Yasso 1000's

On somewhat of a variation from the traditional 800's (run 10 of them with about equal rest and your average time "equates" to your marathon time), today I did Yasso 1000's. Basically, it's the same workout but a little tougher to make up for the fact that I'm a lower distance guy at heart.

I did 8x1000 with one lap jog between reps (about 2:30 rest). Splits were as follows:

3:20.5
3:19.9
3:21.0
3:18.6
3:19.4
3:17.8
3:19.1
3:16.9

Since 3:20 pace is going through 800 in 2:40, I would be very happy if this equated to anything close to my marathon time. The good news is that my legs are rocks at this point. The only trouble I had with the workout was on the last lap of some of the later reps when I had to breathe a little more heavily than I wanted to. That and some stomach issues. If I had to guess, it will be low energy/GI stuff that does me in if the marathon turns out to be a failure.

Unfinished Biz

With six and a half weeks to go, I am realizing that there are a number of blog items that I need to catch up on, namely a few celebrity interviews and the remaining installments of the course preview series. (As for the latter, for the previous installments, please go here and here.)

We left off at the first relay exchange, with most of the marathon still in front of us. Once they finalize the course, I will attempt, with Ross's help, to examine things more carefully so as to avoid epic blowups. If you take a peek at the image below, you should get a pretty good taste of what will have transpired by the first relay exchange (essentially a walk in the park with brain functioning at 10%), but in case you're an idiot and can't read pictures, and you're too lazy to read the earlier posts, I've typed out a summary for you--in bullet points, no less.

• Older man in glasses challenges Sam at starting line.
• After the gun goes off, le trois move their way into the lead pack, working through hordes of people who somehow thought it would be a good idea to run the first 400 meters of their four hour marathon at 5:30 pace.
• Ricky Lader (who has two heads and breathes fire) makes a go at Wilson Wanjiru Cheseret Kipketer Abugayo, who won last year's race by an hour and a half.
• Gordon realizes at the half mile mark that he's got some distance to go still. He asks his arthritic left knee to give it one more go and pushes onward.
  
• Ross stops for a Primanti Bros. submarine sandwich or "grinder" as they call it in Pittsburgh.
• Sam's kidneys begin failing him. Six minute pace may not be a valid option.

I'll let that marinate for a while and, in the meantime, promise to recommit to getting a Rojo interview up along with some actual thoughts on the marathon course.

Week 19 Recap

RO$$: S(9), M(8), T(11), W(0), R(11), F(0), S(17). 56 miles total. Really not a great week, although it was my highest daily average for one week so far. Today's long run did not go well. I drove out to a trail where I could do a relatively flat, out-and-back run. My intent was to run out nine miles at whatever pace I felt like, and then see what I could do on the way back. Well, on the way back I had a side stitch that I couldn't shake (which is my fault since my only pre-run food was a cinnamon bun and a blueberry muffin), and eventually my legs started shutting down. Once I hit mile 17, I decided to just walk it in rather than do further damage. That probably sounds worse than how things actually played out, since most of the way back I was going around 6:50 pace (which felt slow), and I never went slower than 7:20. Still, I certainly wasn't blazing in around 6:00 pace as I had hoped I would. Lesson of the day for the race: respect the distance.

And, Sam, I loved your last post. I laughed out loud when you said you were trying to hit 90 this week. I admire the ambition. Apologies to the readers for my recent silence. (The flood of emails can stop now.) Maybe I'll write a post of my top fifty least favorite things that kill the excitement in the last minute of college basketball games.

Sam: S(20), M(6), T(14), W(5), R(14), F(6), S(6). Total = 71. In the scenario where I ran 90 this week, Friday would have been 10 and I would have logged a second long run today (Saturday)--the old fake long week that Robert and Bruce used to rave about during long-short summer mileage training. Alas, it obviously didn't happen. Oh well, probably for the best.

Pace Work

This morning, Natalie was up and out the door by 5:30. She's been periodically going to Ithaca to oversee a test panel at IC for her upcoming book. I slept. In fact, I usually sleep as long as I can, generally 8-9 hours a night. I think the biggest reason for this has been the running.

