Marathon Pace revisited…

Posted on October 8, 2011 by Aaron K

OK Nick et. all, now what do you think is a stretching but realistic marathon goal pace with more info below?

We’re 5 weeks out from November 12.

Today I did a 26.2K (16.3 Mile) marathon simulation workout by running two loops on my course, then adding 3.2 out and back.

Splits:

  • 1st Loop (6.55 miles): 40:05 (6:07/mile, pretty much right on target)
  • 2nd Loop: 40:39 – slipped off goal pace slightly (1:20:44 half marathon split – 6:09/mile avg)
  • 3.2 mile out and back: 22:25 (7:00/mile avg for this section, drastically fell off pace.)
  • Total: 16.3 miles – 1:43:09 – 6:19/mile avg

Any thoughts by anyone reading are welcomed and appreciated.  My desire is to set a realistic but stretching goal for a marathon time running this same course in 5 weeks from now.  And now that I have somewhat of a bench mark workout to go off of, I’m interested to hear other’s thoughts.

For whatever its worth, I have been running between 70-75 miles most weeks, with 6 days of running per week.  Sundays I always rest from running.  With a lower week every 3-4 weeks.  This week was 74.

Up until now my pie in the sky goal has been 2:40 (6:07 pace).  Hence the goal pace today of 40 minutes per lap to see how I managed at that pace on a simulation run.

Today I was wearing tights, a jacket, beanie, and gloves because it was high 30′s and drizzling this morning.  I self-supported it and was wearing my nathan pack with 30 oz. of water and 2 10 oz. flasks of half dilluted EFS liquid shot.  I only used 1 and a quarter of the 2 flasks, perhaps 250 calories for the 1:43 of running.  Enough/not enough?  Energy felt fine, but perhaps another 100-150 calories would have given my legs more the last 3 miles.  I didn’t drink a ton of the water.  Probably only 12 ounces of the 30.  It wasn’t hot at all of course, but my clothes were still soaked with sweat under my light jacket.  Including the EFS flasks a total of about 24 ounces of fluid was taken in.

As far as heart rate and breath rate are concerned the run was never that challenging.  My legs just got tired and started feeling less strong the last few miles.  My hips/gluts started feeling pretty worked at mile 15.1 so I backed off quite a bit for a minute or two, then picked it up slowly again, but my last mile split was really slow due to that, 7:40 something.  Plus I allowed myself to bail mentally on the pace at mile 15.1.  I didn’t want to drive it so hard so as to hurt myself…I figured I should save the hard driving for the actual marathon attempt.  I’m sure I’m going to have to push through a similar point of growing weakness somewhere in the last 7-10 of the marathon.  I’m willing to push through that necessary pain in my race attempt, in a workout I didn’t feel that it was in my best interest to go there.

Posted in Running Logs, Thoughts or Goals, marathon training | Tagged , , , | 8 Comments

Bears in the low lands

Posted on October 5, 2011 by Aaron K

1/4 mile south of the S. Boulder Creek trailhead on Marshall road I saw 4 black bears cross the trail about 100 feet in front of me.

I was just passing a guy named Mike and was kind of startled to hear him all of a sudden yell ‘BEARS’ and stop in his tracks.

We were far enough away that it wasn’t alarming since the Mother bear was clearly intent on running away from us with her 3 young cubs in tow. They ran across the trail just across the bridge east of the trailhead by the little creek/canal. Then they jumped over the 4 foot wire fence and scampered up the canal in the brush. We moved ahead again and watched them continue up the creek and out of site.

This time of year has turned into a consistent wildlife sighting time for me. In the past month, and each time just before sunrise, I’ve seen a family of raccoons, a HUGE owl take flight from a tree 10 feet in front of me, a young Bobcat run away on the trail, and now a family of Bears. I’m enjoying it…just another enjoyable reason to get up early to run. At first I missed the incredible summer weather and just being comfortable throwing on a pair of shorts and heading out. But it didn’t take long to start enjoying the change to long sleeves and gloves which has brought with it something new.

