Tunnel Lite Marathon Race Report

It's been an incredible year of training and racing in celebration of turning 50 last December. Last Sunday's Tunnel Lite Marathon concluded a 12 month stretch that included three full marathon training cycles (December 2015 Honolulu Marathon, April 2016 Boston Marathon and the September 2016 Tunnel Lite Marathon),  two half marathons (Rain Day Half January 2016 and Seattle Rock-n-Roll Half June 2016) as well as the Ragnar Relay in July (Sub-Masters team win) and an 8K and 5K for good measure.  In total the last 52 weeks of training was just short of 2000 miles at 1940 total -- which included limited mileage in the winter due to a nasty lower right leg tendon injury I fought from February through April.    Suffice it to say that my run last Sunday was coming on tired mind and body -- knowing full well that I'd also managed to hit peak fitness/speed sometime in late July and was starting to fall off my top training times and heart rate levels.    

Somewhere around mile 15 of the Tunnel Lite Marathon.  My quads were starting to take a real beating from the downhill here as I passed the photographer trying to look strong and knowing I had another 10 miles in front of me.

I loved this marathon for its beauty, simplicity and that it was just 600 total runners and executed like a finely oiled machine.  And lest I forget the primary selling point -- it's a 2000', vertical drop for 23 miles or about a negative 1.6% to the finish line just east of North Bend, WA from mile 3.    The other main feature of this race is that at about the 1/2 mile mark, you enter into an old railroad tunnel that is devoid of light (other than hundreds of headlamps and flashlights) through which we ran 2.3 miles to the light (hence the name of the race -- "Tunnel Lite Marathon").     My goal was to run a sub 3:30 BQ here and get back to Boston for 2017 (as the race fell right in them middle of the 2017 Boston Marathon entrance window) -- but realistically I knew that I had peaked a few weeks earlier and had been suffering the last month or so from some cumulative fatigue that had set in which would make a great time on this downhill track an uphill challenge.   I was however resolved to see if I could dig it out and decided to run an aggressive opening half to see if I could hang on over the back half of the race.

It was nice simply getting up around 4:30 AM for an 8:00 am race time, fueling about 150 grams of carbs which included a "roadie" smoothie" -- and driving the 25 miles on the freeway to the bus pick-up point just east of North Bend.     I parked my car in a non-descript parking lot before sunrise and simply walked over to a waiting yellow school bus which in turn took off and drove another 25 miles or so eastward up and over Snoqualmie Pass to Hyak (just short of Keechelus Lake) off Interstate 90.

Of my 9 marathons, this was my 3rd fastest time -- and easily the best racing weather I've experienced.  7 of my 9 marathons have featured simply terrible to non-ideal weather so it was great to catch a weather break this time.

In terms of racing strategy, if I was going to run below 3:30:00, I believed I had to get out strongly and take advantage of the downhill, building a time buffer and then hold on over the last 5 miles -- ideally running 8:00 pace or at least nothing slower than 8:20's for the final 5 miles.    

The terrain for the course was a converted railroad track that was mostly compact dirt and rocks becoming gravel over the latter stages of the course.    Nearly half of my training this last year has been on the Cross Kirkland Corridor trail which is also a converted railroad track composed of soft gravel and compact dirt - so I felt comfortable that I'd be fine on the terrain.     As it turns out, the first 10 miles of the trail was actually quarter or larger sized rocks, some gravel, dirt and smaller ruts and undulations -- that were easy to navigate -- but really made the run more jarring on the quads.   I knew was going to be a problem later in the race (in comparison, running on a smooth asphalt or gravel trail is less jarring and one is able to glide and be more economical with muscle movement which conserves energy that's required for the last 5-6 miles of the marathon).    

I got through the first 5 miles (which included the 2.3 mile jaunt through the tunnel which was a little harder to run quickly than anticipated) in 7:46 pace and 38:51 and 10 miles in 77:38 and 7:45's.   At mile 10 I was feeling a lot more quad weariness than I expected (it felt like I'd already gone through 18 miles or so in fact) from the jarring but I was able to press on and get to the half marathon point in a great time of 1:41:30 and 7:46 pace.   I was right on my race strategy and within 7 seconds per mile pace of my PR at 3:20:00.    However, the quad soreness and fatigue was mounting and I knew I had to back it down a bit.   

