MCM or Bust (seriously, dude, it may bust!)

Solid last 2 miles.  Looks like you're right on track.  I assume since there was no mention that the knee continues to feel good?

mul21 wrote:Solid last 2 miles.  Looks like you're right on track.  I assume since there was no mention that the knee continues to feel good?

Thanks Jim. Knee is fine. Occasional slight soreness, not problematic.

Michael Enright wrote:

mul21 wrote:Solid last 2 miles.  Looks like you're right on track.  I assume since there was no mention that the knee continues to feel good?

Thanks Jim. Knee is fine. Occasional slight soreness, not problematic.

Excellent news! Hope it keeps up.

Beautiful morning for an easy, short run. This was the second to the last of the three milers on Hal's Int I (well, until the last taper week, when there is another!), and I felt great going into it. I skipped the x-training yesterday, because I was feeling quite tired from the weekend of running, biking and yard work, and that was a good choice. Felt really fresh this morning and then just breezed through this.

A good thing, too, as it ought to be an interesting day otherwise...

I still like Hal's Int 1...the only one I seem to be able to keep up with.  I do mix the mid-week run will hills for 6 weeks followed by 9 weeks of building Yasso 800s on the track.  That's the only change I make to it when I use it.

Good weather ahead for those early morning runs...50s and 60s here in Ohio and it's headed your way.  Only wish I could take advantage of it...but it's good to see a smile on Todd's face when he comes home from his morning run 

Paula Sue wrote:I still like Hal's Int 1...the only one I seem to be able to keep up with.  I do mix the mid-week run will hills for 6 weeks followed by 9 weeks of building Yasso 800s on the track.  That's the only change I make to it when I use it.

Good weather ahead for those early morning runs...50s and 60s here in Ohio and it's headed your way.  Only wish I could take advantage of it...but it's good to see a smile on Todd's face when he comes home from his morning run 

I go back to it from time to time, as it just works pretty well for me, and it was what I started with in 2007.

Thanks for wishing the good weather my way, Paula Sue!

Nice morning today for the midweek 5 miler during the cutback week. Took the hilly route, and so had to work for it, but it was nice.

I had to get it done before they detoured all the traffic from the main road that parallels our little road for a repaving project. I barely made it - as I approached our house, I had several cars lining up right behind me who appear to have rerouted prematurely, probably remembering how screwed up traffic got early yesterday when they started the project in earnest. Hopefully, they will finish the rest of the heavy duty work on this today, so we can have our road back.

Tomorrow brings the last of the three milers on the schedule, until the final week. Woo hoo.

Woot! Celebrate that last pre-taper 3 miler.


It's just, what, 12 weeks from now? 

Glad you got through, especially if they were starting to lay down asphalt. That would have been problematic.

Mark B wrote:Woot! Celebrate that last pre-taper 3 miler.


It's just, what, 12 weeks from now? 

Glad you got through, especially if they were starting to lay down asphalt. That would have been problematic.

12.57 weeks from today!  

Just to be clear, the new asphalt was going down on the road I was not running on, so the traffic was about to be diverted onto the road I was running on. Sometimes at the end of a marathon, it has felt like I was running on liquid asphalt, but I have avoided actually do so to this point!

Last of the 3 milers this morning. I ran it on my normal "up the hill" route. It was funny, I averaged 9:09. I ran the uphill mile 44 seconds faster than 9:09, ran the middle mile, which goes down some and then up some, right at 9:09, and the downhill mile at 45 seconds faster than 9:09. What symmetry!

So, I did all three of the midweek runs for the cutback week on the hilly route, and that gave it just the extra little bit of challenge that it deserved, without taxing me.

Now a rest day, followed by a pretty easy weekend (6 mile pace run, 9 mile long run).

Maybe I'll get some more yardwork done! Yeck.

Looking good Michael.  You'll be toeing the line all ready to go.

Thanks Alex, and good to hear from you!

How are you healing up?

A nice 6 mile pace run this morning. I ran this up at the track, which I like to do so I can closely watch my pace every lap, and not speed up unwittingly, which I tend to do otherwise.

Perfect day for it. Overcast, mid-60s, dew point in the low 60s, a bit of a breeze, some light rain for the middle miles. We've set "pace" at 9:00. I tend to run pace runs at least a little too fast, and particularly at the track, where it is just easier to run fast. So, my goal is to keep it as close to 2:15 each lap as possible. I tend to run a few seconds faster per lap, correct, creep up, correct, etc.

