Tag Archives: marathon training

Oct 15 2021
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Checking In 10/15/2021

Yesterday I took a spur of moment work break run in the afternoon that felt okay. Then at the gym I did a full Phillips warmup, before a brief session on the elliptical and then some strength training to finish.

I wasn’t tired like Wednesday, but I did have a shorter session at the gym than usual. I ate a decent meal and, while it took some time to get to sleep, I did sleep reasonably well and feel alright today.

The gym to some extent has been a training lifesaver. Even with no treadmill much of the time, the elliptical and other cross training has provided a ton of aerobic volume.

At some point I’ll debrief on how training this summer went. Safe to say, it’s by and large been a disappointment. Never minding injury issues, I’ve been very limited in what marathon-specific training I can do, and even if I hadn’t been hurt or otherwise set back I’m not sure I could have done much more than run long.

I’ve noticed accounts from many other Vegas runners training for marathons that they’ve had a very hard time doing much more than that, even when getting up early to beat the sunrise on weekends. A lot of us were struggling with marathon training in the heat this year, and if anyone’s going to go forward with it next summer we’d all need a new edict.

Honestly, though, the final answer may just be that training through the summer for a fall marathon isn’t practical in Vegas. It’s fairly hard in most places because even without extreme heat there’s a lot of humidity. But the extreme heat here made it prohibitively difficult too often.

Even if all else was ideal I’d have still had to leave town for several of my long runs. I probably couldn’t do that every summer and I know most in Vegas simply can’t.

The flip side is that the relatively mild Vegas winter is almost perfect for training through winter for a spring marathon, whereas in other places snow and ice make it rather difficult. If I want to do Vancouver next spring, training for that would be a lot easier, and a more complete set of workouts.

I’ll have a much better idea of how I feel about the latter by the end of this year. Meanwhile, I’m in the final stage before Indy, and I still have work to do on a long run this weekend. We’ll see if I do it Saturday or Sunday (the pull of relaxing on my birthday Saturday is rather strong, but I also don’t want to put the long run at risk by pushing it back).

I have a game plan for this long run, and will probably do it close to home, plus I realize it might be a better fit to do it Sunday even though it’s a bit risky to put it off. If it all works out, though, I’ll like where I’m at with Indy a lot better than I do right now.

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Oct 14 2021
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Checking In 10/14/2021… Ideas about future plans as well

Yesterday I went to Far Hills for some easy hill running, but my legs felt like lead pretty much out of the gate and never did improve beyond a difficult slow slog. Though the 2nd mile was a bit better, the uphill sections felt brutally tough and after a couple of circuits I looped back to the start at 2.6 miles and decided to call it there, heading to the gym and using the elliptical instead.

It looks like Tuesday’s 5.6 took more out of me than I had thought. I had eaten a big dinner Tuesday and I not only slept well but woke up yesterday feeling pretty good. But my legs simply were too tapped out to do much.

Tonight I’ll just stick to the gym, strength train, do a 10 minute warmup on the treadmill and then train on the elliptical. I’m still a bit sore and tired in the legs, and at this point I ought to focus on rest and recovery for this weekend’s long workout.

Regardless of how Indy goes next month, I’m sure that over the rest of my life I’ll want to do at least three more marathons:

  • I want to run Vancouver at least once more, whether it’s next year or some other year down the road.
  • I want to run Chicago at least once more. I’m fairly sure it won’t be next year but certainly some other year down the road. I probably will need to move on from Vegas before I can train through a summer for it.
  • I want to run the Luxembourg Night Marathon, which happens every May. A couple people I know have run it and it’s apparently quite fun running through the capital of a compact country at night. This wouldn’t happen before 2023, and I’d want to learn German and French on a high-functional level (I know a bit but not enough to be useful) before making the trip.

But in terms of stretch goals, bucket lists, however you put it, that’s honestly it. I don’t have any real interest in any others. I’m ambivalent about how much more energy I want to funnel into marathon training as a general practice. Maybe that will change in a while.

But a summer of training in Vegas has shown me that conventional marathon training in Vegas is probably too difficult for my circumstances. The injury thing might have been a blessing in disguise, as the seven derailed weeks prevented me from running all that much. The trips out of state to run in cooler climates helped for sure, as did the little work break runs in high heat. But even if I were 100% any other needed quality training (tempo runs, speedwork) was simply too much to ask in the Vegas heat, or through the pounding of using a treadmill.

Some of the issue was my weight having gotten to 175-180 lbs (the 80kg range), and that my prior training worked while I was at 160-170 lbs. The extra pounding probably created problems that wouldn’t have happened at 165 lb. Getting away from high volume endurance training for a bit can allow me to eat a lighter diet and slim down a bit more.

