10 weeks out from the ING New York City Marathon: Last week's training

Below is the past week of training with 10 weeks to go to the NYC Marathon. After finishing the long term training calendar with my coach, we decided to put in a down week just before an increase in volume. While the week total was only 110, that included a planned day off, so the daily volume was still quite high. The next week will be a 150 mile week, so the day off was appreciated. I am now two days into the 150 mile week, and I will post that after my long run on Sunday. I am pleased with how my body has handled the training thus far, although the toughest is yet to come. I am hitting times now in workouts that I was hitting toward the end of my fall marathon training last year, so I feel that my steady progression is continuing.

I was particularly pleased with my 8 x mile workout listed below. I did the workout on pavement with a net uphill, and I had to jog the 2 minute rest in order to get back to the start line. So while the times are not incredibly fast, it was a great strength workout. The week was a great combo of faster miles followed by a long tempo closer to race pace. With the jump in volume this week I will make sure to pay close attention to my body and do what is necessary to stay healthy. That includes all the basics: icing, massage, STEM, not pushing recovery runs, nutrition, etc. The weather in Portland has been incredible for training, so I hope it keeps up! Thanks for reading, and I look forward to posting again next week.

Week 4	AM	PM	Strength/Drills	Mileage
Monday	13 miles + drills and grass strides	6		19
Tuesday	15	6	1 hour	21
Wednesday	8 x mile with 2 minute jog rest, started 4:47 & finished 4:30	off		15
Thursday	11.5	5.5	1 hour	17
Friday	8 x 200 meter hills following 1 hour run	5.5		17
Saturday	Planned day off		30 minutes core	0
Sunday	15 mile tempo @4:59 (6 mile warm-up/cool down)	off		21
TOTAL				110

ING New York City Marathon: 11 weeks

With 11 weeks left until the ING New York City Marathon, the mileage is starting to ramp up. I'm feeling good after a solid 3 weeks at 120, 125, and 135, and I'm ready to start pushing it a little further. I will be aiming in the 145 to 150 range for this next week. Hopefully within the next couple of days I will have a half-marathon tune-up picked out. It will either be September 15th or October 6th depending on which Dave Smith and I decide will be more beneficial for my marathon preparations. This will allow us to finalize the next 11 weeks of training. I will share this training blueprint once it's finished, but pieces will certainly be adjusted throughout the season based on how many body is holding up to the training. So far my body is fairing very well, and I continue to see Dr. John Howell at Portland Integrated Health and Sports Medicine for maintenance, mostly on my tight hamstrings. This last week was a step up in intensity, so I was pleased with how my body responded in both the mile repeats, and the broken up tempo/long run. This upcoming week will include mile repeats with longer rest at a significantly faster pace, so I'm looking forward to seeing what I can get down to during a week of very high mileage. I'm wrapping this up just in time to head down to P.A.C.E for some strength training in between runs. Thanks for reading, and I'll continue to post my weekly log from now until New York.

Week 3	AM	PM	Strength/Drills	Mileage
Monday	13 miles + drills and grass strides	6		19
Tuesday	10 x 1 mile starting @ 4:58 and working down to 4:42 w/1 min rest	5	1 hour	20
Wednesday	12.5	6		18.5
Thursday	12.5	6	1 hour	18.5
Friday	13 miles + drills and grass strides	5.5		18.5
Saturday	3 mile tempo @ 71.9s, 10 mile run @ 5:50, 3 mile tempo @70.9s + warm-up & cool down			22
Sunday	12.5	6	40 minutes core	18.5
				135

ING New York Marathon Prep

It's been a while since I've posted on this blog, but I intend to update it every week leading up to the ING New York Marathon this year. I took a short break after the USA Track Championships, and now I am building up my marathon training. Another 6th place finish at the US champs in the 10km, my sixth in a row, was a bit disappointing, but it was a very strong field. Coming off of another PR of 27:44 in the 10km puts me in a great spot heading into the fall marathon season.