I did pretty well with this today. Averaged 8:55, and kept it very steady, so that was good. My HR was in the mid-150s by mile 2, stayed there for a while and crept up through the upper 150s until about the end of mile 4, and then stayed right at or over 160 for the last couple of miles.

I felt great the whole way.

Maybe a bike ride later with my daughter (she asked about it last night), have to fix one of the drawers in the kitchen cabinets, probably too damp to mow, and have some distractions at work today so far. Hopefully the distractions won't build up!

After the six mile pace run yesterday, I managed to fix the cabinet drawer, mow the lawn, buy some groceries, pick up my dry cleaning, do an 11 mile easy bike ride with my daughter, and get to a dinner party with my wife. Good day!

I had 9 miles on the schedule today, which is the "long" run for the cutback week in week 6 of Hal's Int I. It was just a perfect day for it. Sunny, low 70s, dew point in the 50s, and no bugs to speak of! I especially liked the no bugs part. I didn't get started until 10:00, and it was still really nice.

I headed out uphill, and the warmup mile was just right - 9:40, but the second mile, which is the most uphill, was a bit too fast - just a bit over 9 minutes. I do that sometimes - I look at my watch when it hits the 1 mile split, it shows a good time, and I keep up that pace, or even punch it up a little. Problem is, by that point I am running a fair bit faster than my average pace for that mile, and I end up picking up quite a bit of speed. But I felt really good, so didn't try very hard to slow down, and I didn't, for the next (and last of the uphill miles in the first leg). The next mile, which is pretty flat, included a stop to water a tree, so slowed me down for that, but then I was headed downhill and picking up speed. And it felt really good, so I just unplugged and let it happen. I stopped ever so briefly to answer a question for a guy who was walking (his motion, though, was intentionally a sort of slow motion run - curious what that was about), and to grab a water at the car at 7 miles. Then I continued on another mile in the opposite direction, and turned to complete the last mile, slightly uphill. When I checked the 8 mile split, I figured if I pushed it a bit I could bring it in at under 1:22:00, so went ahead and did so (still felt great), and so finished up at an average pace of 9:06, "all in".

So, it was kind of an accidental pace run. No regrets. I do have to watch my pace this next week - the mileage bumps up in week 7, and I've hurt myself a couple of times either this week or the week after the next cutback week. Can't have any of that!

I wonder if I'll have another bike ride later, after Gracie gets off of work??? I think I'll go do a little yard work, but maybe my wife wants to go to lunch first. I'll see. Mellow day here, and great weather.

My buddy Steve, who is running MCM with me is pretty fixated on running it at 4:10 for some reason, so I think I won't be trying to do anything too challenging at MCM. He is surprising me with that. I expect that before it's over, he'll target something under 4:00 instead, but I'm not sure. I just want to run another marathon with him (last one we ran together was Chicago 2008, which was a disaster for me).

We also are thinking of running to raise money for one of the crowdfunding sites connected to the Boston victims. If anyone has any particular ideas about that, I'm interested to hear more.

Nice job on the pace run, Michael, but do be careful about turning your long run into an accidental pace run too often! Especially on these step-back weeks, you want to be rested enough to hit the next, harder, week fully recovered.

No suggestions on the Boston fundraising, though I think it's a great idea.

Mark B wrote:Nice job on the pace run, Michael, but do be careful about turning your long run into an accidental pace run too often! Especially on these step-back weeks, you want to be rested enough to hit the next, harder, week fully recovered.

No suggestions on the Boston fundraising, though I think it's a great idea.

Excellent advice, now I wonder if I can follow it....

What about contacting OneFund Boston?

Michele \"1L" Keane wrote:What about contacting OneFund Boston?

Yes, have considered that - they are at $64 million and counting, and recently had at least one instance of a fraudulent claim in the news. We were thinking about one of the more direct efforts, which are plentiful.

Easy bike ride for 45 minutes or so yesterday morning for my x-training - it was chilly enough that I was wishing I'd worn long sleeves for the ride - I was feeling some wind chill.

Nice 4 miler this morning, with temps in the 50s! Wow, that feels good.

