Last Full Week of Training for Akron Marathon

The is my second consecutive 80 mile week. First time I've done that since pre-Boston. Seems from April until now I have been either recovering or tapering, with little time between races. The next two weeks will have lower mileage as I begin to taper.

The week started with a complete change of pace from my routine Monday recovery runs. Since it was a holiday, I ran a really pleasant 12 miler with my SERC buddies on the trails. That is an ideal way to start the week. (I need to take more Mondays off.) Tuesday's track workout was an abbreviated version, mostly because I was still feeling the effects of the race on Saturday. I did my usual warm-up miles and 6 x 100 stride-outs, but then decided to go with 800 repeats rather than 1600's. Although they were 1/2 miles, did not mean I ran them 1/2 as hard. The times were 2:33, 2:29, and a very painful and desperate 2:42.

On Wednesday, I ran an 8.5 mile route from work, through Independence, down the big hill into the valley on Rockside to the two path, south to Pleasant Valley, then up the big hill out of the valley.
On Thursday, I ran 14.5 miles between Alexander Road and Boston Store and back. It was a beautiful night, and I kept a good pace, probably around 7:30, but I did not have my Garmin so there are no stats. I enjoyed the unplanned on-course nutrition provided by swarms of little flying gnats. I swallowed a few dozen or more. That's only one of the benefits of being a mouth-breathing runner. Friday was an easy six miles. I did not even try to push, just running comfortably.

On Saturday, I had planned to do a 10 miler with 5 miles at faster than marathon pace, but an e-mail from a friend changed my plan. He asked if I would be able to pace for the Buckeye Half-Marathon on Sunday. I adjusted my plan and decided 13 miles at a little slower than marathon pace on Sunday would serve as 10 miles with five at faster than marathon pace on Saturday. Probably not actually equivalent, but I was trying to help out. So on Saturday, I ran trails with the Lock 29 group, about 12.5 miles. On Sunday morning, I met up with the Buckeye Half-marathon race director, got my pacing shirt and pretty yellow balloon, put in a few warm-up miles, and then headed to the starting line. I led the 1:35 pace group. It turned out to be a fun day. We had a good group, all of whom finished under 1:35. Here is a photo from around mile 6. Looks like I am about to take flight. And yes, I carried the balloon for the whole race.

Training Week Review - North Coast Challenge Race Report

With three weeks remaining until the Akron Marathon, I managed my best training week since pre-Boston this Spring. I started the week with a double on Monday, 6 miles at lunch and 6 miles in the evening, both at recovery pace. Track Tuesday was very encouraging. Instead of my usual 3 x 1 mile repeats, I alternated miles and half miles. They went like this:
- 1600 @ 5:27
- 800 @ 2:28
- 1600 @ 5:29
- 800 @ 2:39
Wednesday I ran a 9 miler at lunch in Independence. I found a new path, leading from the cemetery at Brecksville and Rockside down into the valley. I ran a 14 mile out and back on Thursday evening, on the tow path between Frazee House and the Boston store. I wasn't feeling quite right but I wasn't sure exactly why. I woke up Friday with a sore throat and no voice. I didn't feel as bad otherwise, so I did a 6 mile run at lunch. Saturday morning still with throat issues, I met-up with Barb and Glenn in Beachwood and we rode together to the North Coast Challenge in Westlake. (Thanks for driving, Barb!) With a couple of miles of warm-up and cool-down, plus the 5.75 after I got home from the race, the total for the day was 12.75. I ran with the SERC group on Sunday, 17.5 miles for a total of a little over 80 for the week.

