10/12 – 10/18: Mixed bag of easy cycling and running before jumping on a plane on Friday and flying to Wales for a much needed holiday. The week ended fantastically as I ran the Cardiff Half Marathon in a surprising 1:20:42 — not bad considering six weeks previous I was still wearing an aircast boot for my 2nd metatarsal stress fracture.

The event was tremendous, with perfect weather conditions and numerous family members all showing up to cheer me on. I also have to mention the support of Les Croupiers Running Club too — such a friendly, enthusiastic and passionate-about-running group of people. Thanks everyone!

10/19 – 10/25: Spent the week with family in Wales so not too many opportunities to run, although we did walk miles over the course of seven days. Think I fitted in 4 x four milers which took in some of the nice Cardiff hills. I miss the hills!

10/26 – 11/01: The week started with a full day of travel; leaving Cardiff at 7am UK time and arriving home in Virginia Beach just past midnight. Tuesday was back to work, collect the dogs from the kennels and generally playing catch up from being away for ten days — too tired to even think about running to be honest. Wednesday rolled around and I realized there were only 19 days to the Richmond Marathon — time to start training!

The next three days I ran an easy four, seven and six respectively before lining up for the Great Pumpkin Chase 5k on Saturday 31st….Halloween. I managed to duck under 18 minutes for the first time in a while, but I think that had more to do with the slightly short course than my speed. I was, however, pleased with my consistent pace and mile splits of 5:53 5:52 5:53. Second place overall was a nice bonus too.

Sunday was a desperate attempt to regain some endurance and despite a nasty blister on my left foot, I managed to battle through 20 miles in 2 hours 26 minutes.

11/02 – 11/08: Typically, two weeks out from a marathon I’d usually be tapering — decreasing the miles, the intensity and the frequency. However, my non-typical situation (i.e. still really in recovery mode from the stress fracture), deemed that I keep logging the miles in the hope of gaining some kind of endurance and resilience. I started off the week with an easy seven on Monday and a steady nine on Tuesday. Wednesday I stepped it up and ran ten, which I followed up with a confidence-boosting eight miler on Thursday and an easy six on Friday.

Heading into the weekend I was feeling good and looking forward to the Saturday morning Yorktown Battlefield 10 Miler. The race went well, and after a difficult-to-find-a rhythm couple of miles, I finished strong in just over 61 minutes. My second half of the race was faster than the first and I actually felt like I could have maintained the pace for a couple more miles. For the record I finished 7th overall and 1st in the 40-44 age group in what turned out to be a pretty strong field.

Sunday should have been a rest/recovery day, but again with the marathon just one week away, I was desperate to log one more long run before beginning my mini-taper. I headed to First Landing State Park and ran a solid 20 miles in 2 hours 23 minutes — no real blister problems this time and definitely feeling better at the end than the previous week. Oh yes, the 20 mile long run put me at 75 for the week, which somewhat surprisingly is my highest ever week of mileage. I guess it’s a PR?

11/09 – onwards: This week is all about easy running and preparing as best as possible for the Richmond Marathon on Saturday. So far I’ve just shaken out the legs with a four and a five miler, and don’t intend on doing much else at this stage in the game.

Race goal and prediction: Just over nine weeks ago, I was still wearing an aircast boot to help protect my broken foot. Hopes of running Richmond were slim, but I kept the thought in the back of my mind anyway. Over the weeks my goal has changed from getting to the starting line in one piece, to crossing the finish line in an uninjured state. Last week I posted on DailyMile that my plan was to go out at 6:52 per mile pace with the aim of reaching halfway in 1 hour 30 minutes. Of course, with my lack of endurance I would expect to fade in the second half, but would do all I could to minimize the inevitable slowing down. A 3:05 would be a pretty lofty goal and a creditable performance I thought.

Since Saturday’s race and Sunday’s long run, I’ve started [foolishly] to think a sub-3:00 could be possible. I must admit it would be pretty sweet to gain revenge over my Frederick Marathon humbling earlier this year, but maybe I’m getting ahead of myself? To complicate things even more, if a sub-3:00 finish seems impossible, I’ve even started thinking about a 2:56 goal which would give me my fastest marathon of 2009. Sound doable? I’m not sure to be honest, but I’ll have a better idea when I cross the 13.1 mile mark on Saturday morning.

Anyway, long story short, here’s the plan –

Goal #1 — finish the marathon with a smile on my face and a happy left foot. Naturally this would be a major victory after spending six weeks of the summer in an aircast boot and the last nine or ten weeks building up from a one mile walk to a 26.2 mile attempt.

Goal #2 — run the first half in 1 hour 30 minutes and fade as little as possible to a marathon finish around 3 hours 5 minutes.

Goal #3 — run the first half in 1 hour 30 minutes and maintain pace for the second half to record a marginal sub-3:00 marathon.

Goal #4 — run the first half in 1 hour 30 minutes and pick up the pace in the second half to finish in 2:56 or quicker.

Now that they’re down in black and white, I’ve made myself accountable…..and I like it that way. Of course, a smarter runner would stick with Goal #1 and be happy with it. I, on the other hand, am obviously not that smart and will be “going for it” from the gun. It may get ugly towards the end, but to be honest, it’s the only way I know how to run.

Finally, if you’re interested in tracking my progress on Saturday, the marathon starts at 8:00am. You can sign up for text/email alerts at the Richmond Marathon web site — just search on my last name “SPEIRS”. Also, good luck to wife Ally who is running her 2nd Richmond Marathon (9th marathon in total). I have a sneaky feeling she’s going to do rather well herself….

