Less than 8 weeks to the Berlin Marathon: Last week's training

It's been a little while since the Peachtree 10k US Champs, but it took some time to settle on my next race. While the 10k wasn't a perfect race, it was a huge step forward for me after the injury ridden last 18 months. I went through 5km at 13:52 and the wheels didn't fall off. The first 5km is mostly downhill, but regardless, I felt more like my old self than I had in any race since the injuries began. Now that I have many months of consistent training and my blood work back to normal, I am optimistic about the fall and winter.

After a lot of deliberation I have decided for the Berlin Marathon this fall.  After getting out over my skis in New York this fall, I am looking for a controlled environment in which I can gain confidence heading into the spring. I would like an extra month of training for confidence, but that is almost always the case. I went backpacking for a few days following Peachtree to have a mental break before the marathon buildup, and then jumped right back in where I left off, leaving myself with about 11.5 weeks to prepare for Berlin. It looks like we'll have a small group of runners shooting for the 2:09-2:10ish range, so I should have people to run with as well as a couple of pace makers. Scott Overall (2:10) will be in this group, which is a big boost, as we have run in the same pace group during two of my PRs in the past (Fukuoka and London). Hopefully our training will progress at a similar pace and we both end up healthy at the starting line and can feed off each other on September. 24th.

I am currently back training in the Czech countryside as we spend time with my wife's family. I've

mentioned this in the past, but the running routes are fantastic in southern Czech (Vysocina), although hitting times is quite difficult as it is very hilly with a little elevation (2500ft.) The elevation isn't much, but combined with the hills, workouts are still fairly challenging. It's a great spot for base building, so the timing couldn't be better. I will be in Portland for the final 5 weeks of training and will be able to fine tune then.

I'm slowly building my mileage back up to marathon range but will still keep my volume between 120 and 130 for this segment. That includes one day (Saturday) of either very easy or off meaning that I am still averaging 20+ miles per day the other 6 days of the week. I am looking to get my mid-week workouts to 16-18 miles most weeks including warmup and cooldown to build strength as well.

Below are the last few weeks of training, and I will be posting the rest of the weeks leading up to Berlin. Thanks again for reading, and follow me here on Twitter for more updates.

Weeks To go	Weekly Miles
11	120	Monday
		Tuesday
		Wednesday		10 x 1 mile starting @ 4:57 down to 4:40, rest = 1 min
		Thursday
		Friday
		Saturday
		Sunday		22 miles with 4 mile push @ 4:55
10	125	Monday
		Tuesday
		Wednesday		tempo runs 3.5, 2.5, 1.5@ 71ish, rest = 2 min, 1 min
		Thursday
		Friday		Run + 8 x 200 meter hills
		Saturday
		Sunday		23 mile moderate long run
9	130	Monday
		Tuesday		8 x 1 mile @ 4:45-->4:25
		Wednesday
		Thursday		Run + 8 x strides
		Friday		12 miles @ 5:00
		Saturday
		Sunday		24 mile moderate long run
8	120	Monday
		Tuesday
		Wednesday		4 mile tempo, 30 min run, 3mile tempo @ 4:45ish

Less than a week to the AJC Peachtree 10k

We're 5 days away from the AJC Peachtree 10k, and I'm looking forward to toeing the line for the first time since early May. After a disappointing Bloomsday Run, I took a couple of low intensity training weeks while I tried to figure out why I felt so wiped out even though I had been hitting solid workouts for a couple of months. I decided to get my blood work looked at, which I normally do a couple times per year, but didn't expect to find anything interesting as my key levels (vitamin b, iron, hematocrit, etc.) have been consistent for years. In the past I have actually had to back off my iron supplement as my levels were getting a little higher than necessary. This time was different; my ferratin levels had dropped by two-thirds from my last test even though I had been supplementing regularly. It seems the most likely explanation is the way in which I had been spreading out my calcium supplement throughout the day. I knew that calcium and iron should be taken at separate times in order to promote absorption, and I thought I was allowing enough time in between. Following my string of three stress fractures in 2015 and 2016, I was very persistent in my calcium, vitamin d, and magnesium trying to improve my bone density, but until this year, I had been taking them all at once before bed. A nutritionist recommended I spread these supplements out by taking them 3 times throughout the day (1 tablet was only 33% of daily recommended dose) to help with my bone density. It seems that this recommendation was likely preventing me from absorbing iron from my food or supplements thus causing the unusual fatigue. While I was able to have decent workouts, I was not recovering well and was having to run very slow on other days. Once I got the results after Bloomsday, I increased my vitamin b and iron supplementation, began taking calcium once per day in the evening, and did my first several workouts based purely on effort without looking at my watch until the end to ensure I wasn't racing to chase times. Within about two weeks, I started to feel like my old self again, and not only were workouts clicking, but easy days felt smooth as well. Unfortunately this has delayed my training by a few weeks heading into Peachtree, but I have had a solid 5-6 weeks, and it's not like I was starting from scratch. I'm optimistic moving forward, and I'm looking forward to using this as a spring board into a fall marathon, which I will hopefully be choosing within the next week. 

