Fires all over SoCal - and upcoming HM

Fires at Pepperdine - only about 10 miles from where I live

There has been a rash of wildfires in Southern California and San Diego this week. Several deaths have occurred, and at least 20 different blazes are roaring with the hot Santa Ana winds across the record-dry lands. My heart is out for the brave firefighters who are out there 24/7 defending us from the flames. Without them, the situation may be far worse than it already is; fires are all over Malibu, which is less than 10 miles from where I live. Fortunately, they haven't encroached upon Westside LA where I live (and run), but you can clearly notice the red haze in the sky that dominates the beach.

Smoke on the 2nd day of the fires. It's far worse now (4th day)

Though it may seems trivial to worry about running in the context of lives threatened and homes lost, I think it's important to stay focused on my goal at hand. I've got the upcoming Santa Clarita half-marathon the week after this Sunday. It's a big tuneup / diagnostic race for me, and may be the only half-marathon I run prior to Houston in January due to scheduling. The unfortunate part is that fires have been out of control this week with the hot Santa Ana winds, and Santa Clarita has been hit with at least one of them. It seems to be under control, but I'm not sure air conditions or police presence will be sufficient to run the race. We'll have to see, but I'll definitely be very disappointed if the race doesn't happen. I currently don't have a backup race, but I'll certainly look for one if it's canceled. My realistic goal time will be sub 1:30 for the half. I should be able to accomplish this goal. Once again, how far under will be the question. 1:28 is aggressive, but realistic, and 1:27 would be the stretch goal based upon my 5k time (which is usually my fastest time on the McMillan Calculator).

Hoping that the Santa Clarita HM will be a go

Training has been going extremely well. I'm improving faster than I thought I ever would, and logging more miles that ever. I have, however, found that running over 90 miles per week is simply not do-able from a practical standpoint. I can probably do it once or twice during an easy rotation, but I simply don't have the time to do several doubles during the week as well as weekend.

Intervals have dropped from 6:40 to 6:24 over a 6 mile tempo run, and the long run has dropped to 7:23/mile x 18 miles from 8:00/mile over the past 5 weeks. Mileage has increased from 73 to 90, and I will likely remain in the low 80s from here on out. Air quality has been fine where I live, so I'm still putting in some solid training.

Send our firefighters your best wishes.

My Running Forum Posts

Here's a sampling of some of my previous posts, and a selection of interesting marathon-related tidbits I've come across and found worth saving.

I find myself frequently wishing I had saved links to some of my prior posts, since the same few topics come up over and over again. That's supposed to happen, but I keep finding myself without that key thread that I ran across or wrote a few weeks back.

Thus, this thread will be a continually updated list of interesting forum threads, discussions, and even websites that I feel are worth saving for the future. It'll start small, but I suspect it will grow fairly large in future months.

Also of particular note, I've become the unofficial "thread organizer" of the 3:10 BQ attemptees over at the Runnersworld forums, and it's been a great ongoing thread with a lot of successes to share. Definitely stop by if you're at all curious as to what it takes to BQ at 3:10.

RUNNERS WORLD DISCUSSIONS:

Pacers vs bandits - fair, cheating, or not? - 5/15/08 - Yet another spirited debate
I'm a much better runner now that I was in HS - 3/28/08
Increasing mileage by 10% per week - too much? 3/6/08
One of the craziest RW thread opinon/arguments ever! - And I'm caught smack in the middle of it - why me?! 2/11/2008
Roll call update all 3:10 BQ attemptees - Final, spring 2008.
Houston Marathon attemptees - Spring 2008.
Overtraining? A possible way to tell early - 12/20/07
I have no talent - 12/20/07
BQing and Pfitizinger's 18/70 plan - 12/14/07
Sub-3 on less than 35mpw! - 12/14/07
Hal Higdon himself stops by to comment on his training plans - 12/7/07
A great description of hitting the wall in a marathon - 12/4/07 by GIBBS
Should you ever stop your watch on training runs? - 11/17/07
Headlamp Reviews and Safety Tips - 11/15/07
How hard did you train to BQ? - 11/7/07
Mental aspects of marathoning - 11/6/07
How to choose a FAST marathon course - 11/5/07
Marathon on 3 days of running per week? The FIRST program - 11/3/07
Race Strategy and negative splits - 11/02/07
Getting destroyed by 16 x 200m - By me, 11/01/07
Why can't races mail you your bib? - By me, 11/01/07
Safety Gear at night - By me 10/28/07
BIG improvement in 5k time from - marathon training?! - By me 10/04/07
Recurring undermileage theme here for 5k-10k racing - By me 10/23/07
Nutritional supplements - overrated - 10/14/07
Training Fast and Recovering Slow - By me 10/12/07
What's your BMI and does it change with training? - By me 9/21/07

