2 miles

TAPER!

I trained more/harder last year, but I trained smarter this year - I felt pretty fast and strong, and I think I should be able to have a decent race...

Blissful Saturday long run

The weather is uncannily beautiful today - upper 50s, crisp and clear and sunny with a hint of coolness in the air. I ditched the heart-rate monitor, the wrist unit and the pod and ran data-free - it was quite lovely.

10 miles

Friday frazzle

The psychic significance of long-distance running.

Wasn't able to get out this afternoon for my last ten-miler before next week's race, but will hope to do it tomorrow late morning/early afternoon.

Thursday swim practice

Well, it was good, I was feeling very lethargic and gloomy all afternoon and was slightly late getting over there (or, rather, didn't leave enough time for logistical arrangements re: procuring new "splash card"!), but it was a very enjoyable swim - I feel I am swimming noticeably better than I was in the middle of the summer, so this is satisfying to contemplate, and of course my aerobic fitness is currently very good due to MARATHON TRAINING!

It was not quite as good a workout as the other day, but this was for the very good reason that we spent the last part of the hour practicing DIVE STARTS! The first one I had to do off the pool deck rather than the blocks (Coach Conrad basically had to sort of tip me in as I wavered!), but I went several times off the blocks after that, and it seems entirely manageable to me. That is good!

Only had time for 100 warmup

Then:

6 x 100 free on 1:55

4 x 150 swim-kick-swim by 50, IM order, on 3:30

3 x 150 pull on (?) (I skipped a 50, had to get out and change my moldy rice-cake-cylinder pull buoy for one of the more hourglass shaped ones, I could not hold the first one in place and it was making my legs and hips go in an impractical position!)

Then: a bunch of dives and 25s!

2 x 50 free on 1:00

Call it 2000 yards total

Unfortunate postscript

My eyes and nose are utterly streaming in aftermath of full-on pool chemicals at the Columbia pool - it is four hours post-swim and it truly is as though as I have had an awful cold all evening, though I know it is just chemical irritation! I forgot how acute it was - it lasted more than 12 hours after that early-morning swim at John Jay (where chemicals are notoriously even stronger), and knocked out a whole work day. This is impossible!

Tuesday swim practice

It is way too long since I last went to a real practice! It's not that I don't love it, I do, but between work conflicts, other training commitments and general tiredness, it has been pretty much impossible to get to TNYA this semester. Fortunately because I only ran 4 rather than 8 miles this morning, I had much more vim left by the end of the day than I have had in previous weeks - I got there early (having realized at some point that a full stretch of warm-up swimming is the difference between a truly enjoyable swim practice and one where I am slightly discombobulated and scrambling to catch up), had time even to do a bit of extra, and then had a very enjoyable swim.

- I am now doing flip turns on ALL my freestyle, without disaster or undue discomfort
- I am slower than the fastest couple guys, but I am a good pacer and I am 'less slower' by the end of the workout than at the beginning!
- I got some very nice compliments on the current state of my fly, including the observation "You really are skimming over the water!"

400 free without stopping plus 2 x 50 drill-swim stroke by 25 (fly, back)

4 x 50 free on :55

2 x through of (2 x 200 free on 3:55 + 1 x 200 kick-swim by 25 on 4:30) (I only did 150 of the kick-swim each time - partly I am slower - partly I am not sure everyone is so scrupulous as I am about only kicking!)

Then a TRULY DELIGHTFUL IM set, with enough rest to really maintain form:

6 x 100 IM as 2 x 100 IM on 2:20, 2 x IM medley order on 2:25, 2 x reverse IM on 2:50

then 3 x 50 stroke on 1:20 (I did all fly, I am loving that stroke right now!) plus 3 x 50 free on :50

2800 yards total

Quick Tuesday run

Only time for a quick four miles (down to the Boat Basin and back), but it is a most beautiful day for it, clear and crisp and sunny - best time of year in this part of the world, that's for sure. I am having that very strong marathon taper feeling of NOT HAVING RUN NEARLY ENOUGH - it is true, more's the pity - but certainly I have run enough to have a strong and enjoyable race, even if it is not as fast as I would like.

I am going to endeavor to go to TNYA practice this evening - I have been missing it the whole semester, I am usually too tired, but I think the shorter run earlier in the day makes it a more feasible possibility!

(Oh, it is absurd, how can I even still be thinking about it - I got really excited about the possibility of doing my first swim meet, on Dec. 5 - for a few days I really thought I would do it - then I realized that not only am I not getting home from Thanksgiving till Monday at midday, I am also going to be away from the 10th to the 13th - I am sure that on the actual day, I will have a much stronger impulse to stay at home and do work than to go to Queens on the quixotic mission of swimming in a meet! And yet you can tell from the way I am writing about it that I still have a bit of a yen - Liz is going to do it - hmmm...)

Speed Reading

(Picture courtesy of Shelley Jackson.)

