1 week taper to the Northshore Half

So next Sunday I am running my third half marathon, the Northshore Half Marathon in Highland Park. Its 29 days post marathon, and I have been feeling good, so I am excited to see if I can push my half marathon PR (currently 2:50 set 7 months ago) even lower. Many of my training runs and in fact the first 13.1 of the marathon have been well under 2:50, and my unofficial PR is 2:37 set during a long run in the buildup to the Wisconsin Marathon.

So my goal is to be under 2:37 if I can, but will be happy with a sub 2:40. After all is said and done dropping your PR by 10 minutes is not a bad thing. The 10 day outlook for race days says, 50-60 and partly cloudy, although that was the same forecast for race day in Kenosha, where it ended up 75-80 and sunny.

My schedule this week, was a 7 miler yesterday, a 4 miler today, 3 miles of speed work on Wednesday and 5 miles on Thursday, and then 2 days of rest, before race day. The only potential change to this would be if I get assigned a IHSA Sectional game, but I am guessing I will not.

My recovery for the Northshore Half coincides with the kick off of my 20 week program to the Chicago marathon, which I will write about in more detail soon.

Refereed 2 IHSA State Playoff games last night.

Had a good time in rainy cold conditions at Carmel High School who hosted two regional games last night. I was in the Center for Carmel vs North Chicago and was an AR for the Grayslake Central vs Wauconda game. I made no mistakes in either game (gauged by decibel level of coaches complaints generally) or self recrimination (not often).

From an exercise perspective I got in 6.5 miles of wind sprints, side to side running and running backwards. Which is not a bad thing. The second game where I was the linesman had more sprinting up and down, and given that Carmel has an old artificial turf field was somewhat hard on my feet. Plus wearing wet clothing for 4 hours is not pleasant.

National Physical Fitness and Sport Month Survey

So a few weeks ago I was asked to fill out a survey about my fitness habits and I was asked the following questions to contribute to this survey. Being an egomaniac of course I love to share my opinion with as many people as possible, so this was right up my alley!

Here are the questions with my answers:

1. What is your favorite way to stay active? Running? HIIT? Weight training? Sports?
   I enjoy running although it can be dull, so I sprinkle in a liberal amount of speed work, its always fun to go fast. I also weight train to keep toned.
2. How many times a week to you strive to workout?
   Generally I run 4 times a week, with 2 days of weight training, Saturday is combo day so I have two days off after my sunday long run.
3. Is there a pre/post workout routine you would like to share?
   I really do nothing before or after, I generally warm up for the run by walking the first 1/2 mile or so.
4. Do you have any tips on injury prevention?Knock on wood I have never had a serious injury, I attribute that to good genes, but I also weight train which I am a firm believer in for injury prevention.
5. How does nutrition play into your fitness regimen?
   Hardly at all, but it should and its something I am starting to explore.
6. What health benefits do you find most attractive about staying active? (Physical, psychological, or both!)
   Mental mostly, I like the way I look certainly, but it allows me to manage stress, and to be healthier which is great for the overall mental attitude.
7. What do you do to stay motivated when you are exhausted/under the weather/etc.?
   Well it depends on why I am in that state, but generally rest, I have never been afraid of taking a couple of days off to recharge.
8. How has your fitness routine/goals changed throughout the years? Why?
   I have changed from more competitive sports to more fitness based sports, for the physical/mental improvement process, while I am still competitive, its more with myself then in a team environment.

Here is some information about the surveyors. BHG360° conducted an informal survey of a variety of health and fitness bloggers (like me!), from active mothers like Mackenzie McKee to certified trainers like Leslie Ann Quillen. They asked them to share their tips and advice about working out and staying in shape—and how to keep up the motivation. As you can see from this snapshot of health-minded individuals, those of us interested in living well tend to use many different strategies and regimens to complement our lifestyle and reach our fitness goals. In the spirit of National Physical Fitness and Sport Month, we invite you to share these and other tips.

Sleep and Recovery

So I read an article a few months ago about recovery after a marathon. The central point was that for every mile, you need a day of recovery. I scoffed at that. 26 days to recover? How could that be? Well while I am still not sure about that today is 11 days post marathon and I feel pretty good.  I have noticed one thing that is quite interesting.

I track all sorts of bio-data with a Basis watch, so I know my resting heart rate, sleep time, type and quality as well as body temperature. My sleep which has averaged about 380 to 400 minutes a night in the 17 week intensive phase of training (about normal for me) jumped to 420-430 minutes during the taper as I focused on extra sleep, and getting up later.

So now post marathon I have been letting sleep do what it will. The last 11 days have all averaged over 450 minutes, with significant chunks of time spent in what Basis calls "deep sleep" where you body refreshes and renews muscles and boosts your immune system. I have averaged about 20% of my sleep time in this phase in the past. In the last 11 nights, I have been over 30% consistently. By the way 15-30% of your total sleep time is considered normal.

So one can infer that I am still recovering, even though my morning waking up heart rate has returned to its normal pre-marathon range days ago and I feel zero residual soreness (that was gone within 4 days) my inner workings are still repairing themselves.