At mile 14 I had been running with a group of men all shooting for sub 3:25:00.  We were running comfortably for 10 or so miles together, chatting and just getting into the groove as the miles passed by.   However, I stopped to walk the water station before mile 14 to see if I could gather a bit and decrease the quad fatigue before resuming running -- cutting my pace back to around 8:00 or even a little slower as I had a good buffer of time built up.    I ran miles 14 - 20 in about 50 minutes or 8:17 pace and got to mile 20 in just under 2:40:00 (which is 8:00 pace).   I was still in the game late in the race for a BQ -- if I could simply just muster and rally through the quad fatigue.    In my training in the summer,  I consistently ran fast-finish long runs where I'd cut-down miles 16 - 22 below 8:00 pace and even miles 21-22 in around 7:40 pace to practice for this exact moment.      

But the downhill grade was really starting to take a toll on me.   I slowed running mile 21 in 8:36 and then the dreaded 9:00's set in and I ran 9:15, 9:11, 8:55, 9:16 and 9:05 in (20-30 seconds of each mile was walking trying to re-focus and then rally to something below 8:00 pace).  But as the final miles clicked off I realized I was out of reach of a BQ and I relaxed and got through to the finish line in 3:35:39.     I was very very pleased with my race outcome given the fact that I'd peaked in late July, been feeling run-down the last 6 weeks but still at mile 22 had a 3:30 in my gun sights.  

I also realized on the back half of the race that racing Boston in 2017 would require me to get back into marathon training in early January which felt overwhelming giving I've come off 3 races in 9 months and 5 marathons going back to Portland in October 2014 over 23 months.  

My opening half was 1:41:30.  I then faded running the concluding half in 1:54:00 or so which is a large positive split -- but I made a conscious decision to go out hard and try to hang on -- and this is the sort of thing which happens with aggressive race plans.   I wanted to win big or blow up trying. I had nothing to lose anyway, right?    

Subject to my next blog posting -- the leg pain from Monday-Thusday this week was incredible.  It didn't help I jumped on an airplane and flew all day Monday morning after Sunday's race, but suffice it to say running a downhill marathon requires a little more specialized training than I anticipated.   

I can't wait to do this race again.  The next running of it is June 2017 and I will be laced up and ready to go!  Can't wait. 

Looking to the SW at sunrise from Hyak.   The full moon is visible through the wispy fog/clouds at 2500' elevation.

Sunrise with a full moon over Hyak at about 7:00 AM.   Pre-race temperatures were in the upper 40's and a little cool -- but absolutely perfect for racing a marathon.

Looking at one of the ski runs at Snoqualmie Pass at about 7:30 AM.

The race route feather 4 high elevation overpasses that were breathtaking. I tried to run as close to the side as I could to see down and distract myself from the growing pain in my quads as I ran towards the finish line which was still some 10 miles away at this point of the race.

Seattle Rock 'N' Roll Half Marathon - Training is a Wrap!

In thirty-six hours I'll be 45 minutes into running the 2016 Seattle Rock 'N' Roll Half Marathon -- ideally somewhere past the 10K point.    It's been a very fast 5 week training cycle coming off the April 18 Boston Marathon and mid-May Nordstrom Beat the Bridge 8K.    This will be my 4th Rock 'N' Roll half marathon and 3rd consecutive year.  I believe this year's training cycle leading up to the race -- and building on a base that included 2 marathons in a 5 month stretch -- could be the hardest I've trained yet for this distance.  

The last 3 weeks have included some very promising workouts of substance that included a 75-degree half marathon time trial in 1:42 on tired legs, successive 8-mile tempo runs in 7:27 and then 7:24 average pace and 4 x 1 mile intervals in average 7:05 pace.    With a personal PR of 1:34:20 (on a flat course in 2010), a 1:39:20 last year (on a course that was hillier than the modified route for this year's race) and a 1:37:07 in October 2014 - I have a shot at racing one of my better times over the last few years.    I haven't run below 1:36 since the Green River Half Marathon in January 2012 where I went 1:35:50 -- and not sure I have that in me for Saturday, but am going to go out with my A goal being 7:19 pace and sub 1:37:00 with a fallback to anything sub 1:40 depending on how the new course plays out (more hills in the early miles with more of a downhill finish the final 5K).    