As usual, the Peachtree field is loaded, and the extra time between the USATF Championships and this race will allow more runners to come back. 10k will be a bit of a shocker for my body, but I've done what I can to prepare, and I plan on sticking my nose in it. I arrived in Atlanta 10 days before the race in order to acclimate to the heat as we've had an unusually cold spring and summer in Portland, and the humidity can be a tough adjustment. I feel great mentally and physically, and I'm looking forward to competing on Tuesday at 7:30 EST in Atlanta.  My last few weeks of training are below. They're not as detailed as before;I will add specifics for my week by week recaps leading up to the fall marathon. I'm looking forward to a great second half of 2017! Thanks for reading. 

Tuesday	6/6/2017	8 x 1 mile at 4:48, 4:44, 4:40, 4:36, 4:32, 4:28, 4:24, 4:20, 2 min rests
Wednesday	6/7/2017
Thursday	6/8/2017	12 X 200m @29-30 or hill repeats
Friday	6/9/2017
Saturday	6/10/2017	Tempo 3 mile, 2 mile, 1 mile (4:40, 4:438, 4:27) with 2min, then 1 min rests
Sunday	6/11/2017	Long. 2 hours
Monday	6/12/2017
Tuesday	6/13/2017	Weekly total: 110 miles
Wednesday	6/14/2017	6 x 1 mile @ 4:36, 4:32, 4:28, 4:24, 4:20, 4:18 with 3 min rest
Thursday	6/15/2017
Friday	6/16/2017
Saturday	6/17/2017	10 miles @5:10->4:45
Sunday	6/18/2017	Long, 2 hours
Monday	6/19/2017
Tuesday	6/20/2017	15 x 200m hills, Weekly Total: 110 miles
Wednesday	6/21/2017
Thursday	6/22/2017	4 tempo @ 18:50, 6 x 200 @ 29-30
Friday	6/23/2017
Saturday	6/24/2017	Long 1:45,
Sunday	6/25/2017
Monday	6/26/2017	10 x 500 @ 78-79 w/100 meter jog (about 40 seconds)
Tuesday	6/27/2017	Weekly Total: 90 miles
Wednesday	6/28/2017
Thursday	6/29/2017
Friday	6/30/2017	5-6 x 1000m @ 71+ 4-5 x 200m @31-32
Saturday	7/1/2017
Sunday	7/2/2017
Monday	7/3/2017
Tuesday	7/4/2017	RACE

One day to Bloomsday

I'm excited to get back to racing tomorrow at the Bloomsday 12k in Spokane! This is a race that I've wanted to run for some time, but track season always got in the way. With 45,000 participants, it is a massive event, and the entire city embraces it. As usual the competition is stacked. Here's a look at the elite fields.

The course is very hilly, and the 12k distance is a bit challenging to prepare for mentally, but I'm hoping it feeds my cross country background. After my last plantaris injury, training has steadily progressed the last 8 weeks, and while it's difficult to judge my fitness with certainty, I know I'm ready for a good day tomorrow. More importantly, I'm 100% healthy, so no matter what, I know I'll get to take all this progress into the rest of spring and summer. That's a feeling I haven't had since 2015!

Thanks again for reading, and feel free to check out the final two weeks of training below.

Weeks to go: 1	AM	PM	Strength	Mileage
Monday	off	off	40 minutes	0
Tuesday	11	5 + drills and strides		16
Wednesday	6 x mile starting @ 4:30 workding down to 4:20	5.5		18
Thursday	11	5	40 minutes	16
Friday	10+ drills and strides	off		10
Saturday	3 mile, 2 mile, 1 mile @ 4:40-4:42	5		17
Sunday	16 easy	off		16
TOTAL				93
Weeks to go: 0	AM	PM	Strength	Mileage
Monday	11	5		16
Tuesday	10	5	40 minutes	15
Wednesday	5 x 1km @ 2:57, 1 min rest, 6 x 200 @ 28-30	off		16
Thursday	9	5		14
Friday	8			8
Saturday	5 + drills and strides			5.5
Sunday	Bloomsday 12k	off