Tomorrow will be 12 weeks out from New York, and I've been training for 5 weeks since my break at the end of the track season. I have been doing light workouts for the last two weeks in preparation for a solid 12 week block heading into November. Right now the goal is patience. I felt pretty wiped after an 18 week buildup leading up to the Fukuoka Marathon in December due to the cancellation of New York, so I have been very conservative for the last 5 weeks. I have increased the intensity of my strength training a bit by going to P.A.C.E. twice a week and working with local trainer Sean Coster. I am easing into it, but it can be quite taxing. As workouts and volume increase, the emphasis on this strength work will naturally decrease.

I plan on sharing my weekly training from now until New York. I am doing this for several reasons. First, not many people share their detailed training over long periods of time. Getting a peak at a week of training is only marginally helpful. My coach, Dave Smith, and I are still very much students of the marathon, so I know I would be interested in the marathon build-ups of other athletes. I also see this as an opportunity for feedback, discourse, and discussion. Everyone approaches marathon training a little differently, and I look forward to showing the simple, straightforward approach that Dave uses for all his athletes at any distance. I imagine some will find it fairly conservative, but it has kept me healthy and progressing for 9 straight years. I have achieved a PB in each of the 9 years under Dave. I have not made any huge jumps, but as long as I continue heading in this direction, there is no reason to change what's working.

Below are my last 2 weeks of training. The first 3 weeks consisted of nothing but jogging and strides with volumes at 85 miles, 100 miles, and 115 miles.

Week 1	AM	PM	Strength/Drills	Mileage
Monday	12 + drills and grass strides	6		18
Tuesday	4 mile tempo @ 19:20	5	1 hour	17
Wednesday	11.5	5.5		17
Thursday	15		1 hour	15
Friday	15 x 200 @ 30-32, 200 jog recovery	7		17
Saturday	11.5	5.5	40 minutes core	17
Sunday	10 mile tempo @ 5:10			19
				120
Week 2	AM	PM	Strength/Drills	Mileage
Monday	13 miles + drills and grass strides	5		18
Tuesday	13	5	1 hour	18
Wednesday	15 x 200 @ 30-32, 200 jog recovery	5		18
Thursday	15		1 hour	15
Friday	13	5	30 minutes core	18
Saturday	Tempo Session: 3 mile (72s), 2 mile (71s), 1 mile (70s) on track	5		18
Sunday	Long Run			20
				125

For more on my goals at NYC check out this interview by Flotrack: http://www.flotrack.org/speaker/569-Ryan-Vail

More to come next week. Enjoy the World Championships!

First Silver Medal since 1984…

What a day. It’s difficult to describe the excitement that I am still feeling as I write this. The men beat Kenya and brought home the first silver team medal from the IAAF World Championships since 1984. The team had high hopes going into Sunday’s race, but none of us thought we were going to pull off second. I can’t say enough about the group of guys that I had the privilege of racing with. We did it with a group of six that were genuinely excited about cross country and absolutely wanted to be there. We were missing some big names from US distance running, which makes it all the more satisfying to accomplish what we did with a group of tough, gritty, cross country guys.

If you haven’t seen the course, take a look at the tour on letsrun.com.  It was brutal. Parts of it were packed snow and ice, other parts thick and deep mud, endless turns, jumps, and a beast of a hill. This was 6 x 2,000 meter loops, so each element was repeated every time around. The footing was extremely challenging, and a high percentage of runners went to the ground. The 5 days leading up to the race were full of talk about how these conditions would play into our hands.  All of this made the plan quite simple from the perspective of my coach (Dave Smith) and I; stay on your feet for the first two laps, and then start to race. I went out somewhere around 50^th place, which is already as aggressive as I have ever gone out at the World Championships, but still far enough back to feel strong and in control early. Bobby Mack and I were able to work together and gradually move through the field each loop. After 4 laps, coaches Dave Smith, Robert Gary, and Jerry Schumacher were screaming at us that we had a shot at a medal. This was both encouraging and terrifying. I was in a scoring position and knew that I could not afford to lose any ground. Fortunately Bobby and I were able to continue moving up. Looking back, I’m glad nobody realized that we were in contention for silver, because this might have been too much to handle. I realize that on a harder and faster course, the odds of us taking silver are small, but we went into the race understanding that the conditions were going to give us a unique opportunity and we capitalized on it. I had the best race of my four world championship events, and it couldn’t have come at a better time. We had strong finishes all the way through our 6^th runner. It was pure business with this group (until it was time to celebrate that is).