Postscript

Felt like I had a much better feel this week in the cycling class for how hard to work - avg HR 140, avg watts 230 - will continue to ponder these questions, though...

Sunday things

Well, it was a very good afternoon - I met up with Liz (Liz and Lauren must henceforth be denominated by their real names here, as the former distinction between Original Training Partner Liz and Triathlete Lauren is now complicated by the fact that Liz has REGISTERED FOR THE NYC TRIATHLON IN JULY, to my very great satisfaction), we went to the 11:15 spinning class and had a short swim thereafter. Then brunch, and then we had an extremely useful trip to Sid's Bikes - Liz is on the verge of buying her first road bike...

(200 free warmup, then 5 x 100 "rolling IM" [25 fly, 75 free; 25 free, 25 back, 50 free; etc.], then a little backstroke coaching - I would not venture to give advice on the short-axis strokes, but I have at least a good theoretical understanding of the long-axis ones, with a special fondness for backstroke)

Now I will continue to have self-laceration at having let the whole weekend pass by without doing any work - and it is not as though I feel at all mentally restored or well-rested, just incredibly stressed out that somehow I have not made even the smallest dent in the huge pile of work that awaits me! Must go to the office now and pick up a few things I left there, then dig in for what I devoutly hope will be a long and productive evening of reading, lecture-writing and paper-marking. I have this essay to write, but still cannot at all see when I will be able to fit it in, though I will try and get as much done this week as I can - oh dear!

Saturday run

Hot-weather folks will be rolling their eyes, but it is nearly sixty degrees here again and quite rainy/humid - I overheat pretty easily when I run in that kind of weather!

My day got off to a very late start, and I realized that it was foolish to try for a long run at midday on an empty stomach/no caffeine; I had a late breakfast and coffee, waited for some digestion to happen and set out around 2.

At that point I really didn't have time to do the full twelve miles on the schedule (I need to head downtown around 4:30 for Speed Reading!); I thought I might do ten or so, but once I was actually setting out, I impulsively decided to have a pace-experimentation run instead, and just do 6 or so at or close to marathon pace.

Thoughts:

- Pretty much every night this week, I've spent some time lying in bed and concentrating on what it will feel like to see the numbers "3:58:59" on my watch for my finish time!

- There's something new-agey about this sort of visualization exercise, but experience tells me that having a very concrete vision of what one would like to have happen is always more conducive to accomplishing it than having only a quite vague notion

- I believe that if things go well on race day, I am just about capable of a sub-4:00 marathon right now, but it is also plausible that I could have a great day out there, run as fast as is feasible and still only clock a time more in the 4:08-4:10 - I simply won't know until after I've done it!

- It happens that my ambitious goal times/paces are quite easy to count/track: 9:00 miles comes in at 3:56; a 4-hour marathon means 9:09/mile

- If I hit the sweet spot between 9:00 and 9:09 right away and can hold it, I meet my goal - and as I say, I think this is attainable (with proviso that I was ten pounds lighter when I ran my fastest race times a couple years ago, and I don't have recent half-marathon or even 10K times to tally - running is a merciless sport as far as weight goes, but on the other hand several years of additional experience in endurance sport is a serious benefit nonetheless, so I hope the two factors somewhat cancel each other out)

- Marathon pace is not nearly so intuitively easy to feel as half-marathon or 10K race pace

- Let's contemplate the McMillan numbers for a 3:58 marathon, which is what I will aim for (to give myself leeway for walking through aid stations and up a hill or two!): corresponding 10K time is 50:43 (8:09/mi.), half-marathon is 1:52:51 (8:37/mi.), marathon is (obviously) 3:58:00 (9:06/mi.)

- When I try and do a shorter workout at marathon pace, I am really gravitating to something a bit faster, close to half-marathon pace, and then have to slow myself down and check myself

- Marathon pace is faster than an easy long run pace, but it has to be really comfortable

- HR guidelines will serve me better on race day than trying to hold an over-ambitious pace in opening miles despite high HR - I think I must stay c. 158 for first 6 miles, stay at or under 160 till miles 12, hold low 160s till mile 20 and then just assess what I think I can manage for the final six based on feel and stop looking at the numbers!

(- Half-marathon race HR has traditionally averaged 165-66 - I am certain that my marathon HR, tallied up afterwards, should not exceed 162, and 160 would be a more conservative choice)

- The footpod is measuring a bit short - I should recalibrate it before the race, or else I am making too many mental allowances when I look at the numbers - that said, if I don't recalibrate and I try and hold very strictly between 9:00 and 9:10, I will be in reasonable shape, because the real numbers should be a bit faster than that

- How much is "a bit"? Well, the 12 miles I did on Mindy's course counted as 11.79 on the pod - I know that she measures her courses very carefully with one of those little wheelie devices, not just with an electronic one like a Garmin - so I could just use that to get the conversion factor for the Polar

- Today's run, by pod measurement: 5.60 miles, 52:04 (9:18 pace - if I adjust distance to 5.7, which I think is more accurate, I get 9:08 pace, which is pretty much exactly where I was trying to be); avg HR 152 (but in fact for the last 3-4 miles it was looking more like 155-158 - the opening miles are unduly low in a way that is not relevant for marathoning!)