By the way, I’m going to be attempting a 16.3 mile run at marathon (6:06) pace on my course this Saturday morning at about 7-7:30. If anyone wants to join for a loop (6.55 miles) or two, or all, I’d love the company!

Posted in Random, Running Logs | Tagged | Leave a comment

Marathon Training progress

Posted on October 1, 2011 by Aaron K

Things are going pretty well I think. Hard to know exactly really, but next weekend will be really telling on how things are going.

I’m going to do either a time trial half marathon or 26.2K (16.3) at marathon pace on my course. Haven’t decided which yet. I think the latter because it is more interesting to me.

I had 4 weeks in a row at about 70 miles per week and doing 1 or 2 workouts plus a long run that varied each week.

Then last week I bailed on the long run because i was just not feeling good. So i ended up under 60 that week. Which i realized was probably good timing since i had just had 4 solid weeks of big (for me) training.

The only issues I have been managing in my muscles have been in sore glutes, specifically on the left side. But I never find myself running through any pain, and have been running 6 days/week for at least an hour. I credit the consistency to a number of things: running really slow and easy on all runs that are not workouts, not pushing myself overly hard in workouts, dynamic stretching/movement after each run, use of compex on active recovery session on my glutes, quads, and calves almost daily, changing my training plans almost every week based on my body’s reaction to the workouts and recovery, and 1 ART session.

The ART was really helpful on my left glute and I scheduled another session next week as preventative maintenence since it has been a month and I know it will help. I’m really pleased with how well the compex works on keeping me loose and recovering my legs though. I haven’t needed even close to as much ART and massage as in previous training cycles and I have been doing more and faster running.

Hopefully those things will continue to work and I can continue the consistency. I love being able to get out and run every day. Its a huge blessing and I’m pretty cautious about doing anything to jeopardize that.

For today’s long run I did a progression run in south boulder out Marshall, up community ditch, up dowdy, around flatirons vista then to Marshall Mesa, cherry vale, to bobolink and home.

22 miles, last 11 miles moderate – 2:54 total time. 1300′ vert. 7:00/mile avg last 11. Splits: 6:28, 7:08, 6:22, 6:36, 6:49, 7:07, 6:48, 6:44, 7:47, 8:00, 7:35 – The last 3 were uphill and were pretty challenging today. I guess that’s one of the points though right? It’s a good thing my marathon course isn’t that hilly, no way I could hold a 6:06 pace on hilly terrain for a marathon. Frankly I’m not too certain I can hold 6:06 for a marathon on a flat course and that often feels pretty daunting, particularly when I’m struggling to hit 7:47 at mile 20 of a long run. But the unknown is half the fun! If I were a betting man, I’d put my money on the last loop of my marathon course being pretty painful.

Posted in Running Logs | Leave a comment

Anyone have a Measuring Wheel handy?

Posted on September 28, 2011 by Aaron K

I’m putting this out there to the webiverse because I don’t want to spend 50-100 dollars for a measuring wheel that I will likely use one time.

Anyone in or around Boulder have or know someone who has a measuring wheel I could borrow for a couple hours?

I can’t rely upon the accuracy of my GPS watch to give me the exact mileage of my marathon loop. And if I’m off by 1/10th or 1/4 mile per loop that can add up to multiple minutes of running over 4 loops.

And since I have a pretty aggressive (for me) goal time with no real margin for error, I would like to be as accurate as possible on my marathon distance measurement.

One of the main challenges with measuring my loop with GPS is that I go under 4 tunnels, 2 of which are hundreds of feet long and I definitely lose signal in there. But regardless of that, a GPS isn’t accurate enough.

Posted in Running Logs | 3 Comments

10K pace is a lot harder

Posted on September 28, 2011 by Aaron K

than marathon pace.

This morning I did a threshold run, 2.5 miles easy, 5 miles accelerating from marathon pace to 10K pace, 3 miles easy – 10.5 miles – 1:13 – 6:56 avg – 300′ vert
Splits for the 5 miles: 6:05, 5:55, 5:43, 5:53, 6:19

I felt really good on this run….until the last mile and a half when it starts going back up hill. Ouch. I really fell off the pace the last mile. I was supposed to be running 10K pace at the end. But I got down to 10K pace in the middle and felt like I kind of blew up at the end.