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Race Report

The North Coast Challenge was not a typical local 5 mile race, this one draws a great field of runners, mostly because of the healthy purse for the winners. I checked the website and decided to register when I saw that they even had a nice little sum for the winning Grand Master, the over 50 year old runners category.
I shared a ride to Westlake with Barb and Glenn. We had some difficulty due to a series of detours for road construction, but we got there in time to get our race packs and run our warm-ups. It was a beautiful morning, sunny and mild, with very little wind. Perfect for a race.
The announcer called for us to gather at the start, so I made my way to the area marked for 6 minute pace runners. I was planning to go for sub-6 minute miles, barely. Based on what I had seen of the past Grand Masters times at this race, I thought that would be the minimum requirement to have a shot a winning. I spotted Lloyd from Vertical Runner as we mulled around anxiously in the starting area. He said he was going for a 5:55 pace, and I said I just wanted to be under 6. I noticed another familiar looking over-fifty runner, long brown and gray hair, salt and pepper stubbly beard. He had the obvious look of a very fast runner. I sensed that this was a guy I needed to keep an eye on. The starter counted us down, and we were off.
The race started with a straight, flat mile and a quarter, and the times reflected that. I hit the first marker at 5:50, and the field had not thinned much. I was surrounded by very fast runners. I was not feeling comfortable, but then again, running at that pace shouldn't be comfortable. Turns out I had judged the long-haired man correctly. He was about 10 yards ahead of me, and running strong. In the second mile, we made a 90 degree left turn, but otherwise, it was flat and fast as well. I kept my pace, passing the clock for the second mile at 11:46, a 5:56 mile, still about 10 yards from the long-haired man...and thinking about what to do.
The third mile wound through a park, still on a road, but slightly shady. I took the opportunity to run the tangents, and wondered why some runners seemed oblivious to this. Not long-haired man...he ran it smart. Despite this, I decided to close the gap. I pulled within a yard of him, but did not pass him. Part of this was strategy, and part was that he was keeping a pace close to my limit. I had decided back at the 2 mile mark that as long as he held on to a sub-6 minute mile pace, I would just try to hang with him, until the last half-mile. Then it would be decided by who had the better kick.
When we crossed the three mile marker, the clock said 17:44, a 5:58 pace for that mile. Still under six, so I stayed with the plan. The fourth mile was a complete change of terrain. We left the road, crossed a field, and hit a stretch of meandering trail through the woods. The soft surface and twisty turns were making it harder to keep the pace, but I kept right on you-know-who's shoulder. We came out of the woods and crossed the four mile marker at 23:43, just one second under the 6 minute pace, which was surprising considering the terrain. We turned right and within about a tenth of a mile, turned right again on to the broad five lane road we had run out on in the first mile.

Long-haired man was showing no signs of fading, so I knew it was up to me to find more speed. Before I realized what I was doing, I had increased the pace and passed him, right at the 3/4 mile to go marker. I knew immediately I had made a mistake. The plan was to wait until a half mile to go , but I had already made my move. Now, I had given him the advantage of tailing me in, and possibly making his move near the finish, where I would not have time to react. Within just a few seconds, I decided the only thing to do was to pick it up even further, to try to drop him back far enough that he had not chance to hang on. My legs were telling me they were down with this plan, but my lungs were raising objections. Still, I did take it up another notch.
The only other runner close to us was a fortyish looking guy who was about 30 yards ahead. Another thought. Catch and pass that guy, and put a body between me and long-hair man. There was a psychological edge to this, and the added benefit was the young guy would give me a target to help me keep pressing the pace.
I passed the younger guy near the half-mile to go marker. Unlike long-hair, this guy reacted immediately, and he had a kick. I heard his footfalls right on my heels. I was really struggling to hold on to this pace, and he was giving no room to falter. The familiar nausea was there, reminding me of what I was doing, reminding me of what was going to happen if I continued for much longer. I was trying hard to block it out, and I finally got some help. The 100 yards to go sign. I went into full sprint mode (or whatever I could find of that elusive top gear by this point), and focused on the finish. I saw the clock say 29:30 as I ran beneath it. Younger guy was three seconds behind me. Long-haired guy was 30 seconds back. I didn't see him cross. I was obeying the commands to double over and dry heave. After a minute, I got my breath back, straightened up, and walked it off. It is amazing how bad you can feel at the end of one of these short races, and how quickly you can recover. Within just a few minutes, I was talking and congratulating long-haired man, who I found out was Terry McCluskey. Oh yeah, the guy who was in the Running Times Masters of the Year article. That long-haired guy. I lost track of the younger guy, but eventually came across him and congratulated him on a great race, and a great finish. By the way, he was younger, but only by a couple of years. I completely missed my estimate. He was 50, a Grand Master. Rich Oldrieve. A well know local runner with a long and impressive resume that includes, per my friend Glen, a 2:26 marathon. Lucky for me I decided he was a guy I needed to kick-down in the last half-mile.
I ran a cool-down mile or so with Kam, then we hung around the park waiting for the awards presentation. Kam ran a great race, just missing the Masters prize money, finishing 20 seconds behind one of the Ethopian runners. (Ethopians took first through third in the Mens open division as well. And the first place woman was also Ethopian.) My friend Barb was second Grand Masters first in her age group*. I won the men's Grand Master award, $200, and got a nice little trophy as well. Not a bad way to spend a Saturday morning. Nope.

*Sorry Barb...I had it wrong. You definitely got 1st AG. I think it was a PR as well, right?