This week has been good but rough on the legs. My quads have a deep-seated sort of fatigue that disappears when I take an easy day but returns mid-workout. A lot of last week's work has carried over into this week's, I think.

I felt it at the end of my long run on Sunday. Tuesday, I did a workout where I did 4x Barry Park, which is, at this time of year, a super muddy 1.1 mile circle near our house. Splits there were 6:39, 6:34, 6:34, 6:36 for an average pace of about 6 minutes per mile. I then went to the SU track for 3x mile but ended up running 2x 1.5 miles since it felt easy. These were at 5:48 and 5:50 pace, respectively. When I got home, quad time was back with a vengeance.

Wednesday I dropped an easy 5 miles with Natalie and was feeling good, but then yesterday, I foolishly did another workout: 3x 8 minutes at 5:40 pace with a mile-pace 400 after each rep and a 5:40 mile at the end.

My initial plan for this week--driven by the allure of logging a ridiculous 90 miles on singles thanks to sandwiched long runs and long midweek workouts--was to bump my long run to Saturday. The other idea was to run Saturday's 10 mile Mountain Goat training run at marathon pace. But come on. That would be stupid. The new plan is to run as easy as possible for two days before doing another long Sunday.

Post note: I suppose I could have waited until tomorrow to post all this workout drivel. Oh well.

Week 18 Recap

Sam: Good rebound week. S(14, race), M(9), T(off), W(6), T(10), F(8, back on the trails!), S(10, Mountain Goat training run closing the last few miles around 6 minute pace). Total=57. It took me until Thursday or so before I was clear of the residual half-marathon fatigue. Today's run, I felt great. It's nice to have the feeling that I've got my legs back under me. The Hal Higdon plan calls for pace work the day before a long run. Tomorrow I'm going for another 20 miler, so we'll see if I pay for it.

RO$$: S(14), M(8), T(7), W(7), R(9), F(8), S(9). 62 miles total. This ended up being my highest week yet, but it didn't feel like anything special. The fact that it's light out now and a little warmer has made a world of difference. I will say that I still don't feel fully recovered from the race, which surprises me since I didn't feel all that taxed afterward, but from Wednesday of last week through Monday of this week things were pretty hectic, so I'm probably just wiped out in general. Those two seven mile runs were sheer hell. On Tuesday the plantar fascia of my left foot hurt so bad that I thought it might legitimately set back my training, but on Wednesday I started wearing my Superfeet shoe inserts again and now my foot feels normal. I'm sure my legs would feel better if I took a day off, but I'll rest when I'm dead.

Gordon: S(14), M(5), T(5), W(8), R(5), F(5), S(11) 50 miles total. Looks like I'm the turd in the punch bowl, here, but I was tired this week. I am aiming for a 70 week here and I'm going to try and cap it off with a 20 miler on Saturday.

Tough Mudder

This looks difficult, but I think we should do this. We should sign up soon.

Our Growing Presence in Iran

Final Call for Reach the Beach

We've been throwing ideas around on how we can keep this blog around post-Pittsburgh. There are three races on my radar for the fall: Reach the Beach, Tough Mudder, and the Empire State Marathon in Syracuse, NY.

Since these are all about a month apart starting with Reach the Beach in September, it's not out of the question that, time permitting, we could run all three. Moreover, Ross, Gordon, and I have found this blog to be a great way to keep in touch with many of our friends, and we all like the idea of having our friends take part in the running side of things as well.

That brings me to Reach the Beach. I've posted about it before. Essentially, it's a two-day event that takes place over 200 miles. Teams of up to 12 people run the race non-stop. It's held in New Hampshire on September 16-17.

Most importantly, over 80% of the spots are filled at this point. I'm not even sure we'll get a spot if we apply by the end of this week, but if there's interest, we should take our chances. Without further ado, please reply if you are definite about being able to come out to run.

(Note, with the utmost respect to our female readership, our preference is to field an all-male team. We're not trying to be dicks about it. That said, a co-ed team would be a lot of fun, too, and we will certainly entertain the possibility if we can't get enough guys signed up. What I mean to say is...everyone should post their interest.)