RUNNINGTIMES DISCUSSIONS:
3:10, 3:05, or sub-3 at Houston? - By me, 12/31/07
Running Talent? Do you have it, or not? - By me, 10/18/07
The Trash bag Thread - By me, 10/17/07
Your most memorable race reports! - By me, 8/28/07

OTHER:
Jim2's BQ statistics - Jim2 9/24/07

INSPIRATION: (not by me, but very worthwhile)
Crawling to glory at Kona Ironman
Team Hoyt - Father & handicapped son athletes - Great montage at the end
Celebrity Marathon Race times (Oprah, P. Diddy, George W. Bush, etc.) to beat

Stupid Marathon Humor

I think I'm really losing it now. I just came across this random post on the RunnersWorld forums, and for some reason unbeknownst to me, I couldn't stop laughing every time I saw it. It's not even that funny! Just goes to show how your brain can get warped when you're trying to run 100 miles in a week.


The posts:

Ordinary Guy: I'm an ordinary fitness guy that has successfully completed nine full marathons. From a 3:49:44 PR in 1982 to my favorite but slowest marathon ever at NYC in 2001, 6 weeks after 9/11 - they have all been very special. Why? Because I have never actually "trained" to run a marathon the way all the experts say you have to. The longest training run I have ever run in my life was a 15 miler. At my peak, I ran an average of only 25-28 miles a week. I have, however, always done some regular cardiovascular cross training. My point being, when you go into a marathon untrained (so to speak by marathon runner standards), it forces you to find the warrior within you. Suddenly, finishing the marathon, working your way through the self-doubt and pain, becomes much more of a cerebral experience. For me, it has made every marathon that much more special (and I've never been injured!). Think about it, when Phidippides was called upon to run 26 miles, he hadn't been training either, but he did go the distance. The question is, could you? Try it sometime, it puts the marathon experience into its own Twilight Zone and can make finishing the marathon that much more rewarding.

P.S. Yes, I know, Phidippides died at the end of his run. So far, I haven't!

(many responses in between, but here were 3 in a row:)

MattW 1970: Somewhere in the Midwest a village is missing its IDIOT!

Prodigy: why is he an idiot? Some people dont have to train like everyone else. I am that way. You don't have to follow the norm or read a stupid book on "how to run a marathon

MattW 1970: 2 Villages missing their Idiots now! Damn!

Gunderp: He's not an idiot....he's a warrior

I may wake up tomorrow and delete this post since I might find it completely unfunny by 5AM tomorrow, so if you're cracking up over this as I was, you may have lost your marbles amongst the miles as well. Happy running!

Back to a "normal" life and big miles

After a month of stress at work, life will likely settle down a bit again for me. (Whew!) The last 4 weeks have been a month of a very busy interventional radiology rotation for me, which I worked very hard on, and encountered a lot of very stressful situations between the multitude of procedures I was learning which I had no experience with. Fortunately, the month went very well, but there were enough hiccups (big ones, at times) that I really felt on-edge at work every day, and needed to focus 100% just about the entire day. Next month, I'm back to diagnostic radiology, which is more forgiving in terms of the acuity of problems you encounter, so I should be able to take a breath again.

I'm going to give myself a big pat on the bag for keeping up my running this entire month. I had been worrying about this month for quite awhile, about how I would balance the heavy demands of work with the shock of hitting the hardest (for me, at least) phase of the marathon training cycle where mileage and intensity kicks up substantially. I had even designed my schedule in June to anticipate a big drop in mileage this month, to probably 55 or under for a few weeks, so I added in some extra weeks to make up for the lost fitness. Nevertheless, I hung in there, and made it all somehow work. There were multiple moments where I was running on the track until past 11PM, and all the UCLA track lights would suddenly black out, leaving me in the pitch black darkness, but I kept going. At least 2 runs were done at 4AM and 5AM, because I had to. And during this past week, I figured out some complicated logistics to run-commute to a new work site in such a way that I could incorporate my workout into my commute to save time. The rest of the year should be easy compared to this one, so I'm feeling optimistic about my 3:10 chances.