The only real glitch I've had this training cycle is that my Garmin FR620 which has been a constant training companion the last twenty-four months refused to re-charge as of last Sunday.   Not being confident I could get it repaired by Garmin in less than 7 days, I decided to upgrade to the Garmin FR 630 (picture below) for Saturday's race.  Thus far I've done a single run on the new watch and had about every issue once can expect running with a complicated piece of new gear after 2 years of something different.   It's not optimal, but my early impressions are positive and I'll make the best of it on Saturday AM.   I'll do a future blog post on whether this upgrade at $399 was worth it given the FR620 was rock solid for 2 years (other than the charging mechanism suddenly dying).   

Racing strategy for Saturday at 7:00 am is to get through the first 10 in sub 74:00 - 74:30 and then knock down a 22:00 closing 5K for something in the neighborhood of 1:36:00.    

Stay tuned.   

Garmin FR630 - my new training companion albeit at an awkward time

Seattle Rock 'N' Roll Training Update

Today's 13.1 mile half marathon pacing session wiped me out.   This is the end of my third week of a five week half marathon training cycle preparing for the June 18 Seattle Rock 'N' Roll Half Marathon and I am feeling the burn.

I find it somewhat surprising that with such a deep aerobic running base given I ran the December Honolulu and then April Boston Marathon that a trio of 40 mile average training weeks would leave me so spent on a Saturday afternoon, but I am honestly looking forward to tapering the next couple of weeks which is something I would normally somewhat sneer at doing since a half marathon is a relatively straight-forward distance to train for and recover from.  

As I look back on the last 3 weeks of training, each six day revolution had three very hard runs of substance.   My strength intervals every Tuesday have been 4 x 1 mile in 7:10 pace; 4 x 1.5 mile in 7:20 pace and then a brutal 3 x 2 mile session this last week where I averaged around 7:35 pace (all these runs have been on the Cross Kirkland Corridor trail which is dirt and gravel and adds to the workout intensity).  My tempo runs have been 60 minute pacing sessions around 7:25 - 7:30 pace followed by Saturday runs of 14-mile cut-down (average overall pace 8:00 with last 5 miles in 7:30 pace); 2 x 5 mile tempo intervals in 37:30 and 38:30 and then wrapping with this morning's 13.1 time trial in 1:42:15.  

The goal of this five week segment was to really bracket my training with time spent at or around 10K to half marathon pace while buffering these workouts with easy runs at 9:00 pace.     Given I spent so much time preparing for Boston running much slower times due to my injury, I also wanted to get a little footspeed back; although, I haven't really done a lot of track running nor pressed hard on 5K speed work (somewhat in fear of my tendon injury returning).

I set a goal for this morning's half marathon pacing session of something in the 1:38:00 range which I missed by a full 4:00 running 1:42:15.    That being said, I misjudged how warm it was this morning and didn't start running until nearly 8:30 am when it was nearly 70 degrees with little shade on the Lake Sammamish Trail.  If I'd been thinking more clearly about morning temperatures we'd have started around 7:00 am.  Nonetheless, I could feel the heat and cumulative training fatigue on me right away as we took off and had to work hard to get through the first 6.55 miles in 7:42 pace and 50:25 elapsed time (which was about a minute slower than I'd hoped for).    We fought a full headwind all the way running north this morning which added to my slowness -- so I was hopeful as we turned around I'd be able to roll off some 7:30's and dial it in with the wind at my back (but of course the sun now was full on us as we ran back to the south).    Opening 6 miles were in 7:40, 7:43, 7:44, 7:44, 7:45, 7:39 and then 4:08 for .55 mile to 6.55.    

Turning around with the wind at our back I felt energized and quickly rolled off a 7:28 and was feeling bullish about dropping back below 1:40 based on a negative split on the second half; however my energy started to be dampened as I was really heating up in the sun running 7:40, 7:42, 7:47 and then started to really have to work hard at mile 10 running 7:50 before descending into the pain cave and really struggling over the last 5K running a snail-like 7:50, 8:08, 8:22 and 57.1 final .1 mile.   I got through 10 miles in 76:57 and 7:41 pace and then collapsed on the final 5K running 24:20 and 8:06 average pace.    