Singlet thoughts

I was thinking it would be nice to have some official 'le Trois' gear for the race in May. I found two websites that offer custom track singlets. The one has Adidas gear, but I'm unclear on the rules for purchasing:

http://www.thegraphicedge.com/catalog/item.asp?i=2783

This one seems like the place from which Solanco High (farmer's high school) purchased all of their uniforms, but it's still a singlet and it looks like it would cost about $23. We could also purchase matching shorts, but that's not as important to me.

http://gtmsportswear.com/gtm/cs/c.asp?c=AUN&m=TR

We could, of course, also just get t-shirts. I am in favor of singlets.

Thoughts?

All Around Success - Celebrate Life Half Marathon

Sam - 3rd overall with a time of 1:17:09 - (5:53 pace)
Ro$$ - 17th overall with a time of 1:25:00 *New Updated Place* - (6:30 pace)
Gordon - 20th overall with a time of 1:26:25 *Newly Updated Place* (6:36 pace)

Summary:
If I were to summarize the performance it would be to say that we accomplished what we set out to do at the race. I, obviously, can't speak for everyone, but I would say that we were all satisfied with our respective performances on Sunday. We had differring goals heading into the race, but were each proud of our efforts, and I would also add that I was happy for Ross and Sam, as well.

Goals:
Sam had previously mentioned that he wanted to get out and be near the front, and, if he felt comfortable, push through the finish for the win. He also invited me and Ross to join in on this plan. I had entertained the idea of staying with Sam, especially after he made the post about what it would take to win the race. It seemed manageable when he described it, and, as I've posted before, I still think of myself as a much faster runner than I actually am. So, I immediately convinced myself that I would not only be capable of this, but that I would enjoy going after the win.

I'm really glad, though, that Ross nixed that plan. It gave me a reason to back out on Sam, and to run at a more suitable pace. Also, I would have certainly fallen apart in this race if I'd stayed with Sam. So, this saved me from a whole lot of late-race self-loathing and a considerable amount of pain.

Ross and I made a plan to run together for most of the race and to see how we felt at the finish. The original idea had been to start out at 7:00 pace, stick to that for 8- 9 miles, and then see what we could do for the last few miles.

Race Day:
The morning of the race we all got up tired. Apparently, I snore pretty loudly, and this was the weekend of daylight savings. I slept great, but woke up tired as I was still feeling the combined effects of Friday night and the hour that we lost.

Ross and Sam seemed to wake up in worse condition. For one, I was snoring for most of the night. And, secondly, they had to share a bed - we held a competition to see who would share a bed. The winner would get one bed to himself. The losers would have to share the other bed. Here I was going to make a joke about how the two of them had to share the bed because they couldn't beat me at anything, and then, like an idiot, I remembered that I'm writing a blog post about how they both crushed me in this half marathon.

Fortunately, this race was set up really well. Our hotel was a place called The Lodge at Rock Hill, and the start line was directly in front of the Lodge. The hotel was, also, hosting a free breakfast, and registration was in the room next to the breakfast.

We woke up somewhat late. The race was set to go off at 10:00 am, and we woke up at 7:55, but due to the great set up, we woke, dressed, and walked to breakfast, ate, registered, and were back in the room with time to spare. We didn't bother warming up much. So, we didn't have to jog down to the start line until around 9:45 - 9:50.

Sam, who was getting after it, went down in shorts, a singlet, and an undershirt. Ross and I, running more conservatively/cowardly, went in tights and fleece. The weather at the start seemed cold first, but turned out to be perfect running weather. I was skeptical and nearly added a layer but was talked out of it by Ross (who, by this count, had saved my race twice).

When the gun went off, Sam got out and put himself in good position. I dropped into what I assumed was a comfortable 7:00 pace, and looked over my shoulder to see Ross lagging behind. I allowed myself to drop back somewhat until Ross finally caught up. He, then, informed me that we were most likely running 6:15 pace. I apologized, but, in my head, doubted that we were running that fast. At mile 1 we came through at 6:13, after we had both already slowed considerably.