Even now, my natural eating patterns are more conducive to 2000-2500 calories per day, great for fat loss and intermittent fasting, but bad for meeting the calorie needs of marathon training. I’ve had to do a bunch of extra eating to cover the calorie and recovery needs of endurance training.

As of now, I want to focus on other training following Indy, and am not in a hurry to get back to long slower endurance workouts for marathons.

After recovering from Indy I plan to restrict my marathon training to a long run every couple weeks or so, just to maintain the endurance fitness built for Indy. Then, if/when I plan to run a marathon, it’s not a huge, long project to get trained for it.

Any other training would be sport-specific training. Any other running would be easy intervals for overall fitness, tailored when applicable to any other distances I’m planning to race. And I wouldn’t need to do them or endurance train every day. I could wake up, feel sore, and just decide to rest that day, almost any day.

23 days to Indy. This weekend remains a key workout, so the next couple days will be easier to ensure I’m loaded up for that long run.

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Oct 13 2021
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Checking In 10/13/2021

Yesterday I ran a bit over 9K near my gym. The weather had improved after Monday’s high winds and heavy pollution in Vegas.

Along with wanting to finish near the gym and be able to stretch etc, the roads and trails allow for mostly clear running over a few miles, giving me what I could find from some other locales but with the added benefit of my gym being right there when I’m done. I went inside and strength trained 20 minutes before stretching and heading home.

This was a fairly strong steady run and I didn’t have much trouble maintaining pace for close to an hour. It obviously helps that Vegas has cooled significantly down, and that along with sunset shadows it was only 63°F during the run. We have reached fall and it looks like the cooler weather is here to stay, meaning I can now comfortably run outside once again. The timing couldn’t be much better as I’m now in peak training.

On Monday I had done some work break running, and after work the wind and dust forced me inside to use the treadmill for a bit. The settings gave me some uncanny problems during 3.5 fitful miles of (what should have been) easy intervals. Once my right hamstring started to struggle a bit, I quickly shut it down before any pain could rear its head and switched to the elliptical for about 20 minutes.

Even now I feel just a bit tired and a bit sore. It probably helped that I decided not to run on work breaks yesterday, opting instead to just walk and focus any running on the one evening workout. I even spent one work break grabbing something to eat, which I need now that I’m burning 3000+ calories per day. Yesterday needed about 3400 after Monday needed 3800, that a product of having run on work breaks.

Today is more of the same: An extended run after work, and possibly some extra work in the gym after that. I may take today’s run to a park and neighborhood, though, which would eliminate the gym component, though I’ll still want to stretch afterward. Either way, I won’t run during work breaks, and will just walk and eat instead.

Not running on the treadmill definitely felt a lot better on my legs. I now firmly believe the treadmill running was a key source of my injury problems this summer, and that running outside allows the downward force into my legs to propel forward instead of just going back through the legs as they do on the mill. So I’ll keep things outside as much as I can going forward.

If during this workweek my legs get too sore or tired I’ll just move back to the elliptical for aerobic training and give them a chance to bounce back. It’ll be key to be able to run long Saturday or Sunday, so Friday will likely be an easy day, even though I intend to train that day no matter what. If I have to take Saturday off, that’s fine, but then I run long Sunday morning.

Either way, mentally and energy-wise I’m feeling pretty good, which is a good sign in the middle of what needs to be a very tough training week. Indy is in 24 days. Right now, as trained to-date, finishing is possible. But if the next 10 days goes well, my estimates should improve dramatically.

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Oct 11 2021
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Checking In 10/11/2021

I pretty much took the weekend off, after all.

On Saturday, I had to take my car in for service and some other errands. By the time I returned home I was actually fairly exhausted, a good deal more than usual. I also still had the same lingering hamstring soreness from earlier that week. I decided not to train and just took it easy. In fact, I turned in rather early, with the sunset. And that was around 6:45pm.

Yesterday, Sunday, I rode long on the spin bike, about 105 minutes, but otherwise nothing else. Again, I took it easy, outside of going to the store and doing laundry.

Today I feel like a weird ball of energy… maybe this is what it feels like to have energy and not be tired? I do get so used to being tired and exhausted from training and life that perhaps I mistake having energy for being jittery? I haven’t had coffee yet. I slept reasonably well last night, and though I didn’t sleep much Friday night I definitely slept well Saturday night.

In any case, I also don’t have hamstring soreness this morning. Two days off allowed that to dissipate. I will slowly ramp today back into training, as we’re now into peak week… maybe peak fortnight, depending on how much I can handle next week as well. That will be the last week of intense training, as I’ll then have two weeks to Indy and will begin to taper.

