Paying The Iron Price

mul21 wrote:

JohnP wrote:

T Miller wrote:I also wonder if it's nutritional.  I've just recently gained a deeper understanding of the difference between being a carb burner and a fat burner.  I wonder if you would benefit by training your body to burn more fat so that you would have more fuel availability later on in the race.  Just a thought.  http://runblog.adamcondit.com/2013/08/running-diet-nutrition-fueling-sunny-blende/

http://eat4fitness.com/articles/Metabolic_Efficiency_Training.pdf

Not certain but this seems like the text version of the video Tim posted.

Look out Chris, this appears to be an under the radar attempt to get you to run at ......gasp...... low HR intensities!  Mark has infected everyone!

:whistles innocently:

Well Chris I have to admit that I was not expecting that result!! Truly sorry things didn't workout for you and I hope that you can figure things out. With that being said since you are feeling good and feel like you could easily run the next day any chance you will give Chicago a thought to BQ??

The way I see it if it is still open and you BQ in Chicago you can register right after the race from my place. To be honest I think you would have a great shot at BQing at Chicago especially if the weather is good! Looking at your splits from Erie you were ahead of your BQ time maybe if you take a little more conservative approach during the fist half or 16 miles at Chicago you will would have plenty in the tank to pick-up the pace if you wanted to and to better the 3:25 time.

Just a thought buddy!

Really sorry to hear you didn't make the BQ. It's weird to hear the thing about your ears and then the other comments as that same thing happened to me this summer on a really humid day. I even took my ear buds out as I thought something was wrong with my hearing but it was a lot of sweat from the humidity.

Sorry to hear Erie didn't go quite as planned.  Blow-ups are the worst when they totally blindside you---as opposed to races that are awful from the first step.  You think you've got it, and then suddenly it's a mess.  Dust yourself off and try again?
Agree with others about the dehydration being a possibility.  Also agree with you that getting yourself checked out is a good idea, too.  Hang in there!

Schuey wrote:Well Chris I have to admit that I was not expecting that result!! Truly sorry things didn't workout for you and I hope that you can figure things out. With that being said since you are feeling good and feel like you could easily run the next day any chance you will give Chicago a thought to BQ??

The way I see it if it is still open and you BQ in Chicago you can register right after the race from my place. To be honest I think you would have a great shot at BQing at Chicago especially if the weather is good! Looking at your splits from Erie you were ahead of your BQ time maybe if you take a little more conservative approach during the fist half or 16 miles at Chicago you will would have plenty in the tank to pick-up the pace if you wanted to and to better the 3:25 time.

Just a thought buddy!

Short answer....hell yes.  If Boston 2014 is still open then (seems doubtful this year but was last year) I will hop on the plane and try in Chicago.  If it closes before then, I'm going to skip it this year.   I do think I will run MCM and might as well get the 2015 BQ taken care of if i can since leaving this one until the last minute worked out so poorly.  None of this solves why I'm running so poorly for the really long stuff but heck ya I'll be there and run if there's still a chance to qualify at Chicago in a few weeks.

EDIT - looks like Boston 2014 is already sold out.   More BQs than open spots so not even every BQ will get in this year.  Means I owe MVW a case of beer as I predicted it wouldn't full before Ocotber 1.

Tough race Chris.  Hope you figure out the cause/cure and get back to your old self quickly.

