2 Weeks to the London Marathon: Last Week's Training

It's just about time to hop the pond with the Virgin Money London Marathon less than 2 weeks away. I'll be heading to Prague first, and my wife will meet me there later. I'll get to spend a week there before heading to London, so it will be the perfect way to recover from the flight, adjust to the time difference, and relax before the race. Having a home base in the center of Europe makes racing in Europe much easier and more enjoyable. I don't particularly enjoy staying in a hotel for a long period of time before the race. I don't like eating out 3 times a day, and I don't enjoy being stuck in one room trying to rest and hold off the temptation to explore the city. Since I used to live in Prague, I know the city and will be able to cook my own food and train in familiar locations.

This last week of training went pretty well, although the Thursday workout was not what I was hoping for. Portland had a horrendous couple days of downpour, even breaking the rainfall record on Friday with over 1.6 inches. It didn't just rain a lot, but it was also cold. I won't be getting much sympathy regarding the weather from those in the midwest or northeast, but that kind of cold dump makes it feel like you're doing a workout in an ice bath. It doesn't matter what you wear, the water gets through, and it gets through fast. The workout got progressively slower as the weather worsened and my legs and arms became more numb. It wasn't a positive workout, but I knew it was weather related, and I didn't lose any sleep over it. I bounced back for a solid day on Sunday. It was only 6 miles of hard work, but I felt very smooth running in the 4:41 to 4:43 range. There is only one workout left on the docket before the full rest period takes over. The work is done; now it's time to get to the line on April 13th feeling fresh. Feel free to check out the week's training below and follow me here on twitter for more updates. Also, tomorrow (April 2nd), I'll be at Kinetic Integration doing a Q&A session at 7:00 PM for their athlete chat series for those of you in the Portland area. Thanks again for reading. The next post will be heading to the web from the Czech Republic.

Week 12	AM	PM	Strength/Drills	Mileage
Monday	12	5	40 minutes	17
Tuesday	1 hour run + 8 x 200 meter hills	5		18
Wednesday	12	6	40 minutes	18
Thursday	4 miles (4 min rest), 2 x 2 miles (2 min rest) @ 4:50	5		19
Friday	5.5	off		5.5
Saturday	14.5	off	30 minutes	14.5
Sunday	3 mile w/u, 3 mile, 2 mile, 1 mile tempo @ 4:41-4:43, 1 hour run easy	off		18
TOTAL				110

3 Weeks to London: Last Week's Training

There are less than 3 weeks left until the Virgin Money London Marathon, and the hardest work is in the bank. I've still got a few more tough workouts left, but with the volume easing down, my legs are slowly starting to freshen up. The marathon taper process is always tricky because you don't get to practice it often enough. Obviously there is no single way to taper; people have run very fast with drastically different approaches to the taper. Some drop their mileage to a mere fraction of their peak from the training block, and others prefer just a slight drop in mileage the couple of weeks before the race. This has been written on extensively, so I'm not claiming to have any new information on the process. I basically try to shoot for the middle ground. I will spend the last 4 weeks of training easing the mileage down a little bit each week until I land at somewhere around 80 miles for the last week. 80 miles may sound like a lot the week of the race, but this counts the marathon day, which easily adds up to 28 or 29 miles. That doesn't leave much for the rest of the week. Coming down from 150 miles, that week feels very mild. At this point, most of my dropped mileage is coming by shortening or eliminating the second run while maintaining a decent primary run for the day.

This last week consisted of tempo work on Thursday and a 22 mile long run on Sunday. The Thursday workout added up to 19 miles (3 mile warm up, 4 mile tempo, 5 mile moderate run, 3 mile tempo, short cool down). The tempo runs were on the track at a decent pace (18:57 for 4 miles and 14:07 for 3 miles), and my 5 miles between the reps was in the 5:30s. I came back with a smooth long run on Sunday. The weather finally held out for us on Sauvie Island, and I felt the best I have during the entire training block. I wasn't supposed to push it much during the run other than a 3 mile push from 16 - 19, but running in the mid 5:30s felt like a breeze. We ended up at 2:03:40 for 22 miles including a pretty slow first few warm-up miles. The time itself isn't impressive, but I was happy to feel so relaxed doing it. Feel free to check out the entire week below, and follow me here on twitter more updates. Thanks again for reading.