The Wasteland of Novempril

I need to get out of the wasteland of Novempril (November to April) where no races happen, the weather turns uglier and uglier, and training miles seem to have no point. Even finding a reason to blog is difficult. Its been a week since I last wrote, and I'll warn you now that I don't have much to say in this one, so I'll probably babble on about something trivial and uninteresting. In case I do, I have included possibly the cutest 'kitten playing' type video on the web ever, which you should feel free to view rather than actually reading my blog.

Are you back with me yet? (That kitten is so cute.) Here's what I 've run in the week since I last posted. We did a slightly mucky group run from Lock 29 on Saturday, 12 miles through the woods. It was a fun morning. The next day, I did what I thought was 12 miles in Solon with the SERC group, but it turned out to be only 11.5. Slacker. I'll make up for it thie weekend. Monday was my recovery run, althought I don't feel like I did enough over the weekend to actually need a recovery. Tuesday at the track was very bleak. It is now dark when I arrive. There was only one other runner there, Tim C., and although he had been there for a while, he stayed and ran 3.5 warm-up miles with me before departing. So there I was, all alone on a cold, dark track, wondering why I was about to put myself through another interval session. I could have blown it off, this being Novpril, and no one would know or care. Then I remembered some advice I had given to someone, years ago. Work hard when no one is watching. It was just enough motivation to get my head back into the speed work. I did 6 x 100 stride outs, followed by 6 x 800 intervals. In rereading Pfitzinger, I noticed that I had been running my intervals faster than he recommended. Based on my target marathon, I should probably be running at about a 6:05 to 6:10 minute mile pace, but I have been in the 5:50's, even 5:40's. So, I tried to rein it in just a little on these 800. My times were as follow: 2:55, 2:55, 2.59, 2:53, 3:03, 2:54. I did not back off as much as I should have, but I will keep at it. (If you have not dozed off yet, this might be a good time to replay the kitten video.)
On Wednesday at lunch I ran a familiar loop, going east down into the valley, then north on the towpath, then west on Hillside up out of the valley, then south on Brecksville Road, and east on Pleasant Valley. On Thursday, I started out the same way, but instead of turning at Hillside, I continued on the towpath to Rockside, then out of the valley and back, making for another 2.25 miles. It's a good run, one that I might be doing more often in the coming months.

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Good luck to the SERC's running the Richmond Marathon on Saturday: e-speed, Eileen M., Paul R., and Barb B.

Midweek update: Free Shoes (Yea!) and Speed Work

Last night, I reviewed the trail shoes on the Montrail website, and read reviews on various trail shoe websites. I selected the Montrail Streak. It is their lightest weight trail shoe, which works best for me, yet it still has all the traction control and additional protection of a traditional trail runner.Thank you Montrail, for sponsoring the Punxsutawney 50k and awarding free shoes to the winning team. I cannot wait to give these a tryout on the local trails. I already have a pair of Nike Humara trail shoes, but since Humaras are almost as unstructured as the Free (think bedroom slippers with a swoosh logo), they are not idea for the more rocky and rough trails, and they are very poor if your run happens to include some roads. I am hopeful that the Streaks will give me a good option in those conditions.

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In my previous post, I described our trail run Saturday, a mudfest with lots of hills to complete the package. Sunday morning, my legs were telling me to give them a rest already, but with Chicago looming n the 3 week horizon, I needed to do a minimum of 20 miles. I got out early and put in 7 miles before the SERC group started, then ran 12 with the group, and tagged on the last mile alone. I arrived back at home at about 5 minutes before 10:00 AM, which put the pressure on since I had to be showered and ready to leave the house by 10:00. (Sue and I drove to The Pub to watch a rare match televised on Setanta featuring the mighty Queens Park Rangers. The match was live from Loftus Road stadium in Sheperds Bush. It was great to see the place again. Of course, we dismantled the befuddled Saints, 4-1. We are now 5th in the table and looking very promising for promotion.)

On Monday, I did a 6 mile recovery run, and felt much better for it. Tuesday at the Track was back on track after a few weeks off. I warmed-up for 2.5 miles at a slow pace, did some stride-outs to prepare, and then ran three intervals of one mile each with a 400 yard recovery between. The first was 5 minutes 49 seconds, and the second and third were both 5 minutes 55 seconds. It felt good to get below 5:50, and I thank Steve Hawthorne who ran that first mile with me.

On the Trails with the Flirty Old Ladies

As I write, the Mohican 100 Mile runners are into their 7th hour. With so many of a Saturday group either running or assisting, only three of us showed up at Lock 29 this morning, Andy R., Dustin (a 17 year old who is new to the group), and I. We started by running Pine Lane trail, connecting to the tow path near Boston Mills. We ran north on the tow path to the Carriage Trail, then ran around Brandywine Falls, and back, about 12 miles at a very easy pace. That was just about right since I don't want to dragging for the 22 miles I plan for tomorrow.

