It takes time. And patience. SO MUCH PATIENCE.

It's going to be somewhat of a downer post so bear with me:

If there's something I learned training for this marathon, it's that my aerobic endurance is quite low and I am not a "fast" runner by my definition. Of course, "fast" will always be a relative term to me: for some reason, I've always felt like the difference between a "fast," "average," and "just jogging" runner was sub-8 minutes per mile, 8-9:30/mi, and 9:30+/mi respectively. I have no idea where this notion came from... but according to my crazy mind, I've always just been... borderline.

During this training cycle, I've learned to accept, and even enjoy, "slowness"... for now. After adding intensity, though, I've come across a harsh reality. And look, I know that a lot of this is coming from the fact that I've never finished an actual marathon so I don't know exactly how hard it is and how it's going to feel at goal pace. Maybe the Berkeley Half knocked down my confidence a little and I need to actually race a half to get a better idea of where I'm at... but I know one certainty:

It takes time to become a fast runner. And a lot of effing consistency.

So, despite my sprinter mentality saying otherwise, I must remind myself that being "fast" is not what this marathon training cycle is about. It's been about building up my endurance and consistency. I may not be pulling out 8:00 paces on the regular but I am at least getting a feel for what it's going to take to get there.

In lieu of that, I am writing this because I have to be real with myself: adding in intensity (tempos and hill training) has been - well - it's hard for me to admit it but my joints don't seem to be taking it well. Man, I loved the feeling of a good hard hill workout. And I loooved tempo workouts. They felt good! But I could very well be on the way to injury if I keep trying to maintain the volume I built to during base building.

There is risk and reward with intensity... sigh, sigh, sigh...

I'll nix the hard workouts for a week and see how I feel next Saturday - maybe do a MAF test before then. Thank goodness I'll be traveling and enjoying life as it should be enjoyed in the meantime! Boston/New York, here we come!

Success, Friends, and Adjustments

Woohoo! Another successful training block! I've somehow managed to sustain 6 weeks of 50+ miles per week, feeling great. Some all-important stats from the past few months:

• MPW peak: 57.8
• Average MPW over last 6 weeks: 54
• Peak long run: 19 miles
• 5 long runs >= 16 miles
• 2 long runs >= 18 miles

Easing into intensity

I never realized how good 9:00-10:00 min/mile paces were for the body; those miles have worked wonders for me. Base building has been SO important to me as a runner and I feel stronger and more durable than I ever have before. However, despite my original plans as stated last month, I am choosing to move out of this phase. It felt like I was either getting bored or reaching a plateau... plus, I felt that in order to continually improve at low heart rate paces, I needed to increase my volume significantly from 8h30m per week to maybe 10h-11h per week. I wasn't sure I'd have that kind of time to commit, at least not for my first go at the marathon distance.

Of course, I'll need to re-assess as the weeks go by to see how my body responds to the new stimulus but hopefully the preparation will have been adequate! :)

So... last week was the first week I went under 50 miles per week (mpw) as I opted to soften my move into higher intensity training with a little extra cycling. With friends, cycling is BY FAR MY FAVORITE CROSS-TRAINING ACTIVITY. I wish I had the time and endurance to do more of it....

Hillzzz

My next training block of 4 weeks will be focused on adding hill workouts and 1 tempo type workout per week. My focus is building up leg strength for hill-climbing, maintaining endurance with long runs and mid-long runs, easing into better stamina with the tempo runs, and preventing injury by lots of icing, foam rolling, and tiger balming.

• Tempo Run: Right now, my guestimate for tempo pace is about 7:30-7:40/mile on the track and 7:40-7:45/mile on the (flat) roads. 
• Calculated from recent 5K pace (7:19)+20-25'' = 7:39-7:44
• Hills
• San Bruno: sustained hill workouts at high aerobic effort: 2.0mi uphill, active rest, 1.1 mi steep uphill, active rest, 1.1mi steep uphill at goal race effort
• week 1 and 4 (may forego week 4 to do the ninja loop run as my long run that week)
• Twin Peaks hill repeats: hard effort hill repeats on this circuit
• week 2 and 3
• Adding intensity to weekly long runs (on hills ONLY), everything else relaxed and slow.