Another nice morning here. Did the prescribed 7 miler in the hilly terrain heading east from home. Foggy for the first mile and a half and the last mile and a half - funny how the fog sort of nestled into that area, while it is bright sun elsewhere. My daughter was heading out for a run just after I came in and asked if it isn't a little chilly for August, and I had to admit that it was - hey, enjoy it while you can! We deserve it after the hot June and really sweltering July.

I ran this one a little faster than I expected. Based on level of exertion, it was perfect. I guess I'm just getting back into shape nicely. Only a couple of weeks of morning training left, and then I'm back to nights during mid-week, as I have to get my daughter to school early in the a.m. Only good thing about that is that I'll have less in the way of these hills...

Pretty interesting how your pace very neatly follows the elevation profile.  Big downhill in Miles 2, 5 and 7 and and those were all your fastest miles.  1 and 3 look like bears of a climb and they were the slowest.

Chris M wrote:Pretty interesting how your pace very neatly follows the elevation profile.  Big downhill in Miles 2, 5 and 7 and and those were all your fastest miles.  1 and 3 look like bears of a climb and they were the slowest.

Right, I always notice that on these hilly training runs. I used to try to run these routes at a relatively even pace, but found myself just killing myself going up those hills, so have decided to just go with the flow on them, and slow down for them. It really makes a difference in a few spots where the grade is killer for a short spell. It's also a lot easier psychologically to start an early morning run up a climb like that, to just "embrace the hill" and let it do what it's going to do. Far less daunting to succumb at the outset to the impact it will have on my pace!

A bit drizzly here early, so 4 easy miles on the treadmill.

Nothing too interesting.

A nice day off yesterday with no running or biking. Beautiful day today (mid 70s and sunny mid-morning), and I was scheduled for 7 miles at MP.

I've pretty much run the whole week at MP, for whatever reason. Normally, at this point I would declare 9:00 too slow for MP, given how this is going, but I'm running this race with my buddy, he's focused on running it at 9:30 (so 9:00 is already kind of a stupid idea for the pace runs), so I'm just sticking with it for now. Whatever, I'm planning to take it easy on this race. Hmmmmm, I wonder if I should plan a second marathon in early December, depending on how MCM goes???

Anyway, after the back and forth about varying pace with the elevation changes this week, I decided to see if I could run this at a pretty steady pace despite the elevation changes. I did it at the rail trail, which is gradually uphill for three miles, then a flat little out and back for another mile, then three miles gradually downhill to get back. The up and down is 150 feet or so, net. It's not as bumpy as the chart below shows, but the trendline overall is right.

This was kind of fun. I clearly worked a fair bit harder during the first three miles with the uphill. But I kept the splits reasonably close. 14 on the schedule for tomorrow, so finally getting to the longer runs.

Good run Michael.  You kept the splits really even throughout the run.  You are definitely having a good training cycle  

My advice to you is that even though you can probably run faster and race the MCM faster, you should stick with the 9:00 pace.  You are coming back from a knee injury and to me the risks aren't worth it.  If you make it through MCM unscathed, then yes, I think another race at a faster pace is definitely possible.

Keep up the good work!!

Nick Morris wrote:Good run Michael.  You kept the splits really even throughout the run.  You are definitely having a good training cycle  

My advice to you is that even though you can probably run faster and race the MCM faster, you should stick with the 9:00 pace.  You are coming back from a knee injury and to me the risks aren't worth it.  If you make it through MCM unscathed, then yes, I think another race at a faster pace is definitely possible.

Keep up the good work!!

Thanks Nick, and yes, I think you're right about sticking with the pace at this point.

I closed out week 7 with a 14 miler this morning. Spectacular morning here - sunny, low humidity, and it was in the low 60s (or lower) at the start, and just touched 70 at the end. Beauty.

I took it easy, and that worked fine. I sped up a bit on the downhill (you can see it in the fastest lap below - actually, it affected the lap before as well, and that one is deceptive - I stopped for about 30 seconds in that mile to help two other runners try to move a fallen tree off the trail - we failed!), and then reined that in successfully, so as not to get ahead of myself on the pace. Picked it up a bit at the end, which is also slightly uphill. Nice run!

My daughter brought home donuts last night - it was her first day working the closing shift at DD, and they just let them take whatever they want home (they just toss racks and racks of donuts at day's end). So I had one before I went out, and figured I'd earned another when I got back. Mmmmmmmmm. Hope she doesn't get the late shift very often!

That was a good week of training.