Still sort of drifting sideways with my running.   Did 12 today with no real plan.  Just run. Ended up being 7:35 pace with mile splits ranging from 8:40 to 7:02.  That seems to pretty much sum up where i am!   I'm not out of shape.  There are moments where I feel great and running 7 or so feels like an easy MP and 6s are there with any effort.   Other times, maybe even in the same run, I'm scuffling and 8:30 feels about right.  So I'm not in great shape either.  Just somewhere in between.  A good bit of it is mental too.  When I was running well, I'd get the schedule from Dave and my only focus was knocking out those miles and workouts.  Races and race times would just fall into place if I did the work.  And with the exception of the marathon itself that happened and even at 26.2, my blowups were still at a 3:09 to 3:15 level.  Id take that now as a good race!  Mentally now it's like I would like a good race result (who wouldn't?) but I don't seem particularly committed to making that happen. There's nothing overly wrong with that but I shouldn't expect times of sub 1:25 HMs like I ran in 2011 and 2012 if I'm doing 20+ miles less a week and basically no speed work.   For most of this year, my focus was on the knee injury, the surgery and then the recovery.  But I'm past that now.  The knee isn't an issue at all which is great.  The question is whether I now want to commit to doing the work like I used to.  I physically can now and so it's up to whether I want to punch in and do it.  During Today's 12 miler I would have given contradictory answers at various points of the run and afterwards!   Anyway, not exactly an existential crisis but I do feel like i need to either commit to pursing PRs again and do what it takes to try that or just settle for "good fitness" and "just running" which has been the 2013 approach.  I'm in Orlando for work all this week and then Germany and Italy the week after that.  Work travel is always a tough test of commitment to training.  So much easier to skip stuff.  So maybe I'll answer my own question about where I'm heading near term with running based on how lazy or not lazy I am while traveling.

Man, if that doesn't mirror exactly how my last 2 years have felt!

It's just so much work and time commitment on top of all the other life stuff that goes on, that it really becomes hard to muster the energy and motivation to get up at 5 am and get in those recovery miles or to knock them out at 9 pm after a long day.  And fitting in a 2 hour run in the middle of the week?  Not exactly the easiest thing in the world.  I've gotten to the point that I really have to have a marathon on the horizon to scare the crap out of me that I won't be able to finish to be motivated enough to get myself out the door every day.  I really still enjoy running, it's just that when there's so many other things to do, it makes you wonder about all those hours spent running and if they could be better spent on other things.  For me, a 60 mile week is about 7.5 hours of running, plus the time driving to and from the gym on nights it gets too late/dark to run outside, getting dressed, extra showers, etc. 

It's really a drain, and when you're not in as good of shape as you once were, it makes it that much harder.  In your case, I think you should just finish out this year, run as well as you can in your goal marathon, and start with a clean slate for next spring.  I would just pull out one of those Dave-O plans I'm sure you've got tucked away in an Excel file and just do it.  I think that would serve you, in particular, better than trying to wing it and having to think about things too much.

At any rate, I'm sure that doesn't help you make any kind of decision, but I can certainly empathize with the way you're feeling.  Now, if I could just get completely healthy and stay that way, my perspective might change a bit!

You're talking yourself in circles. 

From what I've read, I think you need to change things up a bit to get out of this rut. Some time on the track and hammering fast repeats makes sense.  And I think it makes sense physically with what you've done in the past few months. You've rebuild the aerobic base post-surgery, now you need to get some fast-twitch muscles back. 

I have a slow week scheduled. Let's email.

Dave-O wrote:You're talking yourself in circles. 

From what I've read, I think you need to change things up a bit to get out of this rut. Some time on the track and hammering fast repeats makes sense.  And I think it makes sense physically with what you've done in the past few months. You've rebuild the aerobic base post-surgery, now you need to get some fast-twitch muscles back. 

I have a slow week scheduled. Let's email.

Or is it the endurance that hasn't come back yet?  Just a thought for you both to discuss as that is what I feel I'm still missing after my surgery and downtime last year.  That said, Chris needs to get out of that rut - whatever it will take.

Two things have to change, both due to age(denying it is not wise), diet and supplement.

I have restless leg at night and finally decided to load up NUUN. I had only one calf cramp  at sleep for a month now.

Eat well, load up drugs, get sub 3 and quit running.

And, stop playing the damn soccer. I started watch football, soccer is just junk. I can't believe I waste so much of my life on it.

So, how lazy were you?