The weather was beautiful, which means the trails we busy, at least by trail standards. We encountered more runners and hikers than I ever remember, and many of them were quite chatty. We passed a couple of, how shall I say, senior women, and they were actually flirty. They said some very nice things about Andy and I as we passed, commenting on our legs and other parts. I told Andy, I've always been a hit with the under ten and over sixty females. Its true, kids and old ladies love me. I'll leave it to someone else to analyze that.


Earlier this week, I had a good day at the track on Tuesday, managing mile times of 5:51, 5:58, and 5:53. With warm-up and cool-down, I did about 7 miles total. Wednesday was an easy-paced 8 miles in the valley. On Thursday, I biked the 26 mile round trip to work and back. On Friday, I did an 8 mile tempo run.

Sunday was another Vertical Runner Buckeye Trail familiarization run. The group run was only about 8 and a half miles, from Boston Mill store along the Pine Lane trail to Peninsula, and back. I met-up with Kurt and Christina from SERC, and we ran together for a while after, with Christina doing about three miles with us, then Kurt and I doing the Old Carriage Trail together. Kurt turned back after that, and I continued north to Brecksville Station, then headed back to bring my total to 22 miles.

**27 Days Until the Buckeye Trail 50k **

A strange group on a strange run

Today run was noteworthy in that many of the regulars were missing, a few members who rarely make it on Saturday's showed up, and we got lost (or at least disoriented) too many times.

I was later than usual arriving, and was worried that the group might start without me. I found a parking spot and ran to the Lock 29 entrance gate where we gather before the runs, but no one was there. I checked my watch, and it was right at 8:00 AM, so I was sure they hadn't left yet (we always leave a few minutes later than 8:00.) Eventually, runners began arriving, surprisingly including Daisy Duc and e-speed, making a very rare appearance together. It was the smallest group since the worst of the mid-winter blizzard runs. Someone mentioned that there was a Veritcal Runner sponsored race in Hudson. I assume most of the missing regulars where there, including Steve Hawthorne.

So, with many of the regulars missing, and with the addition of Daisy and e-speed, we started out at a slow pace. It was a very warm, very humid morning, and within a few minutes, sweat was dripping from us, especially Daisy. No...wait a minute, that was just her water bottle leaking. ;-) Once we picked up the pace a bit, and got into the hilly and muddy parts of the run, the heat and humidity made it a very tough morning. I took off my shirt after three or four miles, in part to cool off and also to use as a swatter against the particularly pesky deer flies that harassed us all morning.



Steve chose to follow some unfamiliar paths, and as a result, there were four or five comical moments where we were unsure of where we were or which way to go. We did some backtracking, and some second guessing, and lost Steve momentarily, but eventually, 13.25 miles and 2 hours and 9 minutes later, we made it back to Lock 29. Here is a satellite image of the route.

That run was a tough one, and by the end I was done in. I had a bottle of Endurox R4 in the car, and I drank it down fast. Respect to e-speed for running strong for the last mile, coming up from behind and blowing past me. I rinsed off, put on a dry pair of shorts, said good-bye to the group and headed home. I've been eating since: a Dutch pancake which is basically a pie shell with a mixture of vegetables and cheese, about a quart of water, a tuna salad sandwich, some cheese and crackers, a beer, and various snack foods.

Fast Frank, Freakin' Flying

It's Tuesday, time for intervals at the track. Remember how bad my Achilles hurt last week? (You did read my post last week, right?) This time I was more careful. I got there early and ran some warm-up laps before Mark and Steve, then Wayne arrived. I did about 3 miles of warm-up and felt good. I stretched for about 5 minutes, then did my stride-outs before the first speed mile.

I was determined to have a more productive session this time, so I swore I would not go out too fast...so I went out too fast on the first lap. I adjusted, and finished with a rather remarkable 5 minute 50 second mile. I cannot remember the last time I had a mile that fast. After a 400 yard cool down, we started the second mile. I knew my second mile would never be as fast as that first one. I was thinking 6:05, but I managed a 5:57. With consecutive sub 6 minute miles, I had to try to run the last one under 6. After a 400 yard recovery, we started the third mile. I ran four very even laps and finished at 5:56. Three consecutive miles in the 5:50's. That hasn't happened in a few years.The Achilles and knee were both complaining, but I chose to ignore them and let them argue between themselves. I did about a mile and a half of cool down, then hit the shower.