An Up & Down Kind of Summer (& an all over the place blog about it)

I have not written anything since early June when I ran 2:46:43 to take 5th at the Newport (OR) Marathon in a new PR. My summer plan was to recover from Newport, tackle the shorter distances, run 10k and half marathon PRs, and get in some quality long runs prior to my debut 50k coming up in September. Now that I see everything laid out like that, I probably should have refocused and picked something a little more tangible than basically saying I'd like to PR from 1500 to the half marathon while building my endurance for the fall.

(Bend Mile Classic- 4:53)

I took a week (4 days) off after Newport and then did 4 x mile in 5:40 on the bark mile loop at Amazon in Eugene and felt fine. A friend convinced me to run a 3k the following Friday (less than 2 weeks after Newport). The result was a 9:58, which is way off of the 9:24 I ran in March when I was in shape for it. This should be an indicator for how the summer has been going. With the disappointing (expected) result I went all in on the shorter distances and started to hammer mile paced things like 2 x 1km, 5 x 300m, 3 x 600m, 3 x 800m. My mileage stayed in the 70ish range throughout the summer as I did these workout. On July 6th, I raced at the Oregon Track Club All Comers Series four weeks in a row. I ran a small 1500 PR on the 6th in my opener at the distance in 4:27. It was on my birthday and I won! I would have liked to have had some competition but this result was okay. The Saturday after that race I decided to cram for a track 5k at the next All Comers. I ran a workout that went like this: 2 miles 11:15, 1 mile 5:15, 2x800 2:36, 2:34, 2x400 74, 71. I had run 16:36 in April and wanted to better this. My results on 7/13 was a 16:54 5k with k splits of 3:20-3:17-3:23-3:35-3:19. I really fell off hard on that 4th k. The endurance was simply not there with all of the shorter workouts. I went back to the 1500 the following week and ran 4:27 again. Two days later I was in Bend, OR, and ran a 4:53 road mile. I did this one for fun, having run the morning of the race and having had a beer at lunch... Anyways, I got after things on the last Thursday in July and ran 4:25 for 1500m. I got out a little bit quicker than I had through 800m in 2:22 (versus 2:24-2:26 the previous weeks). That made the two second difference. I was 3:33 at 1200 but did not have much of a kick as I was redlining more throughout this run. I closed faster in the previous two 1500s but this one was the fastest. I basically maintained pace on the last lap. If I had had any semblance of a kick I would have wound up in the lower-4:20s. All in all, I was somewhat satisfied with my summer of 1500s. I would have liked a better 5k in there and to shave off a few more seconds but the speed did make an appearance.

After that last 1500 it sort of hit me that I was signed up for a half marathon in less than a month. I got in a few good workouts: 6 x mile in 5:45, 4 mile tempo 22:50, 10 mile tempo 60:00, 10k race in 35:48. This looked encouraging so I thought that I could take a shot at my 1:16:40 PR. I went to San Diego with a running buddy for America's Finest City Half Marathon and there is no other word for it other than I bonked. I went through 5 miles on pace but the wheels fell off hard. It was 70 degrees with 100% humidity which is not something I had bee

(Hood to Coast- 4th place of 1000+)

n training in. Eugene is usually in the low-50s without much humidity in the summer. By 8 miles I was slower than the 10 mile tempo I did just a couple weeks earlier. I actually walked for a couple minutes as my legs were cramping. I crossed the line in 1:23:00 with some walking which is slower than what I ran the first half of my last marathon in. It was disappointing. I wanted another crack at the half before jumping into a marathon block. I ran a workout the Tuesday after- 5:18 mile, 16 x 400m w./ 200 jog in 73. Find me a 1:23 half marathoner where that workout is a piece of cake. After Tuesday's workout I jumped onto a Hood to Coast Relay Team the following Friday and Saturday. I ran 3 legs- 4.66 miles @ 5:14 pace, 7.25 miles @ 6:00 pace, and 5.32 miles @ 5:43 pace. I think I needed this run to happen before I toed another start line in the fall. I got some confidence putting out decent splits in a hectic environment. I had a blast with my teammates and we took 4th overall out of 1050 teams and 2nd in our division.

I think that Hood to Coast was a good way to end the summer. I tried to do too much. Running Hood to Coast was probably doing too much but it helped show me that I do have some fitness. It also helped me to loosen up and take things a little less seriously. I am nowhere close to elite level in this sport. I am pretty good but I know I can improve by a ton and I want to. That is why there is no let up in training. I think it will be important to choose goal races a little more carefully in training moving forward and recognize that not every race is setup to run a personal best.

What's next? I am running a 50k in a week and a half. I am going to try not to think too much about my training before this one but my mileage has been good and I have gotten in a number of solid long runs. I have done some running on the course, which includes a nearly 3 hour long run well under sub-4 hour 50k pace. I'm ready for this challenge and my debut ultra. After this I will be able to put in a marathon specific block before the NYC Marathon. I'll tackle NYC almost exactly 1 year to the date that I first got my blood clot. I'm excited to chase after a fast time.

I know this blog post was all over the place but that's sort of where my training is. All I know is that I have done workouts for a variety of distances and am plenty fit. Up next: my debut at 50k! Let's do it.