I did this run on my marathon course, and the first few miles I was getting more and more psyched about nailing the loop. Then I just started struggling. And it got me concerned about my ability to hit my goal on that loop come 6.5 weeks from now, of running 6:06 pace for 4 loops. I guess I was trying to go a lot faster than that this morning, which is obviously why it was hard and I got clobbered the last mile. I need to run the loop at marathon pace next time and see how that feels.

Also, I think I need to realize that my pace is going to need to be slower on the backside of the loop where its slightly uphill, and faster on the downhill portions. When I practice hitting 6:06 pace for the loop I think I’ll get a better feel for where I need to be on the different sections. Probably closer to 5:55-6:00 on the downs and 6:10-15.

I ran with a new music playlist that I made for pumping me up while I ran and I really enjoyed that. I haven’t been running with music for a while now just enjoying running in silence and with minimal stuff attached. But it was pretty nice this morning to have some music getting me motivated. The playlist consisted mostly of Less Than Jake, which is definitely my favorite music to run fast to. Its pretty easy to have fun and run fast listening to that stuff. Maybe its just the nostalgia for me taking me back to high school and my punk/ska band days.

Posted in Running Logs | Leave a comment

Test-running the new marathon course

Posted on September 17, 2011 by Aaron K

Today for my long run I wanted to test-run my new marathon loop to see how I like it and test the mileage out.

The verdict was that I like it a lot. Its a really fast and smooth loop with no stops anywhere. And the loop runs through really nice flat trail sections in boulder and through some really cool neighborhood roads. Some of the course is rolling slightly with ups and downs under bridges and roads, which makes it nice for some variety. But there are no significant hills to climb or descend on the loop. Its slightly downhill a couple of the miles, and slightly up a couple of the others, but it’s so minor that I hardly noticed.

According to my GPS device though the loop is only 6.3-6.33 miles long. Not the 6.55 that MapMyRun suggested. That could be because I’m losing reception on the many tunnels, or because I’m running the tangents. In any case, I need to slightly revise the loop or measure it better so that I know that I’m running a loop that covers the full 6.55 miles necessary to make four loops a marathon.

For the run I did a 4 mile warmup from my house to the course. 1 easy lap around the course. Then one moderate to steady lap around the course. Meaning I wasn’t going to try to hit marathon pace, just run it somewhere between easy and marathon pace. Then a few miles back home. 20 miles total. Time of 2:33 total.

1st lap: 47:23 – easy pace – 7:31 avg

2nd lap: 41:24 – moderate to steady pace – 6:34 avg

Splits for 6 miles of the second lap: 7:19, 6:37,6:22, 6:15, 6:19, 6:15

I was surprised at how comfortable the 6:15-6:20 pace felt as I was running the 2nd loop. But after the run I could tell it was a decent effort as I was dripping and a bit stiff after I stopped for a bit. The real tests are going to be the two different marathon pace runs I do when I test out 2 consecutive loops at pace on one run, and then three, or close to three loops, on a different run. If I can hold 16-18 miles at marathon pace 3-4 weeks out from my goal date, and then I taper, I believe I’ll be able to do it in under 2:40. Time will tell though. I can predict that 3 loops at marathon pace is going to be a challenging run. So I’m really looking forward to it. The first loop will be simple enough, but after that, well, I guess we’ll see.

Posted in Running Logs, marathon training | Tagged | Leave a comment

$569 to run 26.2 miles?

Posted on September 14, 2011 by Aaron K

Yesterday I added up what it would cost me to run the Santa Barbara Marathon in November:

  • $130 race entry
  • $241 Flight
  • $123 hotel
  • Food/taxi/other ~$60-75
  • Total: $569

Then I began seriously reconsidering my options for running a marathon.  I was having a hard time seeing the real point in paying all that money and spending a weekend away from my family.  My goal in training for a marathon is really the training and the fitness, and the enjoyment I get out of running every day.  I set a goal of running under 2:40 because it gives me motivation and structure to my training.  Sure the festivities would be nice, and the environment would be cool, etc in going to a big marathon.  But for me, the main point of the goal marathon is to have a goal to work toward, which gives added meaning, motivation and fulfillment to my daily running.

