today”). Last year was 21:46, this year was 21:59. I keep trying to find a bright spot in my results… for some reason I couldn’t remember going faster than 7 min/mile in a 5k, but my lead-off miles in both were sub-7: 6:43 in 2018, 6:55 in 2019. Mile 2 was 7:09 in 2018, 7:22 in 2019. Mile 3 was 7:19 in both years. The last 0.1 was 34s in 2018, and 28s in 2019… FINALLY something better in 2019!!!

So that’s the week, and the second race of the 2019 summer. Nearly 49 miles this week. There’s two more on the calendar and two more I’m considering (although I might only do one). And I do need to figure out what I’m doing for a spring goal race next year.

Next week includes some speedwork and more soup to run through (highs will be pushing into the low-100s F).

Upcoming Races:
Saturday 9/21: Hudepohl 14k Brewery Run
Sunday 10/20: Columbus Marathon

This is the seventh week of my marathon training plan for the Columbus Marathon. The marathon is October 20, 2019. I’m following the Pfitzinger 18/55 plan again.

Since last week was Return of the Triple Doubles, it seems that this week is the Twenty Mile Menace. Or maybe I should stop naming these after Star Wars Episodes (nah!).

Monday: 7 miles + 6 strides. One thing I meant to do was see if these were supposed to be 7 miles including the strides or if the strides were in addition to the mileage. Since strides don’t add a lot and I’m too lazy to change the workouts in Garmin Connect, it stays. Ran this in the park on what was not the hottest morning. Because of chafing, I used a belt pack for water (which I don’t like). 7.71 miles in 1:05:37 (8:31 min/mile pace). Began this one with form drills, ended it with some strength exercizes.

Tuesday: 12 miles. Since it wasn’t supposed to be a major thunderstorm in the evening, I took two miles off and ran 10, leaving two for a race. Also kept this in the park. Worse, I looked at my watch at 9 miles and I was somewhere around 81 minutes after a slow start. I thought “I can finish this in 90 minutes” and ran fast for the last mile. 10.12 miles in 1:29:33 (8:51 min/mile pace).

Tuesday Evening: 3.2k XC Race. Ran a modified NKU Valhalla course in 14:44. It was a tough race. It was very warm, and a zillion percent humidity. My PR for the unmodified course is 14:14, so lost a little. The humidity was so bad that as I looked down the course as some of the later finishers were coming in, I saw fog just rising up from a valley off to the side. I did win my age group (it looks like they’re using 5-year groups – two people in their late 40s finished ahead of me, but they were 47 and 48).

Wednesday: It was supposed to be 10 miles with 6 at HM pace, but since I ran a race last night, I decided to just go the distance and take it easy. I stayed in the park again (partly because I got up late). I decided to hand-hold water because I hate the belt pack. 10.02 in 1:28:05 (8:47 min/mile pace).

Thursday: easy day! Ran 5 miles in the park, with form drills before and strength after. 5.01 miles in 44:44 (8:56 min/mile pace).

Friday: long run. After getting in bed too late and up too soon, I ran 20 in the park and surrounding subdivisions (2 laps park, 4 laps in the larger subdivision, and 2 laps in the smaller, and then 2 laps in the park). I was not at all fast, although I did speed up a little as I continued. Fueled with Gatorade Endurance Gels at miles 7 and 14, and hydrated with water and lemon-lime Gatorade Endurance. 20.01 miles in 3:08:00 (9:24 min/mile pace). Wore my vest and got chafed again.

That’s it for the week. 54.8 miles. Most in a while. Hopefully these summer miles will make fall smiles!

Coming up:
Another tough week
Saturday 8/17: Bulldog Blast 5k
Saturday 9/21: Hudepohl 14k Brewery Run
Sunday 10/20: Columbus Marathon

This is the sixth week of my marathon training plan for the Columbus Marathon. The marathon is October 20, 2019. I’m following the Pfitzinger 18/55 plan again.

This week is the return of the triple-doubles – what I’ve been calling the weeks that have three double-digit runs in a week.

Monday: 10 miles with 5 @ HM Pace. Ran this in the park and the neighborhood next to it. The HM pace portion ended up being 3 seconds faster than the upper/slower goal pace range at 7:47 (goal range is 7:30 to 7:50). The warm-up was a little slow, but it’s just a warm-up. Hydrated with Nuun. Overall, 10 miles in 1:23:30 (8:21 min/mile pace).

Tuesday: 4 miles recovery. It was expected to storm today, and I arrived at the park to see a light show with no sound or effects 😎. Ran my 4 miles slow because I had a race scheduled this evening. 4.06 miles in 36:26 (8:59 min/mile pace). Followed my run with squats, one-leg squats, single-leg deadlifts, and six pull-ups (increased by one!).

Tuesday Evening: got to the race parking lot and wondered how I could get such a good parking spot and also wondered why they didn’t have a tent up. Well, they cancelled the race due to weather.

Wednesday: 11 miles. Ran this in East Fork park. It was a foggy morning. They are working on adding better drainage to the path, which is good, and they had the equipment out of the way while they weren’t working. My legs felt sore (🤬 leg day!), so I ran on the slow side until the last mile. 11 miles in 1:41:47 (9:14 min/mile pace).

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Thursday: Supposed to be 7 + 8 Strides, did 8 Recovery. I didn’t check the schedule or anything, so I thought that the 8 miles was just 8 miles. Ran this in the park, and was sore from Tuesday’s weights and Wednesday’s 11 miles. Also, the park’s blacktop is closed because they just laid tar, so I ran most in the neighboring subdivision but finished up part while running on the grass next to the path. 8.11 miles in 1:13:46 (9:06 min/mile pace).

Friday: 18 miles. I put the slow in “long slow distance.” This was a tough run – my legs were still rough from the prior two days, plus I mowed the lawn Thursday evening and I woke up at 3:45 AM to get this run in. I ran this in downtown, and stopped around mile 11.5 to refill my water bottle (I had a bottle of Gatorade Enduracnce and a bottle of water). Fueled with a Gatorade Endurance Gel at mile 9. Overall, this run is why I decided my first two marathons would be in the spring – I’d rather run in 40-50 than 65-75 degree weather! 18 miles in 2:52:27 (9:35 min/mile pace).

July ended during this week, and I made it through with only one missed planned run (not counting the cancelled race). 187 mostly-tough miles in July. August is already shaping up to be a tough month too.

Coming up:
Another tough week
Next Tuesday PM: Brian Rohne XC Championship 3.2k off-road race
Saturday 8/17: Bulldog Blast 5k
Saturday 9/21: Hudepohl 14k Brewery Run
Sunday 10/20: Columbus Marathon