Trials and Tribulations

In early April, I was coming off of the NYC Half Marathon and looking forward to the Eugene Marathon. A few things did not go my way in NYC and I thought I left a lot of time out on the course. I managed a two second PR but definitely think that something in the 1:16 range should have been possible that day. After NYC, I upped my mileage and began to put in some solid workouts. I hit an 18 mile run and a 22 mile run. The week of April 4th, I hit a nice 4 x 2 mile workout in 11:37, 11:37, 11:35, and 11:21. The next three days I ran 11, 9, and 7 miles. Then on April 9th I ran the Pear Blossom 10 miler. The goal was to maintain marathon pace on some very tired legs, in a high mileage week. I ran 59:06 (58:50 on my Garmin) for 9th overall and 3rd in my age group. My last mile was my fastest in the race in 5:44. As I got into the last mile of the race, I started to feel lightheaded. It was a little warm (60s) in comparison to the 40s and 50s it had been for the previous couple months. After I crossed the line, I just figured I would hydrate and be fine. During my cooldown, the lightheaded feeling persisted so I shut it down for the day and figured that I would be good to go the next day. I was wrong.

I've been on this cycle for two full years now. In winter of 2014 I passed out running and then for the following 3 months or so I was lightheaded every time I ran. It eventually just went away. I was fine in the fall of 2014, but the feelings came back in the spring of 2015. By summer and fall of 2015 I was feeling back to normal again and felt awesome all the way up until April 9th, 2016. Then for about one month I felt the same as I did in winter 2014 and spring 2015. As I write this now the feeling seems to be gone. I was still feeling awful on May 1st but I wanted to complete my first marathon since fall of 2013. I should not have started to race because of the constant lightheaded feeling I was experiencing. I opened up the race with 5k splits of 19:04 and 19:09. This comes out to 2:41 marathon pace which should have felt easy seeing as I ran 5:55 pace for a 10 miler on tired legs and 5:54 pace for a half marathon both in the six weeks prior to this race. The lightheaded feeling persisted and I slowed horribly during the marathon. I went through halfway in 1:22:32 and stumbled home to finish in 2:59:18. I had to stop due to leg cramps around mile 25 for a couple of minutes. I have no idea what happened. Well, I know that my body just felt completely different on April 8th versus April 10th. The April 10th feeling is how I felt on May 1. The only good news is that I salvaged a Boston Qualifier so have that option the next two years now. I truly believed that I was in shape for a 2:37-2:42 marathon. Sure, sub-3:00 is nice and all, but this is where I was in 2012. I've put in the training for something much faster and it is tough to have circumstances you cannot control interfere with training and racing.

Anyways, now it is June, and just like that, the lightheaded feeling is no more (or very minimal). I hit the track with a lot of anger immediately after the marathon. I did take two weeks easy with four days or so off in the first week. On May 17th I took my frustrations to the track. I was still feeling lightheaded at this point but I did not care in the slightest. Here are my last several weeks of workouts:

5/17 4 x 800m- 2:27, 2:30, 2:35, 2:30, 1:58 600m, 69 400m, 6 x 200m 33, 33, 34, 34, 34, 33

5/20 12 x 200m hills

5/24 1km in 3:19 on bark (slow surface), 8 x 400m in 73, 73, 73, 73, 73, 73, 70, 68, 2 x 300m 50, 49, 2 x 200m 33, 32

5/27 4 mile tempo 23:07, 4 x 200m relaxed in 35, 35, 35, 34

5/31 1 mile on bark 5:38, 1200 3:47, 800 2:32, 600 1:53, 500 1:33, 400 71, 300 49, 6 x 200 33, 34, 32, 33, 32, 30

6/3 8 x 1600m on bark 5:50 average (5:37 last rep)

6/7 1 mile 5:45 on bark, 800m 2:13 (66.5, 66.5), 400m @ goal 1500 pace in 70, 4 x 200 32, 32, 30, 29

Most of the workouts above were done with jogging rests. I have no idea what I am in shape for. Last summer I ran a 4:39 and 4:35 for 1500m in the two races I competed in. About 30 minutes after the 4:39, I ran a 2:19 800m. I ran 2:13 for 800m in a time trial on June 7th. The workouts I have been doing have basically been at my 1500 pace from last summer or much much faster. I think I am in the 4:20s for 1500 and 4:40s for a mile right now. I am hoping I can run sub-16:00 for 5k this summer. I think my speed is setting up well for that once I get in some more strength over the coming weeks.

Tonight, I am heading up to Portland to tackle a track mile. There are different ways to deal with disappointment and frustration. Over the past two years, I have hated running and even have contemplated giving up all together. It is frustrating to not see improvement. During this tough time, however, I have made my choice to keep fighting. I think about where I was at in high school and it gives me all of the motivation I need. I was overweight when I started running, I got picked on a lot and made fun of for it. High school kids are ruthless. My first ever 5k I ran 24 or 25 minutes for 5k. Now I have run in the 16:30s and look positioned to knock off some more time this summer. In high school, I doubt I could break 6:00 for a mile. Now, I have run half marathons averaging in the 5:50s. I am hoping to drop something in the 4:40s for the mile tonight- not bad for a kid who six years ago would have trouble with 6:00.

Let's do it.