As Ross and I neared 7:00 pace, Sam dropped from view and remained out of sight until the race was over. For most of the rest of the run, the path followed tree-lined, backwoods roads. Good sections of the race followed a lake, which made for nice scenery. There were plenty of hills, but only a few that were all that taxing. With the good weather, it made for a great setting to have a good run.

Ross and I kept a conversation going for a solid 9 miles before any amount of discomfort set in (for me). I don't know about Ross, but having someone to talk to made it easy for me to keep clocking off miles at a decent pace. We never really slowed below 6:50 pace. Some of the miles were slower if they were uphill, but they were usually complemented by a faster downhill mile following. When I saw the pace calculator had us at 6:30 and 6:36 I wasn't surprised. It seemed like we either ran 6:30(flat mile) - 6:50(uphill) - or 6:15(downhill/end of race).

At around the 9th mile, there was a big uphill and then a big downhill. After the downhill we started to really pick up the pace to about 6:00. I kept it up for a mile, but I could tell that I wasn't going to bring the pace down any further. Ross was still feeling great at that point, and so he began picking it up right around mile 11. From mile 11 to mile 12 Ross put a little distance on me, but stayed within sight. The last mile I was out of sight from Ross, there was another big uphill and then the race finished on a long downhill. The last hill took all the sting out of my legs, and I finished strong, but without a kick. Ross put a good amount of distance on me in the last mile and managed to catch two guys that were ahead of us.

Sadly, Sam has been left out of much of this description because he was way ahead, and I don't know much about how things went except that the guy that won was out front the entire time.

Marathon Implications:
As I told Ross, I was flattered but I thought that it was silly that the people interviewed for the blog had been ranking me ahead of him. I weigh more, and I was never as good as Ross at larger distances. I was glad that I was able to stay with him for 11 miles, and I'm proud of the time I ran considering I held a conversation for most of it and it was over hills, and there are zero hills in Brooklyn that I run on.

I am still thinking 2:50 for myself, and I think that I'll be able to hang with Ross (at least) for 18 miles or so. I'm thinking that I'll start doing some 5ks (Sam's suggestion) to sharpen my 6:00 mile pace.

I feel good, though, and I'm excited about May.

Send it in

Thank you for registering for the Dick’s Sporting Goods Pittsburgh Marathon! When you registered you selected a seeded pace of 6:49 minute mile or less. In order to receive a seeded position you must provide a qualifying result in a half marathon or greater and in the 2010 or 2011 calendar year. You did not provide the race result URL that shows your seeded qualifying time. Please email me this information at your earliest convenience.

If I do not hear from you before April 30, you will be placed in the Non Seeded – Under 8 min mile category.

Thank you,

Katie Pavlich

Special Events Director

Dick's Sporting Goods Pittsburgh Marathon

310 Grant Street

Suite 1123

Pittsburgh, PA 15219

kpavlich@pittsburghmarathon.com

Half Marathon Results

Today was the Celebrate Life Half Marathon, our 9-week-out barometer for Pittsburgh. I'm nominating Gordon to write the full recap of the weekend given his recurrent online absenteeism. In the meantime, see results here: http://results.active.com/pages/displayNonGru.jsp?rsID=106661

Week 17 Recap

Sam: A horrible week of running for me filled with squandered opportunities and long travels. S(12), M(6, felt awful), T(rest), W(traveled to Phoenix and spent all day sitting in airports), W(7), T(conference all day, too lazy to run on the hotel treadmill), S(a quick 5 when I get to Syracuse). I'm currently flying over the Rocky Mountains. 30 miles total. let's see if my shitty volume translates into a decent result tomorrow.

RO$$: S(8), M(10), T(0), W(7), R(0), F(8), S(0). 33 miles total. Bad week for me as well, which was something of a trend for Le Trois last week. I also had to travel (as fauthful readers know) and it sucked. In my opinion, the most disappointing aspect of all three of us having crap weeks leading into the half was that none of us could use everyone's favorite chickenshit running excuse: "I'm just training through this race." It's a really great excuse because if you run awesome, you can pretend like you would have broken the world record had you only tapered, and if you run like shit, saying that you trained through the race implies that you fully intended to run like shit and aren't secretly depressed inside. Alas, all of us inadvertently cut our mileage last week. Oh well.