Week 11	AM	PM	Strength/Drills	Mileage
Monday	9	5	40 minutes	14
Tuesday	14	6 + drills and grass strides		20
Wednesday	14	6	40 minutes	20
Thursday	4 mile tempo @ 18:57, 5 mile run in 5:30-5:40, 3 mile tempo @ 14:07	off		19
Friday	11.5	5.5	30 minutes	17
Saturday	13 miles + drills and grass strides	off		13
Sunday	22 miles in 2:03:40 with 3 mile push from 16-19 (4:57, 4:56, 4:54)	off		22
TOTAL				125

4 Weeks to London: Last Week's Training

The London Marathon is coming quickly, and it's time to start slowly easing off the training over the next 4 weeks. It has been a challenging and exhausting past couple weeks, but each week will get a bit easier from now until April 13th. This last week was finished off with a 16 mile tempo run on Sunday in which I crept just under 5:00 for the average. The pace was far from consistent due to the high winds. My splits ranged from 4:50 to 5:15 depending on the direction I was heading. My goal was to maintain a constant effort through the entire workout, and I tried not to focus on the frustratingly erratic times. I think the effort was right, and I was pleased with how my body felt after a tough Thursday workout and another high mileage week.

I am still waiting to hear the final details of the pacing in London, but it is time to start specifying my plan for the race. I'll be having a conversation with my coach, Dave Smith,  in the near future, and we'll start hammering out a plan of attack. It is challenging to determine your level of fitness while planning for a marathon because you can't get close to the race in training, and there are so many variables during the race itself. I have a much easier time guessing how fast I'm going to run in the 10km for example. At this point I am working more on comparisons; the build-up has been a similar structure to my previous marathons, and the workouts and easy days have gone better during this training bloc than they have in the past. That is the only thing I can say with certainty.

As each week passes I expect to be feeling more energized and recovered, and I like to focus my extra energy on all the necessary details. I'll be ordering all the shoes and gear from Brooks not only for London, but for the entire 6 weeks that I'll be in Europe. I'll top up my supply of Powerbar gels and energy bars for the trip, and I'll put together my own breakfast for the morning of the race in London. I'm sure London will provide an excellent and nutritional breakfast on race day, but I have learned from my past international race experience to never leave that to chance. I'll be attending a couple of weddings after the race, one in the Czech Republic and one in Ukraine (depending on the developing situation), so I'm going to be packing for some diverse occasions. At least I'll have the formal wear to take on whatever London sends my way after the race.

Thanks again for reading. I'll be posting again next week, but feel free to follow me here on twitter for more updates.

Week 10	AM	PM	Strength/Drills	Mileage
Monday	14	6	40 minutes	20
Tuesday	14	6 + drills and grass strides		20
Wednesday	14	6	40 minutes	20
Thursday	1 hour moderate run, 6 x 2km (5:54-5:52)	off		18
Friday	12	5	30 minutes	17
Saturday	14	6 + drills and grass strides		20
Sunday	off	16 mile tempo (4:59)		21
TOTAL				136

5 Weeks to London: Last Week's Training

My last week of 150 miles is in the books, but there are still a few weeks of quality training left to go. I had two solid workouts this week that have given me a lot of confidence less than two weeks after the Gasparilla Half-Marathon. The first came Wednesday in the form of 4 x 2 miles on the track with two minutes rest. It was dumping rain (Portland got over an inch that day) and there was a decent wind, so I was happy to average a bit under my half-marathon personal best for those repeats. I came back with what was, for me, a monster workout on Sunday. It started with a 3 mile warm-up, 4 x 2km repeats on the track, a 10 mile run (56:45), and then another set of 4 x 2km repeats and a short cool down. Every 2km repeat was between 5:52 and 5:53, so not only a good pace for me, but very consistent. The consistent times can look deceiving, as though I was holding back on the second set. I wasn't. After the honestly paced 10 mile run in between, I was really struggling to hold the 70 second quarters for the last two reps. I could not have done another rep at that pace. The last 5 miles of intervals were miles 18 to 23 for me for that day, and they felt like an honest physical depiction of those miles on race day. I can't handle many workouts of this quality through my build  up, but 5 weeks out was the right time for this one. I'll start bringing the volume down slightly each week from here on out, but next week will still be close to the 140 mile range.

After that 4 x 2 mile workout on Wednesday, I did begin to feel some lower leg pain in both legs, but especially in my right. I haven't been able to quite shake it yet, so this week I'll be skipping any drills, strides, 200s, etc., until it starts to feel back to normal. If I have to take a day or two off I will, but I'm not at that point. I'm being proactive with ice, ibueprofen, light massage, and compression. I'll be seeing Dr. John Howell down at Portland Integrated Health today to help make sure it disappears in the near future. Hopefully these small adjustments will take care of it, and I can wipe it from my mind in the next couple of days. This is all a part of marathon training, and so far I've been able to adapt and back off enough to not encounter anything debilitating.