The atmosphere in Bydgoszcz was electrifying. I am absolutely certain that the music being blasted before the start and during the race was straight from the Pirates of the Caribbean soundtrack. The coaches and USATF staff started out the first few laps with words of encouragement and practical advice, but during the last two laps they were running nearly as hard as we were to get to different parts of the course and yell us on. The support was truly appreciated. I’d also like to thank Robert Johnson and Weldon Johnson from Letsrun.com for flying all the way out to Poland and using the week leading up to the race to get people excited about cross country through their website. Their coverage and enthusiasm were definitely felt.  They were in the tunnel with us when we were told that we had beaten Kenya, and they looked just as excited as we did.

No matter what the rest of my career brings, this will undoubtedly be one of the best memories I will have as a runner. I can’t wait to try out for the 2015 team heading to China.

BTROTMF

Gate River Run and IAAF World XC Championships

It was another great year in Jacksonville, FL for the USA 15km Championship at the Gate River Run. As always the race had a deep American field and was very well organized. The elite athlete coordinator, Richard Fannin, is extremely motivated when it comes to recruiting and has put together a seamless race experience for the 3 years I have participated.  As always, I feel like I could have raced a bit differently, but overall I am pleased with the result. The spring turned out to be a fairly full plate of racing, so it was important to me to not drop my mileage too much heading into Gate River. I have found that I can race well off of high volume, and I have also found that I have been able to race better later in the season by maintaining a higher volume early on, rather than constantly moving up and down. I did feel a bit flat during the race. We were not running terribly fast from 5k to 10k (mid 4:40s), and it did not feel as smooth as it should have. I consider myself a strong hill runner, so I am fortunate that this race finishes with a bear of a hill over the final bridge. This allowed me to pull myself into the lead pack and put me in a position to kick with the leaders. I came up short against two great distances runners in Ben True and Bobby Curtis, but was happy to be in contention considering how poorly I was feeling midway through. I am confident I will feel stronger in Poland for the World XC Championships as I allow myself to recover and rest.

Rather than flying all the way back to Portland from Florida before flying to Europe, I decided to head straight from Jacksonville. Having the World Championships in Poland turned out to be quite convenient as my wife's family lives relatively close in the Czech Republic. My wife met me in Czech, and we'll be staying with her family until the race. This will allow me plenty of time to get over the fatigue from traveling and the time change, and allow my wife and I to spend a month with her side of the family. The Czech Republic is a fantastic place to train, eat, and rest...my only responsibilities over the next couple of weeks.

It's difficult to explain my excitement for the World Cross Country Championships. First, I truly miss the camaraderie of being on an NCAA cross country team at Oklahoma State. After finishing college, there are very few chances to be involved in a race where your individual performance is overshadowed by the goals of the team. Rather than racing for individual glory or money, you are simply trying to perform your role for the greater good of group. Second, it provides a rare opportunity to represent the United States in international competition. No matter the level of athlete, these opportunities do not come often. For most athletes, running in Poland means sacrificing other opportunities, but for me the choice was easy. It will be a privilege to compete against the best XC runners from all over the world. The history of the IAAF World Cross Country Championships is riddled with incredible performances from the most impressive distance runners to ever grace the sport. This year will be no different. Everything will be decided on one day, in one place, over one 12km course, with many of the world's best distance runners. I can't wait. 