A few notes on training intensities

• First 20 minute tempo run was done today at 7:30 min/mile pace. Felt goooood @ an average HR of 169 bpm. Comfortably hard is now my favorite workout type! :D
• I learned that, for some reason, my perceived exertion in running goes from "hard" to "easy" very easily. I have no metric for "moderate," which is why HR training has been so important. My HR<154 training paces have felt easy, but if I'm being brutally honest with myself, some of those days, especially the day after a 1h30m run... were actually "moderate." 
• I've also noticed that it takes me a good while to warm-up now. I used to bounce out fast right out of the gate and now I sometimes don't feel warmed up until about half an hour into a run. Interestingly, it feels like I need my warm-up to feel like the run is going well. Hopefully it's a sign that my leg muscles are changing at the cellular level. I mean, I really miss sprinter legs, but my hybrid endurance legs are pretty shweet too. And I still get to keep my glutes and calves. :P

2017 Training/Race Plans

BSIM Training Plan

After weeks and weeks of reading and research, I think I finally have a training strategy in place for Big Sur. There are a couple key components to my training plan:

• Run streak (feetstreak). Run at least one mile a day. Since December 1st, 2016, I have been running at least a mile a day and it was tiring at first but it's become habit now - and I enjoy it!
• Flexibility. I must honor my body and my time commitments - if things get in the way of what I have scheduled, don't stress about it! Be flexible!
• Avoid refined carbohydrates - as much as possible but not strictly.  This one is an obvious one but I don't want to be too strict about it. It would be too stressful to avoid refined carbs entirely. At least not at this point in my life where it's difficult to find time to make my own food!
• Focus on injury prevention and recovery. Be honest with myself and know when I need to take just a mile day or when I can push my running volume. Stretch. Strengthen. Foam roll. Sleep. Eat well!

The periodization of the training plan is rather simple:

1. [MAF] Dec - February (13-15 weeks): MAF intensity (HR <154, ideally <150) for all runs and bike rides
2. [Speedwork (Races)] March 10-25 (3 weeks): 3 races for speedwork
• March 13, 2017 | Reach for A Star 5K (Brisbane, CA) - Registration - proceeds benefit the Brisbane Elementary School District!
• March 18, 2017 | Folsom South Side Trail Run 21-mile (Folsom, CA) - Registration
• March 25, 2017 | Golden Gate Duathlon 5 mile run, 18 mile bike, 2 mile run (El Sobrante, CA) - Registration 
3. [Marathon specific workouts] March 30-April 16 (2 weeks): depending on how I feel, marathon-specific goal pace workouts + reduce volume for taper.
4. [Taper] April 17-29 (2 weeks): Taper @ MAF intensity!

Runstreak Details

The rules of my runstreak are as follows:

1) Run at least one mile every day, ideally two.
2) All forms of running/jogging count, including team sports such as basketball.
3) Hikes of  5 or more miles count as run/endurance activity for that day. Better if I can run a little bit of the way!

Why did I decide to do a runstreak?

1) Running is fun!
2) I wanted to increase my running efficiency by daily reinforcement of the neuromuscular patterns.
3) I wanted to make running a habit.
4) I wanted to build my weekly mileage.
5) If I ran every day since Dec 1, 2016 to the day before the marathon on 4/30/2017, I would have completed a 150 day runstreak (feetstreak). That's a pretty incredible feat! March 10th would be Day 100, on which I plan on blogging once more about the experience.

After BSIM

May 13, 2017 | Yosemite Half Marathon - taking 2 weeks off from running after the marathon then planning on running this half for fun!

May 2017 | Break + Rebuilding (+swimming)

June 2017 | Cycling and Trail Running! (easy running on the raods)

July 8, 2017 | Golden Gate Coastal Trail Marathon - if I'm feeling okay, then this trail run for fun!

July - August | Cycling and Trail Running! (easy running on the roads+swimming)

September, 25 2017 | Santa Cruz Triathlon (sprint or olympic)

October - December | Whate'er I feel like! (ease back into base-building)

January - March 2018 | Base-building!

My ultimate running mecca would be to run the 123rd Boston Marathon in 2019. Boston because duh. And the number 123 because I sort of feel like it's my "angel number." In college, I got that bib number 3 times in a row (old blog post) and, being a teeny bit superstitious, I took it as a sign that I should simplify my life. I took that mindset to heart in the years that followed. Simplification is a very powerful thing - just look at how "simply" running slower has changed my whole mindset and relationship to running and endurance sports. It would definitely give my whole running journey a cherry on top if I ran in the 123rd Boston Marathon. :) :) :)

Resources

[1] Big Book of Endurance Training, Philip Maffetone

[2] Racing Weight, Matt Fitzergald

[3] Healthy Intelligent Training, Keith Livingstone