New Jersey, Gettysburg

PHOTO: By Joan Mercer. Crossing the finish line of my first 10,000 on the track since 2003 at the Mason-Dixon Invitational at Gettysburg College.

April 13-19
M - AM 10 PM 4
T - 10
W - AM On the track - 3 WU, 4 by 2 miles with one lap for rest, 3 CD - 15
10:46, 10:48, 10:41, 10:50
Th - AM 11 PM 4
F - AM 12 PM travel to NJ
S - 23
S - 10
Total - 98

Four by two miles on the track with one lap recovery has become a staple marathon workout for me. I generally do it once every buildup.

The best I have done this workout was during my buildup for Chicago in 2006, when I did perhaps two weeks earlier in the cycle and ran 10:40s across the board. I did that in the afternoon after a light day of work (no commuting back then) and in pristine weather.

For this latest workout, however, I started at 6:30 a.m. with 30 degree temps. One of my training partners was nice enough to meet me and help me for the first and third reps. My legs were tight and I was pretty bundled up, so I was pretty pleased to get through it with times at 10:50 or faster. This is MUCH better than I did this before New York. I got through the first with two 5:23s. The second, in turn, was 5:24s. Something clicked on the third, with 5:20s, and then the fourth, running solo, was pretty tough, though I managed to hang on. Right now, when I am tired, my reserves are pretty deep.

On Friday I traveled by train to see my family in New Jersey and decided to go long on Saturday since we had Easter plans for Sunday. The week prior, I had run 20 miles on the Frederick Marathon course, including miles 15-24, which are totally different than when I ran the race in 2006 (2nd, 2:32.20). These miles are quite a ways out of town; I never ran out there when I lived in the area. There are some hills to deal with, for sure, but all are followed by downhills, and I left the workout feeling confident I could handle them. I have been incorporating lots of hills into my training the last few months: For one, I live in a hilly area, but after learning about the course changes in Frederick I made an effort not to avoid them, as I am wont to do. I do most of my training in Takoma Park and Silver Spring along the Sligo Creek trail, and to get back to my house every day I can choose either a series of rolling hills, a long gradual climb, or a long, steep punch to the kidneys up New Hampshire Avenue to University Boulevard. All of my midweek 15-milers recently have finished with the latter.

On a Saturday morning, Dad and I (with my sister doing everything because we could not figure it out) worked out a route on Mapmyrun.com. We incorporated a somewhat legendary area route with a less than legendary name ... "Around the River." I believe, and I am not entirely certain, that it began when Tim McLoone's The Running Store was located in Red Bank and fielded a team. Good area runners like Dad met there and hammered a 10-miler out through Red Bank and across a bridge to a hilly, narrow, dangerous Navesink River Road which takes you around to another bridge to Rumson. You then run up River Road and return to Red Bank. Get it: you go ... Around the River.

Dad, who coaches track and XC at my old high school, Rumson Fair-Haven, had his team's top runner, Max Sparshatt, come over at 10 a.m. (the kid rode his bike!) on the most miserable running day of the year and join me for the first 13 which included an extended version of the above route and a sideroute to include a huge hill up the dirt Cooper Road. Temps were in the 30s. The rain was coming down hard and the wind was sweeping across the bridges, numbing out our legs. So we did the only thing one can do on such a day, and that is run fast. Honestly, the weather was so annoying it was laughable. Dad was nice enough to meet us with water and gave me a couple gels. That made it feel like a practice, and, well, if there is anything I miss from college, it is just that. I really got into it; the worse the weather got, the more we cursed it, the faster we ran.

By 13 we were back near my parents house so Dad could drive Max home (no, we didn't make him ride his bike) and I basically just took off for an Around the River loop, finishing with a long climb up Browns Dock Road. I was sub-6 for the last 10. A great way to end a training cycle.

April 20-26 First taper week
M - 6
T - 8, strides
W - 15
Th - 8
F - AM 6 PM 4 in Gettysburg
S - AM 10,000 at Mason-Dixon Invitational - 12
S - 17 in Gettysburg - Brilliant
Total - 75

I usually do a 10k tempo during my first week of taper, and rather than run around an asphalt track by myself, I decided to return to my alma mater for a 10,000 at the Mason-Dixon Invitational. In college I wrote a poem about this race to pump up/loosen up my teammates before the Centennial Conference Championships. 25 laps ... 25 laps! Back then, the 10,000 was the marathon.