I don't know why it always amazes me how much the heat takes out of us in terms of speed based on our brain consciously slowing our bodies down (as a form of self preservation), but the temperature at the start of this morning was right where it was for the start of the Boston Marathon (about 70) and then was around 75-77 the last part of the race which was warmer than what we endured over the final 10K as we dropped into Boston and it cooled down.   It seems like I should have been able to better endure it.  But at 50 years old, the heat just crushes me these days.  Although, I think a lot of this is simply being from Seattle as we don't spend a lot of time running in moderate heat which is probably the underlying issue.  I'm not adapted for warmer running temperatures (many wouldn't consider running in 75 degrees that overly warm in other parts of the country).  

So with the half marathon race 2 weeks from this morning, I'm going to work hard to nail my Tuesday intervals (4 x 1 mile), Thursday tempo run (60 minute pacing session) and then a final 10-12 miles easy with a cut-down final 5K at half marathon goal pace for week 4 of this cycle.  

My goal coming into this cycle was to run something below 1:36:00 for the race.    At this point, today's outcome worries me a bit but I also know I have a lot of fatigue on my legs and with a taper and some sharpening I may be able to pull off a great race.   My fallback goal is anything in the 1:38:00's which will leave me in good shape to resume marathon training in mid-July with some decent speed under my belt.  

Epic Suffering

I'm a big fan of Strava.   For the most part over the last few years I've relied on Garmin Connect for specific running dynamics, split, and heart rate information, but recently re-discovered just how good the Strava app has become.   I originally tried Strava back in 2013 and wasn't impressed after a few runs and deleted the app.   Recently I was on a run and forgot to charge my Garmin 620, but had my iPhone with me and decided for expediency to download Strava and give it another shot.    I was impressed.

The infographic below is from a 12 mile run today I did in preparation for the Seattle Rock-n-Roll Half Marathon I'm racing in 3 weeks.   I'm at the conclusion of what's been 2 great training weeks rolling back-to-back 40-mile weeks and what appears to be a half marathon pace that could be sub 7:30 depending on the weather on race morning in a few weeks.    I'm not sure I actually suffered in an epic fashion today, but I realized that being good at suffering takes a lot of practice -- it doesn't just happen.  I'll write more about this later in a different post.    It's a hard concept to explain and I'm not sure I even have my own thoughts straight on what it takes to be good at suffering on an intense run and how endurance athletes are able to do it.

This afternoons run was effectively 2 x 5 mile tempo run with 1 mile warm-up and warm-downs.    I ran the outbound 5 in 37:30 and the return in a stiff headwind in a somewhat disappointing 38:26.   I realized however once I was on the run that I didn't plan my workouts smartly this week as Thursday afternoon I ran a 60 minute half marathon pacing session in 7:27's which I was still feeling on today's run.    I plan to do a couple of super easy runs the next couple of days and gear up for a half marathon time trial next Saturday which is 2 weeks prior to race day just to see where I'm likely to be.

The goal for this year's race is something in the 1:37's but I really want to get back into the 1:35's before I get back into training in July for a mid-September marathon.    

This will be Ethan's second half marathon this year.   At last year's Rock-n-Roll he ran 1:37:10 on a course that's mostly uphill the last couple of miles with a stiff uphill climb the last 600 meters or so. Apparently this year's course has changed and offers a significantly more downhill run from miles 10 through finish once we climb off Lake Washington Blvd to Interstate 90 and head back on the express lanes towards town.    

I have no chance of hanging with Ethan over the first half of the race as he's significantly faster than me at this point (recently running a 5:05 PR in the mile as a Junior at Bellevue High), but I'm secretly hoping I can get him in my gun sights over the last 5K and chase him down from over the last 3K of the race as we push to the finish line.    