Last week was 83 miles total, for a new high. I participate in an online "mileage game" forum, where a bunch of us crazy marathoners over at the RunningTimes website forums have gotten together in teams and post our mileage. At first I thought it was kind of silly, but after participating for the last 2 months, I've come to really know and respect the hard work and the big miles of all the participants. Breaking into the top 10 is very difficult - you definitely have to be at least over 75 miles per week, and in peak months, over 88 miles per week. (There are 130s & 140s routinely posted by individuals. Yikes!) Well, this week was my first time breaking into the "top ten" for the week - which is a new "PR" for me! Hopefully I can get back there again.

I've also officially decided that I will drop my rest day. After 3 weeks of running (slow) on my rest day, I've had no problems, and better performance. I will seriously consider running doubles for even more mileage on Sat & Sun as well in the near future. I may be getting a bit nuts about this whole running thing, but this is my big shot at my first BQ, and I'm going to do everything in my power to make it happen!

The weekly long run

I've got a love-hate relationship with the weekly long run. I was hoping that this run would eventually become a fairly routine run with all the training I've been putting in, but let's just set the record straight - any time you run 20+ miles, at whatever pace, it's a buttkicker.

If I run fast, my legs and cardio are pretty shot. If I run slow, the added time on my feet adds to the soreness. I've pretty much come to accept the fact that long runs are monster hard, and that I'm just going to tackle them head-on with some monster-hard efforts.

Santa Monica Beachside, about 5 miles into my 21mile run
Sunny and 65 degrees in October

Today was one of my "breakthrough" training long runs, in that I averaged 7:45/mile for the entire course, stoplights and all. It was hard, but not super-hard, and I have found that my long run pace tends to be roughly 45 seconds slower than my actual marathon pace. While a 3:10 BQ pace for me requires 7:17/mile, with bathroom stops, water stops, and extra mileage from turns, I think a 7:10/mile is really what I should be ready for. The pace I'm holding now for my long runs is finally in BQ territory, and clearly so. Very encouraging, given that I still have 10 weeks to train and improve.

It's very interesting to reflect back upon my long runs starting last year, when I started marathon training in earnest. Back then, I was running about 55 miles per week, which is a fair amount, but a 22 mile run makes up literally HALF the weekly miles. I'm not even sure how I made it through those! Those runs were always incredibly ugly; I'd start out optimistic, pacing very conservatively at around 9:00/mile, and usually by mile 15, I'd start to fall apart. I'd start eating, drinking, peeing, doing anything I could to keep moving, and I'd even stop my watch when I stopped running. My actual paces were probably around 10:30-11min/mile, and it was definitely depressing; week after week, I'd slog through this horrendously slow, tortuous run with nothing to show for it - everyone out there passed me! I dreamed of the day that I could do these long runs at a "respectable" pace.

Fast forward 6 months to my first Pfitzinger cycle after the acclimation to 70mpw; the long runs were still hard, but I could actually run the whole distance without stopping. I decided that to honestly approximate my true marathon pace, I had to let the watch run even at stoplights, bathroom breaks, etc., and that definitely showed me the reality of my pacing. The big miles really helped here, and I was frankly amazed when after 15 weeks of training, my last long run was a hard-comfortable 8:17/mile for 19 miles. That was a true breakthrough for me, and I really enjoyed the struggle from being a marathon "survivor" to a marathon "racer." I actually ran a lot fewer 20+ milers than I'd expected on the Pfitz program, and had excellent results; he favors 17-20 milers for the bulk of the LRs, so you can run them faster.

Now, in my second Pfitzinger cycle, I may be graduating from marathon "racer" to marathon "competitor." Not that I'll ever be able to win cash prizes, but in small local races, I'm just nipping the heels of the AG awards, and my eventual goal after 3:10BQ is to achieve a 70% Age-graded performance (3:01), which would put me above "local class competitor" to "regional class competitor." My long runs have finally crystallized as I have dreamed; today's long run at 7:45/mile was faster than I ever thought I could maintain in training, especially given an 80 mile week. I'm finally passing the vast majority of runners on the beach, which is commensurate with my training. Running this fast is an incredibly hard effort, but incredibly rewarding as well.