32-anything would have given me a PR, and I went in with a strategy to run 5:15s. The odd thing about being a pure marathoner without the talent to truly excel simultaneously at a variety of distances, is that, well, it makes running shorter distances very difficult. Why? Because 98 percent of my training is geared towards the marathon, meaning I am developing my aerobic system much more than my anaerobic system, meaning I can run at an aerobic pace for a very long time but at an anaerobic pace for a relatively short period of time. Right now, for me, my anaerobic zone is clearly somewhere between 5:10 and 5:20, and so it gets very tricky: I could probably do 10k at 5:20 pace, in a race environment, quite comfortably, almost like a tempo. But in trying to run 5:15s, or mid 32s, I could wind up suffering to a 5:20 average. And that's basically what happened: 33:12. I ran a bit faster than 5:15 pace through 3.5 miles, but then it got a bit tough (first hot day of the year) and I ran some slow laps before picking it up some and closing (Go Speedracer!) in 76. I won by three minutes, and it would have taken someone to race with the last two miles to get under 33.

All that aside, I got the workout I needed, and it was great to be back in Gettysburg and catch up with teammates and, of course, Coach Shenk. My parents came down for the weekend as well. Two meals at Lincoln Diner!

One Week From Taper

M - AM 6 PM 6
T - 10
W - 15 with 10 times 3 minutes on, 30 seconds off
Th - AM 10 PM 5
F - 10 minutes easy, 20 minutes tempo, 60 minutes steady, 20 minutes tempo, 10 minutes easy - 18
S - 10
S - 20 on Frederick Marathon course. (More on this later.)

Total - 100

Two Weeks

I have been back from Peace Corps for one year, and I can confidently say that I am running at much higher level than I was in the fall before the New York City Marathon.

The photos above are from the D.C. National Half Marathon on March 21. I ran with the lead pack of the marathon for the first 10k. Patrick Moulton, in blue, who has run 2:15, won the race in 2:20 and change. Michael Wardian, center, of Arlington finished second in 2:22.15. I was actually surprised by the pace they were running: Wardian's event record is 2:24, and after going through two miles in 10:50, the pace accelerated. I passed through 5 miles with the group in 26:40, feeling comfortable, struggled a bit miles 6-8 uphill through Adams Morgan -- and got dropped! -- and then rallied with 10:55 from 8 to 10, closing strong the last mile. I hit a p.b. of 1:11.52 for 7th place, and to do this during a 100-mile week with tired, aching legs was very encouraging. During my marathon cycle prior to running 2:29, I ran only 1:12.45 at the Harrisburg Half.

March 16 - AM 10 PM 5

T - AM 10 with 6 times 2 minutes on, off

W - AM 15

Th - AM 10 PM 6

F - 9

S - 3 WU, National Half Marathon, 2 CD - 18

S - 18

Total - 100

March 23 - AM 10

T - AM 10 with 6 times 2 on, off PM 4

W - 13

Th - 10

F - 2 WU, 3 times 2 miles in 10:45-10:50. Hip flexor very sore. 8 easy. 16

S - AM 10 PM 7

S - 18

Total - 98

Moving On

Photos by Emily Dufton

It was a week of darkness at 7 a.m. and cold, damp air. Irritability, sluggishness, running-behind-schedule ... there you have it.

Some mornings you just can't tear yourself out of bed as early as you want to. Perhaps you hit the snooze and oversleep by 30 or 40 minutes. You get up and try to drink your water and coffee and dress in half the time, but it never seems to work out that way. You are running late, always, thinking during your run how you will make your lunch and pack your bag (shower?) and be out the door and in your office and the first article will be filed by noon. Let's face it: This is no way to train.

This was a recovery week to get some "rest" before another month-long block of 100 MPW. In previous marathon cycles I have run up to 110 MPW, but in this current life I have found 100 to be much more manageable, and I would rather aim for 100 and hit it and feel good about it than shoot for 110 and hit 107 and feel like I failed. After New York, in the fall, I joined a gym across the street from my office in Waldorf. This, actually, has helped me quite a bit: For one, I am lifting weights now and doing more core work, but once or twice or three times a week I do my second run there on the treadmill, and although treadmill training is boring, it is easier than driving all the way home, changing my clothes and running through the dark up and down the hilly neighborhoods of Takoma Park. This is more time-efficent; taking the hills out allows me to get some recovery.