2016 Beat the Bridge 8K Race Report

It's been a month since the Boston Marathon and it felt great today to be back racing the JDRF Nordstrom Beat the Bridge 8K in Seattle.    This was the 8th time I've run this race with a 34:08 PR in 2010 with race times the three years of 35:58 (2014), 35:39 (2015), and 35:41 (2016).   I was happy with today's result placing 12/142 in my age bracket and 239th out of nearly 2,000 runners.   

I wasn't entirely sure what to expect today after taking a week off from Boston and then following up with a couple of solid 40-mile training weeks before heading off to Mexico the week before last for seven days.   Although I ran five of the seven days on vacation (I didn't run on the travel days) including a 22:41 5K on the resort treadmill, I was fairly sure the vacation was going to slightly derail what would've possibly been a better race time this morning.    I've never run well coming off of vacation when it comes to racing.   

Coming out of the Boston Marathon unscathed and finally healed up from a nagging lower right leg tendon injury from January, I've finally been able to string together a month of workouts where I've been able to blend in tempo, interval and long runs all within a seven day training cycle without any pain (and it seems like it's been forever since I trained and wasn't in some level of pain leading up to Boston).   

Preparing mentally for this morning's race, my son Ethan and I have a fun pre-race ritual we've enjoyed the last couple of years together. The night before the race, we jot down our anticipated split times for the next morning's race.  It's a simply way to think about how we plan to run the race and talk a little racing strategy before actually going out and running the race.   The scribbles below are what I wrote down last night depicting my actual splits from the 2015 race, planned splits for this morning's race followed by my actual splits this morning.   

  

The story of this morning's race is I've gained a lot of speed coming out of the marathon, but anything approaching even a minor hill climb (such as the first 400 meters of mile three in this race) really causes me to fade.  I think this is a function of being unable to do any hill training leading to Boston due to my injury as well as still having just a bit of residual marathon fatigue which shows up on hills.    

In fact, my pace on mile three over the University Bridge today was fading towards a 7:50 split before I got off the bridge and made up time over the remaining 1000 meters of mile three and got back down to 7:29 expending a lot of energy with sapped me a bit on mile four.    

I was actually ahead of my race time last year until the final ~1500 meters running it in 6:51 vs. 6:41 in last year's race.   I thought I ran a strong closing stretch but again the slight uphill over the last few hundred meters before it flattens out over the final 100 meters probably did me in.    

Snapshot from the race from Strava 

In summary I had some mini PR's over the course of the race running a two-mile stretch in just over 14:00 minutes which I was quite happy with.    

Me and my 17 year old son Ethan who ran a 32:08 this morning, leaving me in the dust with an opening mile of 5:57.

 Next up for me is likely the June 18 Seattle Rock-n-Roll Half Marathon.    With 4+ training weeks remaining I'm hoping I can leverage some of the great aerobic base from all the Marathon training and get some good threshold and tempo work in that gives me a competitive time.  The course was changed this year so that the closing 1/2 mile is now mostly downhill vs. dead uphill which I'm sure a lot of runners complained about.       Last year I ran it in 1:39:20.   I'll be pleased with anything sub 1:39 and elated for anything sub 1:37 although some of the hills along the route will make this tough.

Lessons Learned on the way to the 2016 Boston Marathon

2016 Boston Marathon + 13 

It's already been 13 days since I ran the Boston Marathon. After taking the rest of the week off to rest and recuperate, I resumed training this last week logging nearly 40 miles including a tempo run, intervals and a solid 14 miler on what was a perfect Saturday afternoon in the Puget Sound.    The tendon injury I've been nursing for the last few months (and written about endlessly in my prior blog posts leading to the Marathon itself) has cooled down.   I'm finally starting to regain some speed that I felt glimpses of prior to the Marathon but couldn't really bring out in my training for fear of further exacerbating the injury.

Looking north on the Sammamish Trail on a perfect Saturday afternoon in in Redmond, WA.

Training Cycle Insights 

• Enjoy the process - not only the result  I was struck by a somewhat obvious observation made by Olympic Marathoner Des Linden on a Podcast I was listening to yesterday while on my run.    Her comment was that she had endured a lot of disappointment on the road to two Olympic marathon teams and that she was still racing marathons because she enjoyed the process - not just the result.   I couldn't agree more.    As much fun as it was to travel to Boston and run this year's marathon, the process of planning for and executing a 14 week training cycle culminating in running a Boston Marathon qualifying time -- and then putting together a training program to actually go run in Boston this year was highly rewarding.      It's almost akin to building a business plan for an idea and then putting it into play, doing what it takes to make it a reality.  
   