- I had better stop musing on these matters, get in the shower and get dressed in more running clothes for this evening's activity!

Thursday swim/yoga

A very good swim earlier, only it now so long ago that I can hardly remember what it was! There might have been one other bit, I cannot say...

50 free
500 kick with board as 100 flutter, 25 whip or dolphin
4 x 75 alternating drill ([1] right arm, left arm, catch-up; [2] 6-3-6), free
6 x 75 alternating free build by 25, IM no free steady (10 seconds rest)
6 x 50 drill-swim by 25 (running through some standards: fists, front scull, thumbs-and-salute, catch-up, 6-3-6, perhaps 1 other)
50 all-out fly down, easy free back

1650 yards total

1.25hr. yoga

Pace questions

Pondering paces: 6.1 mile loop at 52:02 (with a couple short water breaks off the clock), c. 8:30 pace - it is hilly, first bit was quite hard effort, avg HR 165 is basically half-marathon race pace...

(I want someone to offer magical divination techniques to tell me I am not overreaching to aim for a four-hour marathon!)

(My sprint times from the running class last week are commensurate with that sort of time goal, I think, and I believe that another year of experience in endurance sport is probably the biggest boost from last year's time...)

I WILL HAVE TO SEE WHAT HAPPENS ON THE DAY!

IT IS IN LESS THAN THREE WEEKS! THIS IS GOOD!

(I wouldn't mind if it were SOONER, though!)

Tuesday run

It was a good one, in the end. I felt quite tired, both in terms of legs and in terms of huffing and puffing, as it was underway; but I finished strong.

(This is really the zenith of the semester as far as mental insanity goes - on Sunday and Monday, my stress levels were through the roof - but I think this was a hard enough effort that it will temporarily quiet the buzzing! No knee problems, but some slight tension in the right thigh muscle - clearly this is taper-related and MENTAL as much as physical.)

I measured segments separately. Ran 1 mile over to 110th St. to meet J.; then we had an UNDULY hard effort (it was my fault, I am the slowest but I am also usually the one who escalates the pace) up Harlem Hill to meet C. at 86th St. My pod distances are running a little short, I should recalibrate before my race - 1.4 + 4.42 = 5.86 and real distance is 6.1, just making a note for later use...

Segment 1 (very hilly!):

12:29 (1.4 miles)
avg HR 165, max HR 173
max pace 8:10, avg pace 8:55

Segment 2 (the rest of the loop, slightly more moderate effort):

39:33 (4.42 miles)
avg HR 165, max HR 173
max pace 7:22, avg pace 8:56

Walked the last mile home - it is in the mid-60s, I was wearing short sleeves! Now must hastily suck down the rest of this cup of coffee, REALLY hastily shower and try not to be late to the lecture I am attending at noon!

7 miles

"If you got really lazy..."

I am set on reading my way through all of the classics of endurance sport training, at least the ones I can get my hands on, and it was in that spirit that I gulped down Running With Lydiard. It is an interesting and enjoyable read, but what I liked most (shades of Counsilman!) was the inimitable style and flavor - we are living in different times now, though the training principles remain in many cases the same:

Your running shorts should fit comfortably and not drag on your legs when your knees come up. If they do, you can expect problems on wet days when the drag is accentuated. For men, athletic supports seem to be a thing of the past; they can cause chafing. It is much better, if you do not have shorts with a sewn-in support, to use women's cotton briefs.

I was in a training camp in Woodville, north-east Texas, in 1970 when about 30 of us when for a 22-mile (34-kilometre) run on a hot and humid day. The American boys wore broad smiles of amusement when they saw me changing into cotton briefs which were obviously designed for a woman; but at the end of the run I was the only one not complaining of chafing. The next day, about 30 runners trooped into the local drapery and asked the woman behind the counter to fit them out in women's briefs. She looked rather alarmed until it was explained to her why so many men wanted feminine underwear. She did great business.

Running without some kind of support under your running shorts is cool and comfortable - but the continual strain imposed could cause problems

Advice for ball games and team training, especially for run conditioning in the off season:

You can do too little or too much, you can do it too intensively or too casually - and you could be wasting a lot of time and effort. Think about it carefully and get an even balance and stick with that and you should be all right.

Even if you cut the schedule in half, you will be working along the right lines. If you got really lazy and jogged only fifteen minutes every other day until you began normal team training, you would still benefit. It just depends, does not it, on how good you want to be.

And, finally, on facilities:

Many football clubs now have weights-training equipment or have linked up with a gymnasium. Those that have not would be making a better investment of club funds in providing gym facilities rather than a plush bar for members, supporters and free-loaders.