Tomorrow, as I said, I start another month-long block at 100 MPW. Upcoming races before the Frederick Marathon May 3 include the D.C. National Half Marathon March 21 and 10,000 on the track at Gettysburg College April 19. Ideally, I will get a p.r. at both races, but it's hard to say. My half marathon p.r. of 1:12.10 was the first half of the 2006 Chicago Marathon ... The National Half course is pretty tough, and I'm not sure if I will be able to dip under 1:12 without my legs all the way under me. My 10k p.r., in turn, went back to college until a month ago. I ran 33:38 during my sophomore year in college (my third year running), ran the race poorly my junior year, and ran the distance again for the first time about a month ago. I should be able to run in the 32s, but during a marathon cycle you just never know. You might be able to run 5:30s all the day but explode quickly at 5:15 pace. And some days, when your legs are tired, it feels as if your top-end pace is 6-flat.

Like during my workout this week. It was supposed to be 7 miles at half marathon pace. Next weekend I want to run on the edge of 5:30 pace and get under 1:12 ... I did the workout on the C&O Canal, parking the car in a dirt lot across the street from Angler's Inn. This is around mile 11 on the canal, and it's great spot to start: You are only a couple miles away from the overlook over Great Falls. I warmed up a few miles and got rolling at mile post 16, but I just didn't seem to have it. After going through 3 miles in 17:27 (turning around at mile 18) I got pretty frustrated -- actually, very frustrated -- and decided to jog it up to the next mile post and try to regroup for a solid last three miles. Well, as it turns out, it was not as bad as it seems: The C&O Canal Web site has official distances between each mile post. I ran 17:27 for a bit more than 5k, not 3 miles, which is about 5:30 pace, and then hit the same pace for the last 3-mile rep.

Honestly, I should know by now that, for tempos, it is best to just run off effort, accepting that on some days my legs are too tired to turn over as fast I want them to. The way to think about it, perhaps, is that if I ran 33:10 for 10k a month ago, there is simply no way I am less fit now than I was then. For what it's worth, my Wednesday 15 and long run (20) today were solid.

Monday - AM 6 PM 4

Tuesday - 10

Wednesday - 15

Thursday - 10

Friday - 10

Saturday - 11 with 7 tempo

Friday - 20

Total - 85

Daylight Savings

In a past life, when (unless I was doubling), I would walk to the newspaper each morning and train in the afternoon, daylight savings was something I looked forward to. In this new life of training in the morning at 6:30 and then driving about 50 minutes to the newspaper and then perhaps running some more at the gym in Waldorf in the evening, daylight savings is not cool at all. It is 7:30; I need to finish my coffee, put on my shoes and shuffle (literally) out the door ...

The Six Day Week

We got our biggest (and first real) snowstorm on Monday. It seemed wise to rush into work before the roads got worse, and in Waldorf I found that my gym was closed. It was a forced zero, but I managed to get pretty close to the 100 MPW mileage goal in six days, hunkering down on 16 per day, which was made easier by temps rising up near 70 towards the end of the week.

Today I got in a very solid 22, 2:30. I ran with Patrick Reaves from the D.C./Maryland line and through Rock Creek Park, and we managed to settle into a nice rhythm. On Friday I did a classic Coach Lippin marathon workout: A continuous 18-mile run beginning with 40 minutes steady into 20 minutes at tempo pace followed by 40-50 minutes steady followed by 3 times 6 minutes on, 1 off minute off ... then an easy run home. I suppose you could assign an effort to the 6 minute reps -- 5k pace or interval pace -- but it was really just whatever-you-have pace. Marathon training, in a sense, is all about running on tired legs, and the essential aim of this workout is to reach a point where you wonder, "How the hell am I going to run the last five miles to the house?" ... This is when you start to run as hard as you possibly can.

Monday - Zero, zilch, nada
Tuesday - AM 6 PM 10
Wednesday - AM 10 PM 4
Thursday - AM 12 PM 4
Friday - 18 - workout
S - 12
S - 22
Total - 98

Training Feb. 23-March 1

I don't think I had one day of fresh legs this week, so I suppose I should not be shocked that my main workout of the week -- an 18-miler with 12 at marathon pace -- was not particularly fast. I did it on a 2k-ish cinder loop around a lake in Greenbelt Park. The rolling hills there do not seem like much of anything at first, but they seemed to get steeper every loop. It was cold, and my legs were tight. And it's just a workout.

M - AM 8 PM 6
T - AM 10 with 8 by 100 meter strides PM 5
W - 15
Th - 12 with 5 by 3 minutes at interval pace
F - 12 with 4 uphill strides
S - 18 with 12 miles at MP - 6:00 avg.
S - 14
Total - 100