(Sorry for the retroactive nature of this post. I would propose that we all at least add some thoughts about the race this week, although Gordon should step it up. Last week's poor showing running-wise was also a poor week writing-wise, so a boost in content wouldn't be a bad thing.)

Gordon: S(9) M(7) T(7) W(off) R(5) F(8) S(off) 36 miles for the week. Also, crappy. There were a number of excuses to boost our egos about the way we ran in the half marathon, but Ross is right. It was a crappy volume week all around. I got two runs with Ross in, which was great, and we, obviously, ran about 14 on Sunday, but disappointing volume wise. However, in brighter news, it seems like Le Trois is poised for greatness, or at least meet-moderate-expectationness, for the Pittsburgh Marathon.

More to come about this later today, as we all review the results.

Sedona, Arizona

Half Marathon Weekend's Disastrous Start

The plan was for yours truly to fly into New York City tomorrow night, where Gordon and I would join forces and promptly BLACK THE FUCK OUT before meeting Sam in Rock Hill on Saturday. But then yours truly somehow screwed up his flight reservation, so the plan was altered. I was going to fly in tonight instead, where Gordon and I would join forces and promptly BLACK THE FUCK OUT TWICE before meeting Sam in Rock Hill on Saturday.

Then Delta effed everything up.

I'll spare everyone the grisly details -- all the readers need to know is that I'm writing this post in Pittsburgh. The end result is that I canceled my flights, and I'm driving to New York tomorrow morning instead.

Le Trois will not be stopped.

Good Morning, Syracuse

The Official Oliver Tassinari 800 Bet

For months, people have been talking. Rumors have been circulating. Odds-makers have been pulling out their hair with the spectrum of possibilities starting with the essential "will they or won't they" question.

To clarify, I'm not talking about the Pittsburgh Marathon or our fast-approaching half this Sunday. I'm talking about Oliver and his race against cardiovascular disease -- Oliver and his epic quest to return to what once was or might have been in some universe deep in his dream of dreams.

This summer, Oliver will run an 800, chasing the ghost of his former or future self. The terms, stakes, and stake-holders have been vigorously debated, but rest assured there will be plenty of money and a healthy dose of pride on the line. Winds from Singapore have brought news that the Far East has gotten our hero off to a promising start. Oliver has been enjoying a steady diet of tiger blood, sleeping 10-12 hours per day for 20-30 seconds at a time, and mastering the tantric art of Gaiam sex yoga.

Today, my goal is to finalize the details. We've asked for input already from the esteemed Rojo and JK, and they are feverishly working toward that end. Please feel free to give your thoughts so that we can get this finished up and shipped off to legal.

Also, thank you to John Roberts who passed along this inspirational tale.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The event: 800 meters

The date: TBD, though the June 11 New Balance Meet in Boston, Mass has been thrown out there.

The backstory on the terms and stakes:

Alright Will,

I'm in on this bet... but you have always been in on it. So, in order to keep me excited about it, I thought it might be a good idea to change up the stakes. By the way, what were the original stakes? $100? If that is the case, I'm happy to pay it - just a drop in the bucket my friend. But how bout this, if I win the bet, I buy you dinner and you get drunk with me. And not a couple sips of a wine cooler... no no. You go out with me on the town in Boston and get filthy, stinkin, drunk. I'll pay for all the drinks, you owe me no money.

What do you say friend?

OT out

----

Haha - I think I'd be more comfortable sticking with the 100 bucks.

It's still 2:08 right?

Will

----

I like where this is going, but I think we have some discord when it comes to the incentive structure for this contract. Oliver is clearly not motivated to get his fat ass off the couch for a measly $100. Will, true to history, is understandably reluctant to put an end to his irrational sobriety streak just because Oliver ran a time that wouldn't guarantee a spot in the girls' Heps final some years. Therefore, I think we should make a few tweaks and up the financial ante in spots. You will notice that the contract is performance-based.