Less than 2 weeks to Bloomsday

Another wet week in the books and I'm on track to toe the line healthy and fit for Bloomsday in a little over a week. After attempting several marathon build-ups in a row over the last 18 months, it feels refreshing to get back to training for shorter distances. Continuous marathon training can really make you feel stagnant physically and mentally, and I think all marathoners can benefit from dropping in distance for workouts and races for at least a little while each year. While I haven't quite hit workouts that make me think I'm in 10k PR shape, I am surprised at how quickly track workouts are coming back to me. I'm trying to patient, but I can start to see my fitness just over the horizon in a matter of weeks. I have time for one more big interval workout before Bloomsday that will hopefully be a nice confidence builder.

I'm looking forward to competing over 12km without worrying about the clock. I normally have a decent sense of my own effort and can measure out my race pretty well by feel without knowing any splits. Bloomsday is also a fairly hilly course which should play to my advantage. It will be a great opportunity to get back to basics and have something to show for the last several months of training.

Thanks again for reading, and feel free to check out last week's training below.

Weeks to go: 2	AM	PM	Strength	Mileage
Monday	5	off	40 minutes	5
Tuesday	5	15 x 200 @ 29-30 w/200 meter jog recovery		16
Wednesday	14	off	40 minutes	14
Thursday	11	5+ drills and strides		16
Friday	6	10 x 500 meters (77-80 seconds) 100 meter jog recovery		16
Saturday	11	5	40 minutes	16
Sunday	18, push 14-18 @ 4:55-5:00	off		18
TOTAL				101

Less than 3 weeks to Bloomsday

Portland is on pace to have the wettest year since records started being kept in 1894. It has been a rough winter and spring, but the couple of days we've had with sun in April have felt incredible. I lucked out with both of my workouts this week with weather I haven't trained in since last year, and I definitely had an extra spring in my step. Some of it is mental, but it is physically much easier to run when it's not 40 degrees, windy, and putting your legs through an ice bath with heavy rain. Unfortunately there isn't much of a reason to be optimistic about the weather turning for the long run as we have had years where the rain doesn't stop until July. The trails have been a mess, but one positive note to running through war-torn Forest Park this year is that I'm putting a lot of miles in shoes that haven't worn much in the past. It's been fun to put the tread and fit to the test and still get some soft miles in. If you're looking for a new trail shoe, check out the Brooks Mazama and the Caldera. The Mazama really holds onto the ankle, is more firm, and built like a racing flat. The Caldera is great for longer runs as you have a more cushion under your foot and more surface contact for when you're running a bit slower.

We're edging closer to Bloomsday, and I am very excited to show something for my last several months of training. In spite of the setbacks, I am quite fit at the moment. I'm sure I'll still need a few more races under my belt to chip off the rest of the rust, but I hope to get that over the next couple of months. I'll also be spending the final 3 weeks of training getting a few fast workouts in as we've been mostly focused on strength since early March after my plantaris injury. I'll post those workouts next week.

This will be my first go at Bloomsday, so any course advice would be greatly appreciated! Comment on this blog, are find me on Twitter: @ryavail
Thanks again for reading, and feel free to check out last week's training below.

Weeks to go: 3	AM	PM	Strength	Mileage
Monday	9	off	40 minutes	9
Tuesday	11	5 + drills and strides		16
Wednesday	4 mile tempo @ 19:01, 3 x mile @ 4:38, 4:37, 4:34, rest = 1 min	4.5		18.5
Thursday	11	5	40 minutes	16
Friday	10	5+ drills and strides		15
Saturday	12 mile tempo @ 4:58 pace	off		18
Sunday	7.5	off	40 minutes	7.5
TOTAL				100

Less than 4 weeks to Bloomsday

It's been quite a while since I have posted my training, and I apologize for that. Following my disappointment in New York, I decided to take a short break, and the break kept extending itself as new challenges arose. I also felt that I was continuing to toot my own horn when it came to workouts without producing race results. I'll give a very brief rundown of the last several months, and then give a recap of my most recent training.

NYC was several months ago, but I think it's important to note that no injury occurred. I simply had a bad day. Bad marathon days certainly happen, and I think one could argue this was my first truly bad day. The timing was rough after being hurt for so long. Training had been going well, and I was confident and ready. Fortunately that training has not gone to waste, and I continue to inch towards my best fitness. 

