Test the Waters

I'm signed up for the 3000 at the January 6th Cornell meet. What are the chances you guys (Gordon, more likely) would be up for a race there?

Training

So, I am putting sub-1:50 out there as a goal, but not necessarily the goal. At this stage, I want to see what I am still capable of. That being said I have certainly had that number on my mind for a long time, and I can empathize with Steve(Sam)'s sub-15 blog (in fact, I think about it every time I open that website).

As for the video from the Nittany Half, I will be posting that after finals week has ended (this week) when I can load the video and figure out how to edit it/post it.

So, I won't go into great detail about the past few months. My first month I was consistent in running 60 minutes every day and 90 minutes on Sundays, but I had to scale that back after I started doing workouts because I was getting really bad tightness in my knees. I put a post on Letsrun to see if there was anyone to workout with here, and I got a response from the PSU Track Club and recent PSU graduate Ryan Foster. I ended up not having the time slot for the track club available, but I have run a few long runs with Foster, which has worked out much more to my advantage since I am much slower/older and less driven than him (he's in the process of qualifying for the Australian Olympic team).

Anyway, so skip ahead a few months of workouts. After trying to think of things to do to make myself fast I went ahead and got Will Seidel to put together a workout calendar for me, and thus far, things to seem to be going smoothly.

Last week:

S: 90 minutes

M: 60 Minutes

T: 45 minutes + 10 short hill sprints

W: 2 x 8 x 200 (36/35 for the first set and 34 for the second set) with 100 meter jog in between and 4 minutes between sets) --> The first set should have been faster but I had to run it on an outdoor track in the snow and the track got pretty slippery. So, I went based on effort.

R: 60 minutes

F: 45 minutes

S: 600 meter TT - 1:26 (200 splits: 28, 28, 30) again solo on outdoor track with some wind - I think I could have gone faster if but for the wind, but I'm happy with the time.

So, that's last week. As for things to look forward to, right now it looks like I'll either be running at Bucknell on January 7 or at Cornell on January 5. Either way, I'll be running a 500/3000 double.

le Trois - Sam

About a week ago Ross and I ran the Nittany Valley Half as a tuneup. For Ross, this would be a tuneup for the Boston marathon this coming April, and for me, this would be a tempo run of sorts as I train for some kind of track season this spring.

I am no longer a teacher, and this means that I have a lot more time on my hands. I would say that I am still busy, but my time is not as structured as it was, and I am nowhere near the level of busy-ness that I kept while I was living in NYC. Over the summer I ran a bit (40-50 mile weeks), but I wasn't sure what I was training for. Sometime around August I started thinking about running another marathon or trying something new like a triathlon or tough mudder. So, I got in touch with Ross and Sam, but, unbeknownst to me, Ross and Sam had both decided to take advantage of their Boston qualifying times and race another marathon this April (as they, admittedly, should).

I am sad to say that I was disappointed to hear this. I should have been happy for my friends, but, owing to the fact that I flamed out at the Pittsburgh marathon like a communist rocket, I would not be racing in Boston alongside them. So, come April, I will head up to Boston to watch, but not to run. Maybe another year.

Now, I had a decision to make - what was I going to be training for. I suddenly had time to train, but I wasn't sure what the goal should be. I had always said that I wanted to run sub 1:50 for the 800, but I had not done so in college. So, I decided that I'd see what I could do on the track as a 27-28 year old, and that's the plan right now.

Anyway, this is a long explanation of why I was calling the Nittany Valley Half a tempo while Ross was tuning up for Boston. We were both hoping to improve on our times from last March's Race For Life Half where Ross ran (I think) 1:25 flat and I ran about 1:26:30. We were both hoping for about 1:22.

We ended up with Ross at 1:23:22 and myself at 1:25:00 placing 18th and 28th respectively. I think our initial reaction was to feel disappointed, but, after having given it some thought, it was a pretty good showing. The course was very hilly, there were few stretches that were not on some sort of incline/decline, and the inclines and declines were very steep.