• Have a plan B Someone once said to me "man plans; God laughs".  While that may be a bit over the top, it really pays off to stratify goals in terms of "A" and "B" outcomes.   While it's imperative to strive for top-level goal achievement, it's impossible to hit the mark every time. Invariably, as is the case in marathoning (and in life), things happen outside your control (such as the weather, a nagging injury, etc) that will impact your actual execution requiring real-time course correction.     In the case of this year's race, the weather played a significant role in what was possible out on the course.   Fortunately, I had anticipated some sort of circumstance in the actual racing of the marathon that would require a real-time course correction and ratcheting my goal back to something obtainable that I could still be proud of.   My "A" goal was 3:33:00 and "B" goal was a 3:43:00.  It was obvious to me just a few miles into the race that the warm temperatures and moderate headwind for me meant I had to re-set my race tactics and expectations.  That I had anticipated and planned for this made it easier to simply adjust my race tactics towards my "B" goal which I achieved - running a 3:42:40 and passing nearly 3500 runners along the way to the finish line.
  
  
• Strike a balance Nearly all of my prior marathon training cycles were nothing but 45 - 55 mile weeks of running with little invested in mobility and core/strength training.   This time around, due to injury, I had to significantly cut my miles back and take a far more balanced approach in my training incorporating a lot of mobility and alternate aerobic activities into the mix.    The result was that I likely got out to Hopkinton in the best overall shape I've been in spanning the last 5 years.    It's hard to quantify exactly how striking a cross-training balance will pan out for me in the future, but it served an important lesson for me with respect to being good at not just one thing -- but a multitude of things in order to run a successful race under challenging circumstances -- which I attribute to a higher degree of balance in my training regimen vs. simply pounding out miles every week.
  
  
• Be data driven Of all the things in executing a marathon training cycle, besides the training itself, I think I love all of the biometric information that's now at our fingertips the most.   I can't wait to get back from a workout and examine my running biometric and running dynamics data to look for insights whatever they may be.    On any given day I am pouring through data in Strava and Garmin looking for insights that will allow me to train even more effectively and/or pinpoint weaknesses I can work on before getting to the starting line.     I've also found that the data doesn't lie, and that it's pretty easy to get an advance read on your actual race day performance by simply looking at how you are performing on your harder workouts of substance where you are really tested week in and week out.   I love these workouts as they are the single best indicator of race day performance when examined as a trend over time leading to race day.
  
  
• Dress rehearsals matter For this training cycle I ran four 20+ mile training runs (two 20's and two 22's), each with fast finishes at or below marathon pace.    But it's not just running the long run, it's the management of the entire 48-hour cycle leading to the long run that for me really constitutes a dress rehearsal.   Nutrition, sleep, the morning-of-the-long-run routine, recovery, what gear to wear (or not to wear), hydration and nutrition plan, etc.   I like to practice all of these aspects so that when the 4:00 am wake-up call comes on race day morning, I am in a routine and not doing things for the first time under pressure.    Practice makes perfect and it's never more amplified than when running an event like the Boston Marathon which for most of us is likely the biggest race day stage we will be on as amateur runners.
  
  
• Execution In the end when the moment comes there's nothing more to do except trust in your training, your planning, and go out and enjoy the experience for what it is.   My top goal for Boston this year wasn't running another BQ, rather, it was completely soaking up and enjoying the experience -- and being grateful for having the opportunity to compete in such a world class event.     There's nothing like the last few moments before the start of a marathon and being at complete peace with everything you've done to get to that moment and knowing you're comfortable with whatever the outcome will be -- because you've prepared as hard and as diligently as you can -- and now it's simply about execution vs. thinking.  
  

I couldn't be more grateful for being given the gifts of athleticism, health, desire and determination and the support of family and friends in pursuit of this wonderful sport of marathoning.   I can't wait to lace my shoes up and get to the next starting line -- and hopefully another BQ and trip to Boston.