As I had an hour and 10 minutes to think about this on my run this morning, I became increasingly excited about running my own marathon.  And unenthusiastic about spending money on going to a sea level marathon.  By the time I got home, I had nearly planned out the entire route.  I mapped it out when I did get home, and now I have officially bailed on traveling to do a marathon.

I’m going to start training on my own personal marathon course now and I will work up my tempo runs on my course until I can peak and run the 4 loop course in under 2:40.

I’m a lot more excited about my sub 2:40 goal now than I was before actually.  Because now it will most likely be even harder since I will be running solo (unless someone wants to join me) and doing it at 5200′ altitude.

So here’s a link to my marathon loop in Boulder.  If you want to find me over the next couple months I’ll probably be on that loop somewhere!

The route starts at the Arapahoe Ridge Park by Eisenhower Elementary.  I designed it from here because it is relatively flat, and there is a loop that is mostly bike path that doesn’t cross any major streets so it should be completely runnable at any time without any interruptions or stops.  Also, I started at the park so I could have my family provide bottle support from there and watch and play at the park while they are waiting for me to complete a loop.

It has 448 Feet of ascent total, so that’s about as flat as it gets for a loop course in Boulder, and is slightly less than the Santa Barbara Marathon.  It does go up and down a bunch under tunnels, but that’s not a big deal.  I kind of like the acceleration that provides by launching down the little hills.

As of right now, I’m shooting for the date of November 12.

Depending on how the training goes, I may push it back if I find that I’m not hitting the pace in key workouts and I need more time to build up to my goal pace.  If anyone wants to do a free fall marathon with me rather than plunking down a bunch of hard earned cash, you’re more than welcome to join in!

Posted in Running Logs, Thoughts or Goals | Tagged | 15 Comments

Pacing Steve at the Wasatch 100

Posted on September 12, 2011 by Aaron K

I’ve wanted to be involved in the Wasatch 100 for quite a while.  I grew up in Salt Lake area and knew people doing the race when I was young.  And I was always blown away by it, and intrigued, and have wanted since then to do it someday.

Last weekend I got some first hand experience with the Wasatch 100 and it was a ton of fun.  And I had the best seats in the house thanks to Steve!  My friend Steve Young invited me to pace/crew for him which was a real privilege.  I was very proud to be a part of Steve’s team.  And since the dude was absolutely crushing the course and running near the front of the race the whole time I was able to watch the top 6-10 runners through all the major Aid stations up to Brighton.  And then I got to tag along with Steve for the last 25 miles to the finish and experience the epic-ness of the last 25 crazy miles of a 100 miler.

It was a very, very cool experience.  I can’t say that I wish I was the one running the race though.  That looked painful!!  I can see myself signing up to run it some day, but I was really glad to be a crewer/pacer this time around.

So here’s a re-cap and some photos of the trip this weekend…very fun times!

Steve driving us over to Utah

My buddy Craig Lloyd, his son Tyler, and Steve chatting at the very nicely brief pre-race meeting.

This has to be by far the most organized and well run race I have ever witnessed.  The pre-race meeting was all of 15 minutes in length.  Very nice.  And throughout the race it was extremely apparent how well organized this race is.  It almost seems like they have been doing it for 30 years.  Craig was going to be pacing Scott W since he didn’t get picked in the lottery this year.

The start at 5:00 am sharp.  The weather was fantastic, high 60′s, maybe even 70 degrees.

After we watched the race start, Rick (my fellow pacer/crew member for Steve) and I went back to our friends the Caldwell’s to go back to bed for a couple hours.  Then I got a leisurely hour jog in with Layne, chilled out at the house eating breakfast etc.  Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Steve was apparently running in 5th place, according to the race website!  Impressive.  After a while we headed over to Big Mountain (mile 39) for our first crew stop for Steve.