Ross and I got through the first 2-3 miles in 6:30 pace before we began dropping it down to 6:15ish. We had heard that the there was a big downhill around mile 8 and that the last 1.5 miles of the course were all uphill. Our plan was to use the big downhill to relax and save up for the last 1.5 miles, but the downhill (which seemed like it was 1.5 miles straight downhill, like we were descending into the Earth) ended up being more taxing than we anticipated. The next hill at around mile 9.5 was straight up for about 400 meters, and I had to say goodbye to Ross or risk not finishing. So, I slowed. From there the rest of the run was all about maintaining dignity while trying to catch my breath. I was by myself - there was no one else behind me or ahead of me, and I think this aided in me slowing down because there was little to gauge myself on. The last uphill was horrendous, but satisfying when I finished.

I think my effort on a flat course would have been worth about 1:23:30, and I'll bet Ross's would have been 1:22. The last 3 miles of the course made all the difference.

Chances Slim

Episode 1 is now up on the sub-15 blog. I'd like to take a moment to reflect upon how mutually exclusive my current running goals are. As if running a fast Boston or breaking 15 minutes (when I could never do it before) weren't hard enough, I'm dumb enough to try to do them in the same year. Goal number three, therefore, has to be not getting a femoral stress fracture. Enjoy.

Back From Vice City

Apologies for the lack of new blog posts. I've been away at a conference in New Orleans, and as a result, my running and blog posting have suffered.


By day, I drank coffee and was stuck in a suit for 12 hours at a time. By night, I was a hell cat, and considering our locale, this took its toll. New Orleans is basically one loud tranny bar filled with cigarette smoke. I didn't mind the fact that there are video poker machines at gas stations, but I did object to the fact that from Thursday to Tuesday, I had one long mild headache. This was the result of copious amounts of coffee and alcohol with little water in between and little sleep to boot. No one to blame but myself.

Running-wise, I guess I finished "Week 1" around what I wanted with a mid-40's performance. This week will be far worse than expected, though, as I haven't run since Saturday.

Thanks to Steve for posting the Sub-15 blog. I'm not sure when that little experiment will start, though I'm sure it will be very painful and fun to watch.

The Quest for Sub-15:00

So the blog idea that Sam alluded to earlier is a quest to break 15:00 for 5k. Each week he and I will complete one workout here in Syracuse. The catch is that the workout will be created by blog readers and can be comprised of just about any sort of repeats imaginable. We will keep a video record of our training and rate each workout when we are finished. Here is the link to where these videos will be cataloged: http://sub15minutes.blogspot.com/
If you have a good workout idea feel free to post it in the comments section after you watch the pilot episode.

A Word on the Second Coming

This is mostly a housekeeping post. I thought it would be useful to get some logistical things out of the way as we prepare for the (re)launch of Marathon à Trois.

First of all, it should be clear to everyone that the format has changed dramatically. You'll now be able to access links under the banner (e.g. "About", "Log", etc.), which is something you couldn't do before. I think there is a way to create a subpage within Blogger without creating a post, but I haven't figured out how to do it (hence the posts entitled "About" and "Log"). If one of you guys stumbles upon the solution, let me know. Hopefully you all agree that the color scheme is a lot cheerier. All in all, I think we're in a better place with the new layout.

Second, I wanted to tell you how the running log feature will work. I created a form using Googledocs, so now instead of posting a weekly recap, you can just go to the log and fill out your mileage. You can even do this a couple of times per week if you want. Just make sure you don't double up on reporting different days. Everything you input goes to a big spreadsheet, which I can share with you if you want. From that spreadsheet, it will be super easy to create graphs and shit. Cheeah. Welcome to 2011.

Third, Steve proposed an idea on the run today, which I thought was excellent. I'm thinking we'll devote a link to it so that we can track its evolution from now until summer. I'll let Steve describe it in his own post, though.

Finally, I just wanted to extend a warm welcome to le trois neveux: Oliver, Steve, and Will. Make us proud.