IAAF World Cross Country Championships

The USATF Cross Country Championships in St. Louis turned out to be a positive experience for me. With only 6 weeks of training after my break following the Fukuoka Marathon, I wasn't sure where I was in terms of fitness. My coach, Dave Smith, had me doing fairly high volume workouts to rebuild a base for the Spring/Summer. With this in mind, I was pleased with my performance over the 12km course in St. Louis. While I would have liked to hold on to the 4th place position I was in down the home stretch, it's hard to be too disappointed to be within one second of three other great XC runners.

I am thrilled to be heading to Poland on my 4th World XC team for the March 24th race.  It is truly the most exciting race I have ever run in, so I cannot pass up the opportunity to do it again. I have had some success at the IAAF World Championships in the past, but I am confident this will be my best race yet. I am also excited about the team that I will be joining. It will be by far the most talented team I have been a part of; team USA will be well represented.

My decision to run the World Championships has also given me the opportunity to run the USATF 15km Championship at the Gate River Run in Jacksonville. This will be my third appearance, and as always the field is loaded. Keep an eye on this race on March 9th; it's going to be fast.

Until then, my workouts will slowly begin to increase in intensity as I begin to sharpen up for the spring season. I'll be heading to the Czech Republic straight from Jacksonville to prepare for the XC World Championships, and will stay for another two weeks to take advantage of the fantastic running.  

Fukuoka and 2013

It's been almost a month since the Fukuoka Marathon, and I'm finally settling back into the grind.  Immediately after the race, I flew down to Ho Chi Minh City to meet my wife for some down time. Due to the cancellation of New York, I ended up with an 18 week marathon training block, so the break was welcomed. We explored Vietnam and Cambodia for three weeks, the first two of which I did not run a step. Our final week included waking up just as the sun was coming up to avoid the suffocating heat while still being able to see (not unlike Stillwater, OK in the summer!).  I'm now back in chilly Portland in the middle of my 3rd week of training and building the volume back up.

Let's jump back a month and allow me to share a few thoughts on the race in Japan. My previous blog discussed my approach for the 4 weeks in between the cancelled NYC Marathon and Fukuoka, and I think my coach and I planned it the best we could. Had I been able to race during my first peek, I would like to believe I could have run faster, but I cannot complain with a personal best of a minute given the circumstances. I had another positive experience in the marathon, and I am again looking forward to the next.  
The race itself was quite interesting. The small field of around 400 people made it feel much more like the Olympic Trials than..let's say...New York. About half of those 400 started on the track, and we did 3 laps around before heading out onto the road to meet the other half. We also finished on the same track with 500 meters. The crowds were fantastic and screaming everyone's name individually (first and last). Andrew Lemoncello, Scott Overall, and myself were fortunate enough to have Reid Coolsaet as rabbit. Reid made it through 30km with me even though he was only supposed to go through 20. At 30km he told me he was going to try to break 2:10.  At 31km he was stopped off to the side and cheering me on :) The final 10km were into the wind, and alone, but I had plenty of guys in front of me to pick off for the final few miles. My calves were also giving me trouble the last 10km. At each step they began to grab, as though they were both on the verge of locking up. Fortunately they never got to the point of a debilitating cramp, but it was an added challenge to an already tough last 6 miles. I will look at adjusting my fluids slightly and putting more miles in my racing flats during training before my 3rd marathon. I didn't secure the final podium spot until about 150 meters to go on the track. The podium finished earned me some prize money and a Japanese plate, which I managed to transport around Vietnam and Cambodia without breaking it. 

I am now in the process of sorting out schedule for the spring. I plan on giving the track another go before I commit myself fully to the marathon. While I do plan on running a marathon in the fall, I'd like to push myself a little faster in the 10km on the track and attempt to qualify for the IAAF World Championships in Moscow this summer. First, however, I'll be jumping into the USATF Cross Country Championships on February 2nd. My fitness will not be top notch, but it will be a solid early season test. More on that and the upcoming spring racing schedule next week. It's great to be back in Portland and back into the daily grind.