I've also added miles to the long run of the Pfitz 18/70 program, and will try to stay from 21-23 in this phase of training to really get my strength up. I'll probably drop back to the 17-20 mile range later on, but with plans of running them even faster to get my leg turnover ready.

I truly believe that the hard long run is the single most important workout in my regimen. The other 6 days of the week are important training preparation runs so I can hammer that long run the way it's meant to be hammered. Some folks use a different training philosophy, and run a recovery pace on their long run days, but that's definitely not for me. I hit them hard and fast, and am puffing hard the entire way.

ENDURANCE Phase - Complete

Drake Stadium at UCLA

I run here a lot, but usually at night

I'm deep into the Pfitinger Advanced marathoning plan, which has got me running up to 80 miles per week, and speedwork to boot. This is just a brief reflection on how training is going on my second pass through the Pfitinziger plan (see my blog for the first.) I have just completed the "endurance" mesocycle of the program, and am now two weeks into the "endurance/lactate" phase, which places an increasing emphasis on speed and mileage.

It's exciting, exhilarating, and scary all at the same time. I'm running hard training runs faster than I ever imagined, but am managing to keep the pace, and not feeling beaten down the next day (somehow).

This is going to be a numbers-heavy post, with much less on the philosophical aspects of running, so feel free to move along if your eyes start glazing over.

Summary of ENDURANCE MESOCYCLE:
Week 17: 53mi - LR=15
Week 16: 70mi - LR=18
Week 15: 73mi - LR=21
Week 14: 72mi - LR=20
Week 13: 57mi - LR=15
Week 12: 73mi - LR=18
(LR = Long run)

Start of the LACTATE/ENDURANCE MESOCYCLE:
Week 11: 70mi - LR=21
Week 10: 80mi - LR=21

My paces have improved a lot as of late, and I am trying to really push the tempo as hard as I can while not compromising later workouts in the week. I end up running significantly faster than the Pfitz recommended paces, but it seems to be working, and I'm keeping up well. Most of these are done on the UCLA track (thank god for track lights!):

13 mi hard long run - 7:02/mile
6 mi tempo run - 6:37/mile
21 mi long run - 7:50/mile (on roads)

Most of these paces feel so fast at the start that I worry that I can't keep it up; I'm usually puffing pretty hard from the get-go! Still, I seem to pull through with gas to spare at the end, so I think the big miles are really helping a lot.

Here's the EASY stuff, though:
9:30/mile easy miles. All of 'em for total 75-80 miles per week on top of the fast stuff. I get passed by EVERYONE out there on these - big people, slow people, sometimes toddlers (for a few meters at least!)

My hard training paces are pretty much consistent with my recent 18:50 (PR by a whole MINUTE) 5k, and I'm recovering well, so things seem to be working out. I'm surprised at the disparity between my fast and slow paces, but I really don't feel any urge or inclination to run faster on easier days, especially with the mileage increase.

I'm definitely running faster than the "recommended" intensity on the long runs, hitting my marathon pace for a lot of miles, but since I'm holding up pretty well, I'm going to keep on doing what I'm doing. If I keep this up, I should have excellent chances at the BQ in January. Wow, what a long way from 4:05 at the LA Marathon!

Here are my updated training pace goals from the Mcmillan Calculator:

Based upon my recent 18:50 5k performance:

Race paces:
Marathon: 3:03:36, 7:01/mile. (Good grief, there's no way that's going to happen.)
1/2 Marathon: 1:27:03, 6:39/mile (remotely possible)
10K: 39:07, 6:17/mi. (actually do-able, based upon my 39:55 10k in June)
5K: 18:50, 6:04/mi. (Impossible. Oh wait - I did that one already! ;)
Mile: 5:26

Training Paces:
Recovery Jogs: 8:01-9:01 (I'm 9:30+/mile)
Long runs: 7:29-8:29/mi. (I'm around 8:00/mi)
Tempo runs: 6:29-6:39/mi (I do 6:37 x 6 miles)

I posted these times on the marathon training forum on RunnersWorld, and got a lot of encouraging comments which I actually wasn't expecting to get. Looks like a few folks think I've got the 3:10 covered; I think I'm doing quite well myself, but I'm under no illusion that it'll be incredibly hard; at best, I think I can pull 3:05, but since it's very likely that with the turns on the course, I'll have to run a 26.5-26.7 mile marathon (that's what Garmin usually reads at the end), it'll be a close one. The most hopeful aspect of it all, is that I seem to be on the good end of a strong improvement curve which hasn't stalled since starting Pfitizinger's program in March, so at the current rate of improvement, I should be very strong come January.