We're nearly inside the one month mark to the Virgin Money London Marathon! Big thanks to Starting Line Designs for the cool new artwork for the header. If you'd like, check out the training log for last week below. Thanks again for reading, and follow me here for training updates.

Week 9	AM	PM	Strength/Drills	Mileage
Monday	7	14	40 minutes	21
Tuesday	15	6 + drills and grass strides		21
Wednesday	6	4 x 2 miles in 9:29, 9:27, 9:23, 9:22 w/ 2 minutes rest	40 minutes	21
Thursday	11	10		21
Friday	15	30 minutes + 8 x 200 meter hills		22
Saturday	5	14	30 minutes	19
Sunday	off	4x2km, 10 mile run in 56:45, 4x2km + w/u & c/d (2km repeats all at 5:52-5:53)		25
TOTAL				150

6 Weeks to London: Last Week's Training

We're one week closer to the London Marathon, and we're one week closer to moving the clocks forward an hour. I doubt I'm the only one who's been counting down the days until the extra daylight and hopefully warmer weather. I can almost smell the dry pine needles on the trail floor and the smoke from the charcoal barbecue...almost.

Sunday's long run was a challenge due to the weather. It was just barely above freezing, but windy and very heavy rains for the duration of the run. At that point snow is almost preferable, because the rain is so cold when it is 33 degrees it eventually feels like an ice bath, matter what gear you're wearing. If it's coming down hard enough and long enough, it soaks through your tights and really starts to limit mobility. My legs felt good going into the run, suggesting that I am recovered from the half-marathon the weekend before. I was able to run a good portion of the run with neighbors Jared Bassett and Craig Hopkins, so it was good to have some company. We started out fairly slow for the first few miles as we warmed up, but I ended up averaging in the 5:30s once we got going. It'll be nice to see how easy that pace feels on a nice day.

The week was very light in terms of intensity, but I kept the volume high, and pushed the pace on the non-workout days. I'll be getting back into a normal workout routine this week with 6 weeks of training left to go. There will be no more sessions of faster mile repeats for the rest of the training block. Workouts will consist mostly of threshold/tempo efforts over the next month. I'm only a couple more high mileage weeks away from starting a slow, gradual taper. Time is flying by. Thanks again for reading, and I'll post again next week. Follow me here on twitter to get training updates.

Week 8	AM	PM	Strength/Drills	Mileage
Monday	4.5	12.5	30 minutes	17
Tuesday	14	6 + drills and grass strides		20
Wednesday	14	6	40 minutes	20
Thursday	70 minute run + 8x200 meter hills + drills	6		20
Friday	14.5	6.5		21
Saturday	14	6	40 minutes	20
Sunday	22 mile long run in 2:06			22
TOTAL				140

7 Weeks to London: Last Week's Training and Gasparilla

It felt good to get back out and race at the Gasparilla Half-Marathon. My last race was the NYC Marathon in November, and that already feels like a long time ago. I wanted to get the nerves going and put myself into that racing mentality once before toeing the line in London in April. It also forced me to take a few easy days during the middle of a long 14 week training bloc.

The Gasparilla race organizers did a tremendous job. It was the first time the race has offered elite prize money in many years, but with a very experienced group leading the way, every aspect of the weekend went without a hiccup. The course could definitely be fast under different weather conditions, but warmth is a risk you run in Florida. I don't know the exact temperature at the start of the race, but I know they made an announcement at 5:00 AM that it was 69 degrees with 95% humidity, so by the 6:00 AM start rolled around I imagine it was in the low 70s. Racing at 6:00 AM made the experience interesting as a good portion of the race was in the dark. Coming from the Pacific time zone, I was essentially waking up at 12:30 AM my body time for the race, with the gun going off at 3:00 AM my body time. That is a normal part of road racing and traveling. Fortunately I was tired enough after the race to go to bed at 8:00 that evening so I could wake up at 4:15 for a short run before heading to the airport. I was assuming I'd have the Bayshore jogging path to myself at that time, but I was wrong. Tampanians get it done!

