First At Bat to BQ - Bayshore

So it begins. I have three marathon cycles under my belt and now I will make my first attempt to BQ. I need a 3:25. My PR I got last fall is 3:33:51 in warm and humid conditions. I realize I may need a couple more cycles to get there. My B-goal would be a sub-3:30 which would have been the old BQ.

I've already done some base building with a handful of 14-16M along with some fartlek running. Now I'll begin a 16-week schedule. I'll spend the first 6 weeks on the strength side with some VO2 for speed and a couple of back to back 20M run weeks. I'll then do 7 weeks with tempo runs for speed, and I plan to alternate with a 22M time on feet run with a 16M fast finish run. Then the taper.

I plan to do a solo training marathon in mid-March. I've done a training marathon the past couple cycles just for time on feet and thought it was beneficial. This one won't be an actual race as there really isn't one in my area, so I'll just do a 26.2M run. There's a 15K I'll do as well. I did this one last year and really enjoyed it.

I'm pretty jacked up for Bashshore and I'm looking forward to meeting some of you who'll be there as well.

Good luck Alex! Sounds mighty ambitious, but you've done impressively in the past.

When/where is the 15K?

I love Bayshore! Got my first BQ there. Good luck.

Great looking training ahead for you! I suspect a big PR for you!

5+ 20 mile runs with 3 of 22 to 26.2 miles in length? Wow. Stay heathy and back off from a couple of those if needed because you should be all set with that kind of endurance in the bank so long as you get to Bayshore 100% healthy.

I think you're going to do great!

I'll 2nd Chris's small warning - just listen to your body carefully as that is some ambitious mileage. You are very close though, so I'm betting you nail the BQ at Bayshore.

Thanks everyone. As Chris and Michele mentioned I will definitely be monitoring myself and will back off if I need to. I feel my weakness is the endurance side as opposed to the speed side so that's why I've incoporated more 20M runs.

Michael, that 15K is in Grafton, MA on March 31. Great race, rolling course, best post-race spread I've ever seen.

As for the past couple of days:

Monday: 5M easy. Saturday's I go long and Sunday's I usually do a steady state run so Monday's are typically a real easy day.

Tuesday Day: - 8M with 5 x 1/2 mile @ 5K pace. I did it on the roads. It was a bit windy. It was nice opening it up like that though. I was going to do another but this was my first VO2 workout and it's early in the training and didn't want to get crazy yet.

Tuesday Evening: 4M Recovery. I like doing this second run after a hard run just to shake it out.

Tonight will be 10M GA.

Here are the past couple of days.

Wednesday - 10M GA. I love doing this run the day after my speed day. By the end of the cycle I plan to have this run up to 14M.

Thursday - 4+M Recovery. After two hard days just did an easy run here. In the my previous cycles I've always taken Thursday off from running. But this time around I'm going out for about 40min of recovery. I'll take the day off when I feel I need to.

Friday - 7M Easy with 7x100m. Friday's I do this run about 4am which can suck sometimes when it's really cold out. Today wasn't too bad.

Tomorrow will be 18M in what looks like the snow.

Well we got lucky in that we didn't really get much snow. We got a dusting but it was gone later as it warmed up.

Saturday - 18M LSD. Felt good. I ran the last two miles at GA pace. The last two miles of my marathons are when I bleed all my time. So I'm trying to run them faster in the long runs. It's early so I'll keep them at GA.

Sunday Morning: 6M. It was cold and very windy. I always run this one by what my legs give me after my Saturday long run. I never look at my watch. I was surprised I ended up doing MP. Needless to say I was happy.

Sunday Afternoon - 4M Recovery. Still cold and windy out. Legs were heavy as expected. Plus after my morning Sunday runs I always do some leg work with squats and such.

Monday - 5M. Easy. Ran before work. Still chilly but not as windy.

Tomorrow will be a speed day with 5 x .75M.

Tuesday am - 8.5M w/ 5 x .75M @ 5K. Didn't have the greatest leg turnover for this compared with last week and by the last one I wanted someone to cut my legs off, but I just really like opening it up and going.

Tuesday pm - 4M - Recovery. Very slow and just shook it out.

Wednesday - 10M GA. My legs were still a bit tender from the intervals but I managed to maintain the pace I wanted.

Thursday - 4M - Easy. Again this used to be a non-running day. Got enough to get some blood flow going.

Friday - 7M - Easy with 7 x 100m. Didn't sleep much so it was tough getting out of bed at 4 for this. But it's done.

Tomorrow will be 21M. First 20 of the cycle.

Sounds like you are pushing it pretty hard. Be careful, sometimes overuse injuries come with little warning, so listen to your body really well.

If you can stay healthy, you are going to be in ridiculously good running shape, that's for sure!

Thanks Michael. I'm definitely monitoring myself.