Anything above 2:08.00: Oliver pays will $1000. Oliver takes Will out to fancy restaurant of Will's choosing. Will gets to punch Oliver in the stomach when he's not expecting it. (Note: if Oliver fails to break 2:15.00, he must get a 1 inch by 1 inch tattoo of Will's choosing in a place of Oliver's choosing.)
2:06.00-2:07.99: Will pays Oliver $100.
2:04.00-2:05.99: Will pays Oliver $200. Will takes Oliver out to fancy restaurant of Oliver's choosing.
2:02.00-2:03.99: Will pays Oliver $300. Will takes Oliver out to fancy restaurant of Oliver's choosing. Will has choice of drinking one half of one alcoholic beverage or getting punched in the stomach when he's not expecting it.
2:00.00-2:01.99: Will pays Oliver $500. Will takes Oliver out to fancy restaurant of Oliver's choosing. Will has choice of drinking five alcoholic beverages or getting a 1 inch by 1 inch tattoo of Oliver's choosing in a place of Will's choosing.
Sub-2:00.00: Will pays Oliver $1000. Will takes Oliver and up to five friends of Oliver's choosing out to fancy restaurant of Oliver's choosing. Will has choice of drinking ten alcoholic beverages or getting a 2 inch by 2 inch tattoo of Oliver's choosing in a place of Oliver's choosing.

Sam

----

For the record, I'm happy to join in as a stake-holder in this bet if we want to add complexity or remove financial burdens from Will. It may also be fair to give Will some element of control i.e. Oliver must finish within so many seconds of Will to claim victory.

At any rate, I'm anxious to hear your thoughts.

Week 16 Recap

Bruce Jenner: I can barely remember this week. Talk about going through the motions. Let's see, it was something like ... S(12), M(6), T(3, supposed to be a double), W(9, hills), R(off), F(6), S(9, race). Total=45 miles. I just got back from the Tipp Hill 4 Mile Shamrock Run, which was a disappointment. I ran 22:07 for fourth, which doesn't sound awful, but I really blew up the second half, running splits somewhere in the range of 5:00, 5:20, 5:55, 5:50. Granted, the course was largely downhill through two miles and uphill for most of the second half. It didn't help that around 3.5 miles in a volunteer told me to go the wrong way. Fifty meters after that I got to a fork where there was no one around. I had to call back to the guy behind me who didn't know which way to go either. Someone further back yelled left, and on we went. So, in summary, while 22:07 isn't bad, I think I could have been under 22 minutes even if I wasn't going to catch third place (William Hoyne). Next week is the half marathon. I'm going to see how 6 minute pace feels and if I blow up, so be it.

Fred Samara: S(10), M(9), T(9), W(8), R(7), F(0), S(14). 57 miles total. Not a bad week. Only three miles below my high since the inception of the blog, but when I hit 60 I ran for seven days. I was actually building toward bigger things, but I felt awful Thursday night and cut my run short, and then it was raining when I got home Friday. No way in hell was I dragging myself through a run in the rain at the end of a work week. (Just so I don't seem like a baby, it was raining throughout my entire run today.) My plan for the half is almost the exact opposite of Bruce's. My primary aim is to make sure I don't blow up under any circumstances. I'm going to start out at 7 minute pace, go about that fast (maybe a little faster if I feel good) for eight miles, and then see what happens. No way could I make it four miles at 6 minute pace right now.

Gordon: S(10) M(5) T(5) W(5) R(3) F(3) S(4) 35 Total. I would feel bad, but it was hard getting back to work. My plan is to put in a normal week and run through the half marathon regardless of time. Ross, I'll probably stick with you since you know what you're doing over longer distances and I don't.

New Anthem

With all due respect to Wiz and Ro$$, it appears that MaT has a new anthem. You all know what I'm talking about. If you haven't heard it by now, give it a listen here.

Truth be told, this song is laughably bad as thousands of unemployed YouTube commentators will attest to. I just thought we needed a filler post to get us through to the weekend. It's been a hard week.