I didn’t watch Sunday’s Chicago Marathon, and of course I’ll be working today so I won’t be watching Boston. Is it exciting, or do I have any feelings of missing out? Not really. It’s great to see people chasing their victory laps. But I’ve had mine, and hopefully will complete one of my own next month.

I don’t get the dreaded FOMO (fear of missing out) much at all these days. I feel comfortable mentally about where I’m at, even if I’m not yet where I want to be. I can continue working where I’m at on where I want to go, without seeing someone else’s victory lap and feeling bad, antsy, FOMO, etc. Good for them, and I still feel good about where I am.

I ran Chicago three years ago (the dreaded Hiccups Marathon), and do want to run it again someday (even if I find the massive Chicago crowds annoying). I like the course and experience, and much like Vancouver 2019 I want the next time around to go right and be able to run that marathon out on my terms. It’ll also be good to see some of my old Chicago people once again. It may not be next year, but at some point I’ll run it again.

Boston? Maybe in the (admittedly unlikely) event I qualify, sure. But otherwise, I’m not interested. It’s a pedestal marathon for many, but I don’t think nearly as much of it as others.

As for more accessible marathons… Vancouver 2022 remains a possibility. I had actually considered not running another marathon for at least a year or two, and focus on training for other distances.

But after all the problems I’ve had with the Indy training cycle, I want to take a month or two off from hard training and then it’d be nice to take advantage of the Vegas winter conditions (actually ideal for marathon training) and get it right this time. Vancouver, presuming they hold the race (I think we’ll be out of the Coronawoods by then and they’ll do it), would be an ideal end goal.

That’s not to say I couldn’t still focus on those other events, and maybe just restrict my Vancouver training to a long run every week or two, and a longer tempo/pace run every week or two. Any other training would still benefit my marathon fitness, should I decide to run it next May. As long as I did a marathon-specific run every week, I could still maintain and improve that long fitness to some degree.

That’s to be figured out down the road, though. For now I still need to get ready for Indy, and this week of wall to wall training is all about that.

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Oct 08 2021
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Checking In 10/8/2021

Even after sneaking over to the gym and riding the spin bike easy for half an hour, yesterday was a fairly restful day. The laundry I was going to do could wait until the weekend.

Garmin logs your stress according to restful periods, low stress, medium stress, high stress. Usually, I only log about 6-8 hours total restful time (which includes sleep), and bear in mind stress comes not just from your daily living and recovery following exercise, but from digesting food.

However, yesterday I logged over 10 restful hours. I don’t think that’s a record, but it’s probably close. So, even with meals and the workday, even not being able to get to sleep for some reason until close to 11pm, I had a fairly restful day. After some initial grogginess this morning after waking up a bit late (6am), I feel pretty good, and my body battery started at 89, which for me lately is fairly good as I’ve been averaging in the 50’s. I had been feeling fairly tired the last couple days, so it’s great to feel substantially better.

I decided to ride the restful wave and not run this morning before work, even though the conditions (60-65°F, 50% humidity, overcast following rain overnight) are basically perfect for a run. That’ll reduce projected training volume a little bit, but at this point I’m aiming for this to be a down week.

My hamstrings have had for a couple days this slight lingering ache, which I vastly prefer to being injured. For the next couple days I’m going to err training on the side of caution and see if I can heal all the way up going into next week’s gauntlet. I still have some long cross training planned, but I’ll play running by ear.

I switched up my supplements after running out of my usual Cal-Mag Citrate. I went with a generic magnesium glycinate standalone plus a Calcium Citrate and D3 supplement from Sprouts, and I’ll stick with that for the next month or two before deciding to stick with it or switch back.

Tonight after some quick errands (a running theme this week) I’ll do some cross training at the gym, and tomorrow I have to take my car in for service, which will either break up tomorrow’s training into smaller portions or push it all back to the afternoon.

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Oct 07 2021
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Checking In 10/7/2021

Last night I got to the gym… and didn’t walk in the door for another 45 minutes.

Instead, I went for a run in the neighborhood and logged close to 6K before looping back to the gym, going a few minutes on the rowing machine and stretching out. My right hamstring ached some yesterday but I had no problem running with it.

While granted the weather is now cooler so this couldn’t have worked before now, this ended up working fairly well, and I’ll probably do this going forward. If for some reason running isn’t working on a given day, I’m very close to the gym so I can just head back and use the elliptical instead.

Yesterday I also got to work early and went on a brief pre-work run. The climate and temperature was not only too good but loosely matched the expected conditions for Indy (cool, some humidity). Doing this run felt quite a bit better physically than the break runs (and I still did a couple of those during work yesterday). So I’d like to also do these pre-work runs on training days going forward, and then just take it easy on lunch breaks as I’ve been doing the last couple weeks.