Next Race is 22 days away! The Northshore Classic Half Marathon

So this morning I registered for the Northshore Classic a half marathon run in Highland Park. Oddly this will be the first of my three long races that I have run in Illinois all the others have been in Wisconsin (Trail-breaker Half, Madison Half and the the Wisconsin Marathon). My PR for the half is 2:50:56 at the Madison Half last November. My time for the half in the Wisconsin Marathon was approximately 2:40 and change. I have run numerous half's during my long runs leading up to the marathon and have always been lower then 2:50 (times of 2:37, 2:42, and 2:47).

So I need to figure out a goal for this race which I think should be in the 2:38 to 2:30 range, but I need to make sure the pace is realistic for the lower time goal of 2:30. I also need to watch myself because the marathon will only be 28 days in the rear view mirror and I want to make sure I am fully recovered. I feel good today (7 days later) but all the literature I have read says it takes about a day for every mile you ran. So some of my quickie training for the this half will fall into the recovery zone.

My tentative plan (starting week of May 11) for the Northshore Half is as follows:

Week 3-- Runs of 3, 5, 7 for 15 miles total
Week 2-- Runs of  3, 5, 3, 9 for 20 total miles
Week 1--  Runs of 3, 5 and then 13.1 on race day for 21 miles.

Follow up from the Marathon

So its Wednesday, and its the 4th day since the marathon. I am feeling some residual soreness in my calves this morning. However the thighs are not feeling anything this morning, they had been sore for a couple of days. Everything else is fine.

I am quite happy with my physical condition, I think the training was the key. I do realize that my body is still recovering even though I may not be seeing or feeling it so I am taking it easy, with some light jogging tomorrow and then some more on  the weekend.

I am going to run the Northshore Half on May 31 in Highland Park. I like the level of fitness I am at so with just a couple of medium length runs the 10 days before the half I am going to try to improve on my 2:50 PR, my half time was 2:40 in the marathon, so I would like to push a little bit harder and get a 2:35.

Wisconsin Marathon: Race Report

So after 16 months, a loss of 37 pounds, a significant improvement in fitness, it was finally race day. In the lead up to the race I was reasonably calm, although the last 24 hours I was questioning everything. Long story short I was going along a wee bit faster then my goal pace until mile 16 and then I started to cramp in my calves, which ended any semblance of hitting my goal pace. I finished a handful of second under 6 hours (although the results say 5 minutes higher, it is my Garmin that disagrees, and I it took me at least that long to get to the start line).

The Good
I had a good parking space so lining up for the race was not traumatic and the start was easy, it took me about 5 minutes to get to the start line. Other then a trip to the bathroom at mile 11, and a stop to say hi to a friend at mile 14, all my miles were right in my comfort zone in the 12 minute range. I used the first mile as a warmup, basically not using the walks in the walk/run process, and felt fine.

In fact for the entire race I never felt tired and or winded, I always felt like I had the energy to go forward....its just that this happened.

The Bad and the Ugly
So at mile 17, my right calf cramped so badly, that there was about a 2 inch square 1/2 inch deep indentation right on the inside of it. Not to be out done the left one joined in a mile or so later. So from the knees up I felt fine. I was gratified to have the medical person on the bike, say she had never seen anything like that, so at least I was boundary pushing!

The reality of this was it moved my times into the 15 minute per mile pace for the rest of the race. I had the energy to run forward, but my calves would not let me push off, without starting to cramp or actually cramping from mile 17 until mile 23, when the banana I had at mile 22 and the gels I got at mile 18.5 and 19.5 kicked in, plus the gels I was carrying. As I write this (24 hours later) my calves are lightly bruised from the intensity of the cramping.

My daughter joined me at mile 23 and encouraged me to the finish line, which I am grateful for and my legs responded to that and were able to generate a couple of 14 minute miles, but the cramping was more severe the last two miles and I regressed to 15 minute miles.

Not really on the radar here, but I got two blisters on my arches by mile 6, which in the grand scheme of things were annoying, but did not affect me in any way shape or form.

The Funny
So in the start corral a nice gentlemen came up to me and asked me are you Lord_Selfie on Instagram? I said yes, and he introduced himself as a follower (I am of him as well) then I was recognized by another follower out on the course. I also saw a co-worker on the course, who I knew was a runner, and a fast one (finished 13th in Mens Marathon) and was able to blurt "hey I know you" to him before he went past me like a low flying jet.

I also saw a tragedy, someone dropped an entire box of donuts holes in the middle of the race fortunately a police officer nearby told me the perpetrator was taken into custody. That's like a war crime in Wisconsin! I did wonder to myself if the 5 second rule applied during a marathon.

The Course
Was very flat, with only a few ups and downs mostly in the first 10 miles, the worst part was the road from 5-6 and then back again for 9-10 along the shore, was just a mess, and it hurt my feet. After the half marathoners turned for home I still had a long way to go, and it got much quieter, although the support was great out there. I could have done without the dirt roads, but that's a minor quibble. Overall it was a great race.

I saw my friend Dave at the aid station at mile 18.5 and 19.5 which was a blessing given what was happening, he cheered me up quite a bit. I also saw another friend who was running, who finished 10 minutes ahead of me twice.

The Data:
2:40 first half, 3:19 second half 5:59 finish
10:54, 12:22, 12:08, 12:14, 11:32
12:09, 12:26, 12:25, 12:36, 12:20
13:01, 12:37, 12:45, 12:48, 13:11
13:37, 15:20, 15:09, 15:27, 15:05
15:33, 15:18, 14:06, 14:12, 15:45
15:50