The next race was the US XC Champs, which I also had high hopes for, but disappointed myself once more. I don't know exaclty why, as my workouts for the 8 weeks leading up the race were strong by my standards. I can blame it on the fact that I hadn't finished a race in 18 months, or not going to altitude before, but either way, I didn't reach my expectations. I followed the US XC Champs with a few of the best workouts I have had in at least a couple of years and was excited heading into NACAC XC in Boca Raton, FL as well as Gate River in mid-March. Unfortunately, the week of NACAC, I suffered a small tear in my plantaris. I had originally thought I had damaged my achilles, but an ultrasound fortunately showed that was not the case. It still required 2 weeks in the pool, so there was a bit of a setback in fitness, but nothing overwhelming. I have been slowly building back up since then and am back to reasonable volume and training. I plan to start posting my training weekly again and look forward to a productive spring/summer. 

It seems that the plantaris injury was caused by wearing spikes during training after the long break from track workouts. Because of this I have decided to skip track this season and focus on the roads. I will be running the Bloomsday 12k on May 7th and look to follow this up with Peachtree on July 4th. I will likely select something between these races as well as something in the early fall. This will hopefully put me in position to have several months of 100+ mile weeks under my belt before building up for an early fall marathon. 

I truly appreciate all the support this last year and a half, and I am extremely anxious to turn all my training from the last half year into race results. Thanks for reading, and I'm looking forward to re-engaging with my blog!

Weeks to go: 4	AM	PM	Strength	Mileage
Monday	6 + drills and strides	1 hour aqua jog		6
Tuesday	Fartlek: (5 min, 4, 3)(4, 3, 2)(3, 2, 1) w/half recovery	5	40 minutes	17
Wednesday	14	off		14
Thursday	10 + drills and 150 meter strides	5	40 minutes	15
Friday	10	5		15
Saturday	3 miles, 2 miles, 1 miles (4:46 pace, 4:42, 4:39), rest = 3 min, 2 min	5	40 minutes	16
Sunday	18	off		18
TOTAL				101

1 day to the TCS New York City Marathon: Last week's training

Tomorrow is the day I've been working toward since I was able to start running again in April. It's been a very trying year, but I now have 7 healthy months of training under my belt, and I can safely say that the injury cycle has been broken, and I am back on track for a great marathon tomorrow and a healthy 2017.

In past marathons I have been able to check all the boxes I thought I needed to build my confidence going into a race. I was able to say I hit workouts as fast as I was aiming for, I stuck to my nutrition plan, completed all the supplemental training, and ran all the high mileage weeks. This time around I can check every box except the last one, and it has been an exercise in confidence. I had to be extremely careful these last 12 weeks which led me into the pool every time I felt tightness that I was uncomfortable with. I was most likely overreacting each time, but it is extremely difficult to catch a stress fracture before it's too late. Whether it was an overreaction or not doesn't really matter. My marathon specific workouts have been on par or at times surpassed any of my training blocks in the past, and I'm showing up to the line healthy. When starting this marathon segment months ago, I had convinced my self that I would only be able to get to an 80 or 90% fitness level without getting hurt. I am hoping now that I am actually closer to 100% and heading into race day feeling fresh.

The curse is broken! It's time to let the training (especially the countless hours of horrendously boring aquajogging) pay off. The field is obviously very competitive, and the American field is deep. New York is always a surprise in terms of how fast it starts, where moves are made, and who is having a good or bad day. I plan to stick my nose in the thick of it and be ready to adapt at any moment.

Thank you to the New York Road Runners for giving me the platform to continue my career among some of the best competition in the world, on the greatest marathon stage in the world. Thank you also to Brooks for sticking with me through this rough patch and committing to me well beyond 2016!

Weeks to go: 2	AM	PM	Strength	Mileage
Monday	90 minutes aqua jogging	off	1 hour	0
Tuesday	11.5	5.5 + drills and strides		17
Wednesday	4 x 2 miles w/2 min rest @ 4:41-4:45	off		15
Thursday	11	5		16
Friday	1 hour aqua jogging	off	30 minutes	0
Saturday	10	5		15
Sunday	15 easy	off	30 minutes	15
TOTAL				78
Weeks to go: 1	AM	PM	Strength	Mileage
Monday	70 minutes aqua jogging	40 minutes elliptical	30 minutes	0
Tuesday	5 x 1km @ 2:54-2:57 w/1 min rest	5		16
Wednesday	off travel to NYC	off		0
Thursday	1 hour easy	off		9
Friday	50 minutes easy + drills and strides	off		8
Saturday	30 minutes easy	off		4
Sunday	NYC Marathon	off