Today is a scheduled rest day from training (which I guess is good because I feel worn out this morning), and I’ve got laundry and other errands to attend to tonight. Tomorrow I have more evening errands so (break runs aside) I won’t be able to train too much tomorrow. Saturday will be a swing day, where depending on feel I’ll either train long or take it easy and probably train more like a weekday. Sunday is also a scheduled rest day from training. A lot of rest!

Next week will be peak week: Wall to wall weekday training, Saturday a day of rest if needed, and then a tough long workout that Sunday. If I can go 16+ miles without significant trouble that weekend, I should be in a good place for Indy.

I’ve decided for now not to travel that weekend, though weather and other motivations could change my mind before then. A day trip somewhere is also not out of the question, and that requires far less planning. I’m also not taking days off work that weekend, so any possible trip would be a pure weekender.

More to come as I figure it out.

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Oct 06 2021
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Checking In 10/6/2021

I had previously hoped to run outside after work yesterday, but it was still somewhat warm, plus Vegas got some rare rain so we had a bunch of humidity to go with it. I also felt some soreness in both hamstrings, but nothing I couldn’t have easily run through.

Mostly, however, I was rather tired, closer to going to sleep than feeling energetic enough to run a few miles outside through warm overcast. The elliptical is always far more do-able in that condition, so I stuck to 45 minutes of that and strength training.

I had in fact felt rather tired the last couple evenings despite decent sleep, but feel markedly better today. I wasn’t training super hard the last few days or sleeping poorly. Sometimes I guess you just get tired during stretches.

(Well, that and sometimes you train a bunch on both days of a weekend and don’t actually get a full day of rest. Whoops!)

For birthday weekend I’m still considering a long weekender to Flagstaff or Big Bear, though staying home doesn’t look too bad either. Both locales have forecasted highs that weekend in the 50’s with lows around 30(F), around the same conditions as my last visit to Big Bear. So I’d be fairly comfortable in those conditions.

Or instead of using the two days off from work I could bank them and use them in December. I’ve hinted about new training plans for after Indy, and while I remain close to the vest about those for now (too much still TBD) I could use the days off in December for that. Plus, if I really wanted to travel that weekend, it’s not like I couldn’t have it both ways. It would just be another weekend road trip where I’d leave Friday night and come back Sunday afternoon.

I’ll figure it out in a bit. This weekend, meanwhile, I’m staying in town and not planning to train too hard. Sunday will be a day off from training (usual caveats: if bored will hit the spin bike and read a bit). If feeling up to a long run Saturday morning I will take it, but I do have errands to run that day so no pressure to get in much of a long workout that day. The next weekend will be a big workout.

Conditions are balmy today so I’ll see about getting out for a run, if nothing else to acclimate to conditions closer to what Indy will feel like.

I think I found a good split for upper body strength training that best minimizes training on overactive muscles while getting extra work into underactives that need the work. As mentioned before my strength workouts are always 20 minutes long, with 30 second breaks unless switching exercises.

Currently I leave my A-Block (Pull exercises) as they are: Lat Pulldowns, Seated Cable Rows, Face Pulls and/or Hanging Raises, and finally Hammer Curls. The format is 4 sets, 1st and last set 12 reps light weight, middle sets 8 reps heavy weight. (In the case of the Hanging Raises I do 1st and last as 12 reps knee raises, then middle sets 8 reps straight leg raises).

Now with my B-Block (push exercises), I basically combine chest and shoulder presses into one by doing a block of incline bench presses (same 4-set sequence as listed above). Then I once again do Seated Cable Rows, except just a flat 4 sets of a lighter weight (no heavy 8 rep sets). Then I either find the abductor machine and do Seated Hip Abductions, or find open floor space and do bodyweight ATG Split Squat lunges (these are just 4 sets, 12 reps 8 reps 8 reps 12 reps). Then I do either Tricep Extensions or Tricep Press-Downs, and if there’s time left I’ll finish by mixing in some squat jumps or goblet squats depending on feel and space/equipment available.

I swapped a redundant pull exercise into the Push workout to work an upper back muscle group that for me and many others is underactive, but at more of a light shakeout intensity in case they are still tired or sore from the A-Block workout.

Note I de-emphasize leg exercises. Obviously, I do a ton of running and cross training, and I don’t want to overtax those lower body muscles, but still want to work on key underactive muscles (e.g. the hip abductions focus on the gluteus medius, a typically underactive muscle that in my case may have been a contributing factor to my recent hamstring/groin issues). The latter squat exercises are basically optional, though they can help develop strength/power that will be useful.

At this point I strength train about twice a week, one day the A-Block and one day the B-Block. I usually do one or both on the weekend, as machines and equipment tend to be freer around that time, though sometimes (like last night) I’m able to do some during the weeknights.

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