Saturday - 21M LSD. I wasn't hydrated enough for this and despite wearing a water belt at mile 17 I needed to run into a store to replenish. I ran the last two miles at GA pace. Overall I was pretty happy. I tried to throw in as many hills as I could as this 30K training race I'm doing in two weeks has 2.200 FT of elevation change.

Sunday morning - 6M Easy. Normally I tend to push this one around MP, but I pushed pretty hard this week and my legs were talking to me so I kept it easy.

Sunday Afternoon - 4M Easy. Just shaking it out. Plus this finished my first 70M week of the cycle.

Monday - 5M Easy. I wanted two days of easy running after last week.

Tomorrow is a speed day.

Congrats on the 21M and all the other training. Stay injury-free and keep up the good work!

So far so good...an aggressvie approach but I like it. Hopefully we can all help at pointing out when you may need to back off a bit.

Thanks Julie and Dave. I'll really have to watch myself over the next 5 weeks. I've got the 30K, then two weeks later I'm doing a solo marathon (just for time on feet), then two weeks after that is a 15K.

Tuesday morning - Thanks to a lunch meeting (I hate those) the runs got reversed today. Normally I do a speed workout at lunch then a recovery run after work. As much as I've tried I just can't hit 5K-10K speeds at 4:30am, so I did the easy before work and the speed after work.

Tuesday night - 8M 3 x 1M @ 5K. Because I did this after work, I went to a track and hopped the fence. First time I've run on a track in about 20 years. Did this more on feel as it was dark and couldn't see what pace I was hitting. The last one ended up was closer to 8K.

Wednesday - 11M GA. A nice headwind the last two miles. I really enjoy these back to back tough days.

Thursday - 4M Recovery. Legs are usually shot on this day.

Friday - 7M Easy. w/ 7 x 100m. Yesterday I wore shorts, today it was snowing. Go figure.

Tomorrow will be 20M. Back to back 20M weekends.

I like this schedule. High mileage, enough key workouts/races to keep you motivated. The key to a shoo-in at Bayshore is going to be a proper taper - meaning corral the horses when it comes to that time.

Thanks Mike. I'm trying to be a little aggressive to see how far I can push my body. I won't know until I push the boundries.

The common theme over the weekend and today can be summed up in one word: Windy.

Saturday - 20M. LSD. Back to back 20M weekends. Again threw in as many hills as possible to get ready for Sunday's 30K. Felt good. About 10min after I got done though my legs were burning. Didn't last long but man they were barking for a bit.

Sunday morning - 6M GA. Did the middle miles at MP.

Sunday afternoon - 4M Recovery. And thus concluded back to back 70M weeks for me. That's a first. Heck I've only hit 70M once before and that was last fall.

Monday - 5M. Easy. Ever do the bungy cord drill? You're hooked up with a long bungy tied to someone else. The guy in front takes off and has to pull until the bungy gives and the other guy starts running. In the meantime you're having to really fight it. That's is what it was like to go into the headwind. Then when the guy in back gets going he is really being pulled by the bungy. That's what it felt like when the wind was at the back.

Tomorrow is a speed day.

And so my first BQ attempt goes out the window before even stepping to the plate. I've got a non-displaced toe fracture and no running for a month. I'll should still be able to run it but the BQ attempt is out the window. So that really sucks. I was supposed to race a 30K this Sunday too. Not happy.

Alex Kubacki wrote:And so my first BQ attempt goes out the window before even stepping to the plate. I've got a non-displaced toe fracture and no running for a month. I'll should still be able to run it but the BQ attempt is out the window. So that really sucks. I was supposed to race a 30K this Sunday too. Not happy.

Sorry to hear that. Sounds uncomfortable. Will you be running still a bit!

I'm sorry Alex! No running for a month? That really stinks. Can you bike or do other exercise at least?

That stinks! Sorry, Alex.

Dang. Sorry to hear that. I'm concerned that I may have some peroneal tendonitis, so have been taking a couple of runs off. I hate injuries!

Kenny B. wrote:Sorry to hear that. Sounds uncomfortable. Will you be running still a bit!

Thanks Kenny. I think once the swelling goes down I'm going to try it out and see what happens.

Julie wrote:I'm sorry Alex! No running for a month? That really stinks. Can you bike or do other exercise at least?

Thanks Julie. You mentioned in the other thread that you have run and walked on one so I'm going to give it a shot in a few days.

Mark B wrote:That stinks! Sorry, Alex.

Thanks Mark. Bad timing is all.

Michael Enright wrote:Dang. Sorry to hear that. I'm concerned that I may have some peroneal tendonitis, so have been taking a couple of runs off. I hate injuries!

Injuries suck. I'd feel better if I got it running related, but I didn't. I should still be able to run that Half. Hopefully.

Injuries do suck. Hang in there.