The majority of the athletes were concerned about the warm conditions and went out conservatively. Jeffrey Eggleston and Abdi Abdirahman set their own pace and put 20 to 25 seconds on the field in the first couple of miles. For a while we had a chase pack that included Bobby Curtis, Fernando Cabada, and Carlos Trujillo. Eventually it was Bobby Curtis and I chasing down the leaders after some footwear trouble for Cabada. They had aid stations every mile, and I tried to either drink or dump water on myself at every single aid station to help keep my temperature down. At mile 9 I felt comfortable pushing the pace, having confidence that I could go for 4 miles without burning myself up. After catching Eggleston around mile 11, I was in striking distance of Abdi, and got to him with about 2km to go. I wanted to make a decisive move by him, but I had a great deal of trouble shaking him until the last couple minutes of the race. Winning the race is a real confidence booster for my last 7 weeks of training before London. The overall time was slow, but given the conditions I am happy that I could close down the last 4 miles, really pushing the last mile. Because the first 9 miles were only slightly faster than marathon pace, my legs should recover much quicker than after a maxed out half-marathon. The effort was still very high, but the temperatures did not allow myself to the thrash my  legs as badly as I could have. With that said, my legs do feel pretty beat up as I type this right now. A good portion of that could be the long travel back from Florida, so hopefully I'll bounce back quickly. I've put my morning run off for long enough now, so thanks again for reading. My weekly log is below, and follow me here on twitter for more training updates. 

Week 7	AM	PM	Strength/Drills	Mileage
Monday	14	6		20
Tuesday	14	6 + drills and grass strides	30 minutes	20
Wednesday	5.5	10 x 1 km 2:56-2:57 w/ 1 min recovery		19
Thursday	11	5	30 minutes	16
Friday		10		10
Saturday	6 + drills and strides	off		6
Sunday	Race Gasparilla Half-Marathon			20
TOTAL				111

8 Weeks to London: Last Week's Training

With the Gasparilla Half-Marathon less than a week away, it is time to test my fitness half-way through my training block for the London Marathon. The competition looks great, and I'm looking forward to escaping the rain for a few days. Last week's training was a bit up and down due to the snow and indoor training situation. I returned to Portland from Seattle on Tuesday evening, and the roads had cleared up enough here by Wednesday to get back into my normal routine. The 6 x mile session on Wednesday did not go as smoothly as I had hoped. I have been doing my mile repeats on a hilly, paved loop, but this park was covered in downed limbs from the storm, so I went to the track. I was hoping this would mean I could really cut down the last few reps and get after it, but my legs were quite sluggish and I struggled each rep to drop the time by a couple of seconds. I think the indoor running, followed immediately by a taxing 24 mile run Sunday put me into a bit of a hole that was reflected by this workout. I dropped the volume slightly over the next couple of days and skipped a strength session in order to recover, and by Sunday I was feeling great. I was particularly pleased with my Sunday workout which included two shorter tempos on both sides of a 10 mile run. It was very windy, so my ability to hit those times has given me some confidence heading into next week.

The weekly volume was planned at 140-150, but it ended up just under this range after the midweek adjustments. That is a part of marathon training. You have to be ready to make adjustments to the training calendar on the fly depending on weather, injury, tiredness, etc. When speaking with newer runners in particular, this is where they tend to struggle. There are many training templates available for free and for purchase on some coaching websites that put all runners, but especially beginners, at a big disadvantage during a marathon build-up. It's nice to get a basic idea of how to formulate a block of training, but without the guidance of an experienced coach the whole way through, the templates are not particularly helpful. My coach, Dave Smith, has always been open about his training plans because he knows this is not where the real skill lies. The challenge is to adapt on the go, control the pace in certain types of workouts (no matter how good the runner is feeling), and know when it's time to hammer. After almost 10 years of working with Dave, I still rely heavily on his guidance in these areas.

Overall, the training is progressing as I had hoped, and I'm looking forward to putting on a jersey and testing my fitness a bit in Tampa on the 23rd. I'm going to keep the volume relatively high this week as to not peak 7 weeks out from London. I'll still have time for one big volume push after this race. Thanks again for reading, and I'll post following the race. To get training updates, follow me here on twitter.

Week 6	AM	PM	Strength/Drills	Mileage
Monday	14	6	40 minutes	20
Tuesday	14 + drills and 8 x 200 meters on track	6		20
Wednesday	6	6 x mile starting in 4:38 working down to 4:28		20
Thursday	12	7		19
Friday	10	6		16
Saturday	14	6	40 minutes	20
Sunday		3 mile w/u, 4 mile tempo (19:01), 10 mile run in 58:35, 3 mile tempo 14:14		22
TOTAL				137