Timmy Parr, already having stomach issues, not a good sign.  He was leading earlier but already dropped to 3rd place.

Meltzer coming in to big mountain in 4th or 5th, up from 9th

Steve coming into Big Mountain in 6th position.  photo credit www.irunfar.com

Apparently until this year, nobody had ever won this race after being the first one into Lamb’s Canyon.  Evan Honeyfield changed that this year.  He led the race from a third of the way through all the way to the end, and finished in the 3rd fastest time ever.  Very impressive.

photo credit www.irunfar.com

Steve above leaving Big Water aid station in Millcreek (mile 62).  Still smiling and looking strong despite having stomach issues starting at mile 45.  Can you imagine heading out for another 50 miles when your stomach is already betraying you?  That would be tough…but Steve was still smiling and making it happen.   That would be the theme with Steve all day that I saw him.  He was smiling, enjoying being out there, and running extremely steady and strong despite his stomach and legs hurting.

Steve about to head out of Brighton, photo credit to www.irunfar.com

I lost my phone at Brighton in the rush to get out on the trail with Steve.  So I don’t have all the pictures or video I took.  But thankfully a lady called me who found it and is sending it to me so I’ll probably post some video later.

I ran with Steve from mile 75 to 100 and had a great time.  It took us about 6.5 hours to do that section, and I’m sure it was brutal on Steve.  But he was incredibly persistent and steady.  Even though his stomach was totally unhappy the whole time, he still managed to sip down EFS liquid shot and half diluted coke throughout the first 4 hours.  And he just kept cranking out the steps and the miles in the dark.

The trail on parts of that section is just horrendous.  Sometimes it drops 500 feet in way less than a mile down a washed out and rocky or deep dusty trail that is really hard on the feet and quads.  Other sections are really awesome and run-able single track.  It wasn’t bad on fresh legs, but after 75 miles I can only begin to imagine how bad that whole stretch must have hurt.

But Steve was incredible.  He just pushed out the miles in the silence of the night, as steady as ever.

He was in 5th place leaving Brighton.  He had been in 5th or 6th place basically all day long.  Just running a very even paced race.  His goal was to run the course in under 24 hours, and as long as he just stayed steady he was going to crush his goal.

Jared Campbell got to Brighton 12 minutes after Steve I believe.   And he eventually passed Steve at mile 93 at the pot bottom aid station.  We got to the Aid station and Steve sat down for the first time probably about 40 miles.  Then moments later Jared came into the aid station being paced by his wife Mindy.  Congrats to Jared on a steady solid 100 miler as well.

They were in and out, but Steve was busy eating a peach and an orange that seemed to be going in alright which was good news.

He didn’t stay long though, he got up and we headed out.  But then he was shivering badly.  I threw a jacket on him and some gloves.  Then moments later he was spewing forth everything in his stomach.

Feeling better after that, he continued up the trail.  He made solid and steady work of the last climb, and then the last 5 miles were down hill on pretty easy to run trails and a mile on the road.

His roughest patch was from mile 85-93 from what I could tell.  That was the part where he was most silent and just pushing through, barely getting food in, but doing a great job of sipping on some calories as he could.  It must have just been a silent sufferfest.  I was totally impressed the entire time with how he just kept moving.  He didn’t complain or stop ever.  Just kept plugging away.  The only time I recall him even sitting down was at the Pot bottom aid station at 93 miles, for a total of about 3 minutes tops.  He mentioned maybe 4 times total all night that he was tired or that he was hurting.  Steve has got a very positive attitude that clearly is part of his key to his proven success in ultra running.  He set the course record in the Moab 100 this spring.  And now to place 6th in a highly competitive, and one of the most challenging 100 milers out there further witnesses that he is a super talented ultra runner.

Steve crossing the finish line.  The relief of being done very visible on his face at that point.  photo credit to www.irunfar.com thanks to Bryon from irunfar.com for the fantastic coverage of the race!