Synergy and Success - I passed my Radiology Physics boards!

This is a particularly self-serving post. I think that after working lots of hours for the past 4 weeks, with lots of running on top and feeling pretty beaten down and tired by 11PM, I'm feeling the need to beat my chest and remind myself that I'm doing well despite the crazy schedule. Thus, I'm going to talk about myself and my "great accomplishments" yet AGAIN in this post. Please forgive the indulgence - it really is a combination of therapy, self-gratification, and passive self-aggrandizement all in one, without wreaking havoc on my "real world" life. I actually wish I had some real downer news to temper the good stuff and make it sound as if I weren't an egotistical fool (I really am not, really!), but things have been going so well as of late that there has been nothing but good news for me. With respects to running, this is a tremendous change from the long disappointments of 2006, where I trained my butt off and had some disastrous race results to show.

As you likely know by now, I spend my days as a radiology resident in my 2nd year of training at UCLA, which is a large, busy academic hospital. I'm also currently in the busiest rotation of my year, and during this year, I have the heaviest after-hour call responsibilities, which eat up 1 out of every 3 weekends for this year. Yuk. I anticipated that running would simply have to slide when the hours really kicked up, and though I started training on the Pfitzinger 70mpw plan, I fully anticipated requiring a kickback to 55 miles per week or lower on my busiest rotations.

Teachers and mentors always tell you that you'll perform best when you're involved in multiple activities, but I've never had it really pan out that way in the past. Something usually had to slide. This time around though, I've really managed to make it work. I've cut out literally all the extra time-wasting activities, and become super-efficient at time use. I'm at work by 6AM, and even if I'm done at 8PM, I'm changed and on the track hammering away by 8:30. Dinner at 9 or 10, and I'm unconscious by 10:30. It's tiring, but it works!

Now for the bragging part. (I warned you!) I just received my American Board of Radiology scores in the mail today for the dreaded "Physics" section, which most residents find the most difficult portion of their required exams. Despite the 70mpw of running, I managed to study a lot, and pulled off a maximum score with no deductions. That completely made my day, and was a big relief to me to get that over with. Even better, earlier this year, my diligent daily hours of work and study paid off, and I scored in the 99th percentile of all 1st year radiology residents amongst the country (over one thousand residents) on the national inservice exam, and I managed to achieve the absolute highest scores in the country on several sections. This was quite encouraging as well, showing that I could maintain the highest academic standard despite my "dual life" of running and radiology.

Ironically, as you may know, sharing details of your academic success with peers is a big "no-no" in the workplace, as well as school. An apt analogy would be getting a large $$$$ bonus, and then telling your coworkers how happy you were about that bonus, even if you really did work hard for every penny of it. You run the risk of making that person feeling slighted due to your success. Thus, I rarely discuss my work-related motivations and successes with my friends or peers. It often feels like a false front; I'm pouring a lot of my heart, soul, and mind into what I think is an incredibly worthy endeavor of learning and using medical knowledge, yet I have to pretend that I have much more mundane issues on my mind during daily conversation, and avoid explicit mention of my work-related goals, achievements, and successes. Fortunately, the running world doesn't seem to operate on that standard, and running successes are even better when they're shared. That's definitely one of the best parts of running, and an aspect that I feel very missing from my job/academic life.

Running has been going spectacularly well on top of all the academic work. My times in training and races have been steadily dropping, and I'm adding miles successfully despite the heavy workload. I've never been happier about my running life, ever. I've finally broken through a big training plateau which blocked me over the past 10 years, and am finally on a good training schedule that's giving me big gains, and will likely continue to do so for a good while.

I definitely identify more strongly with my running identity than my radiology identity. My running self exemplifies much of what I consider best in myself - discipline, ambition, dedication, sacrifice, and vision. Every step I run is an affirmation of these qualities who make me who I am. I wish I could tell my non-running friends, that THIS is the reason I run, and THIS is why I find the simple act of running to be such a noble, spiritual pursuit.

But alas, most of them don't understand, so I hunch my shoulders and tell them "because I can."
Thanks for listening.