When he crossed the finish line the clock was at 22 hours even and he was in 6th place.  I’m extremely impressed and proud of Steve for what he accomplished out there.  To place 6th in that field and in that time on that course is an incredible display of toughness, training, and talent.  It was really cool to be part of the experience with him.

Steve and the 14 others who ran under 24 hours being inducted into the royal order of the crimson cheetah.

After partially experiencing Wasatch, I’m still blown away by it and the people who have completed that race.  Winning that race is an incredible accomplishment.  But anyone who finishes that thing within the time limit had to display a very serious amount of mental and physical toughness.

Congrats to Aric Manning for nailing his goal and going sub 30 hours!!  And a huge congrats to Scott Wesemann for finishing despite insane bloody blisters on his toes that he had to deal with the last 30-40 miles.  Also, great job to Davy Crockett who finished his 7th 100 miler for the year just 2 weeks after the cascade crest 100.

Posted in Trail Runs | Tagged | 5 Comments

Is my training approach weak?

Posted on September 7, 2011 by Aaron K

Probably.  But I’m OK with that.  Will I be the fastest person around at the next race?  No.  But my guess is over the long haul I will be able to run more and get faster than I would if I tried to be more macho in my training than I’m really ready for right now.

I decided not to do the 45 minutes of threshold running that was on the schedule for today.

I felt minor stiffness in my left foot when I woke up that went away after a minute or less.  Not a huge deal.  But I prefer to hit hard workouts when I feel perfect or pretty darn close to it, and excited to go attack the workout.  I don’t like going into workouts questioning at all whether I should be doing them.

My body and mind told me that an easy run would be the best thing for me today, so I complied.  Even though that means my running will be easy all week and I probably won’t get any solid workouts in, just a bunch of easy runs.  Tomorrow I’m driving to Utah to pace at Wasatch, Friday I’ll be crewing at Wasatch, and Saturday I’ll be hiking/running all night at Wasatch with Steve. (Which i’m stoked about)

I’ll still get in about 70 miles this week.  But here are my thoughts:

Training plans are great.  As long as I remember something to this effect:  It’s better to break your training plan than your body.  Of course it would be easy to just sleep in because its raining or snowing, and never follow through on the plan out of laziness.  That’s not what I’m referring to though.  I tend to believe even the best training plans should be modified as dictated by the body’s response to them.  Do I know exactly how to do that??  Not completely, but I’m learning.  I hear too often and have seen too many people follow training plans through with exactness, only to end up injured.  Congratulations!  You followed the plan…here’s your booby prize of 6 months on the sidelines!  So I am pretty determined to not do that.  I would much rather arrive to a race or event somewhat under trained, than not arrive at all.  Or arrive with big question marks in my mind on whether I will damage myself by doing the race.  Or be dealing with the super annoying task of minor injury recovery along the way.  Much better to take the conservative path and run easy and do proper therapy/recovery until I feel really good, then continue hitting the solid workouts.  I believe I will perform better over the long term doing that.  So I’m sticking to my motto:  Go slow to go fast.

As a result today, after 9 miles/1:23 of flat easy and slow running my body and mind feel invigorated and I don’t feel any stiffness or tightness anywhere.  I’m guessing by the time I get time for a workout next week I’ll probably be fired up and ready for a solid performance enhancing effort.  And my body should have had plenty of time to make use of the work I did in my last few weeks of solid workouts by then.

Posted in Running Logs, Thoughts or Goals | Tagged | Leave a comment

My first Bobcat

Posted on September 6, 2011 by Aaron K

I was stoked and a little bit hesitant to continue up the lower Bluestem trail this morning when this little guy scampered around the corner in front of me.

(not my photo, looked just like this guy though)

After waiting for about 30 seconds and pondering on whether an overprotective parent had me in its sights already, I bounded up the trail after it.  He had run off into the brush and I didn’t hear or see another sign of life.  But it was pretty cool to see the little guy.  I see foxes and coyotes a lot, but that was a rare sighting for sure.

I probably did run a little faster after that.  But that was mostly because I had to be home in 40 minutes and still had 6 miles to go.

Posted in Running Logs, Trail Runs | Tagged | 2 Comments