Enter the PaceTat Marathon Pacing Tattoo!

PaceTat 2.0 (which is the update to the original PaceTat) includes the following features:

• Additional Finish Times
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• Alternating background color to help differentiate each mile goal

PaceTat Miles – is the long awaited update with splits that are listed in miles only. PaceTat Miles gives you pacing information for every mile on the course in addition to the half-way point, 13.1 miles, and the finish, 26.2! New finish times have also been added as requested by many runners. There are now 20 different paces to choose from!

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Thursday (Day 11): Yesterday, on Day 10, I ran “too-fast-for-an-easy run” and predicted I’d regret it the next day. How right I was. Today was easily the toughest of the marathon training so far, but I survived…..just.

Plan: 60 to 70 minute run with 30 to 40 minutes at “Steady State Pace” – 6:14 to 6:25 per mile

Actual: The 2 warm up miles were fine (7:50 and 7:23), but I really struggled with the steady-state pace that followed. The next five splits were 6:21 6:18 6:13 6:14 and 6:14, but I really had to fight for every one of them – it was almost like race pace effort.

The humidity was unbelievable tonight and I was so glad to get back to the car after the 2 cool down miles (8:15 and 7:48). Luckily I was prepared and had 24oz of icy water and a couple of scoops of Recoverite waiting in the trunk – I needed it so badly….

Moral of the story: run easy on your recovery days, even if you are feeling invincible.

Also did W4D3 of the Hundred Push-Ups plan – 29 33 29 29 and maxed out 60 [total = 180]. Definitely needed the 120 seconds recovery period today, but surprised myself with the 60 consecutives at the end.

Friday (Day 12): Rare rest day. Still feeling the effects of yesterday’s “Steady State Pace” run.

Saturday (Day 13): Ran the Allen Stone Memorial 5k down at the boardwalk. Pretty happy with the race and despite fairly heavy legs, managed to work my way through the field from about 12th place in the first 1/4 mile to 6th at the finish. The 3 x 180 degree turns weren’t conducive to a fast time, but overall I’m pleased with the 17:35 finish.

Splits: 5:31 5:41 5:46 0:34

Nice little bonus to finishing 1st in the 40-44 age group was picking up a cool beer mug trophy.

Later in the day…..

Not used to doing the push-ups later in the day, but didn’t want to do them before the race in the morning either. Also snuck in the “end of week 4 test” before starting the workout….which in hindsight probably wasn’t a smart thing to do.

End of Week 4 test: cheated and stopped at 40 to keep me in Column 2.

W5D1: 28 35 25 22 35 (just!) [total = 145]

Made the targets, but hope to be stronger next time around…

Sunday (Day 14): Have to be honest, wasn’t totally up for the run, but once out the door I was fine. Learned my lesson from Thursday’s run and made sure I stuck to the required “long-run pace” (7:05 to 8:05). Yesterday’s 5k on the concrete boardwalk left both feet a little tender, but no real issues and the Newtons served me well.

Won’t bore you with the splits, but all the first half were in the 7:30s and all the second half in the 7:20s. Thankfully it wasn’t too humid today which made for a very pleasant run.

16 miles – 2:00:00 = 7:30/mile pace

Monday (Day 15): Another Hundred Push-Ups workout – this time W5D2:

18 18 20 20 14 14 16 40 [total = 160]

Like the lower reps/more sets of Week 5…

Also, marathon plan called for 35 to 50 minutes at 7:05 to 7:35 pace. As this week is a recovery week, I took the easy way out and did the bare minimum.

Left foot felt quite tender, probably due to the concrete boardwalk/Brooks T5 combo in Saturday’s 5k and overall I felt quite flat today. Hopefully everything will be better for tomorrow’s “Predict Your Time 4 Miler” at the Norfolk Botanical Garden.

Tuesday (Day 16): Easy 4:30pm warm up in the Newtons at the Norfolk Botanical Garden. The forefoot cushioning of the Gravitas made for a fairly pain-free run.

In the Summer Series “Predict Your Time 4 Miler” I predicted 24:59, but actually ran a 24:32 – 17 seconds too fast despite easing off in the final mile. Wore my Nike Zoom Marathoners (for a change) which was probably a mistake – not very comfortable at all especially with my left foot still sore from Saturday’s race.

Cooled down for a mile and a half with Ally. First time we’d run together for a while and it was nice to chat as we jogged around the beautiful Botanical Garden.

Wednesday (Day 17): More Push-Ups! This time W5D3 – 18 18 20 20 17 17 20 45 [total = 175]

Quite challenging today for some reason, probably due to the miserly 45 seconds rest interval. Who built this push-ups plan anyway?! Also, I figured out it’s really important to keep breathing when doing the push-ups – I still have a tendency to hold my breath when I get fatigued.

The left foot was quite sore walking around today, but oddly enough it was fine during the grassy soccer field run tonight. Not quite sure why it’s more sore when I walk, which seems a bit strange to be honest. Any ideas?

Anyway, didn’t want to take too many chances, so cut the run short to 4 progressive miles.

Thursday (Day 18): Rest day. Pigged out at the Sandbridge Island Restaurant and went for a short barefoot stroll on the beach. Enjoyable!

Friday (Day 19): End of Week 5 Push-Ups Test. Managed 65. Could have done more, but no real point – 65 was enough to put me in the 3rd column for Week 6. Actually, it probably would have been smarter to stop in the 50s which would have put me in Column 2 next week. Oh well, onwards and upwards. I should be able to knock out the hundred again by the end of July.

Finished off the test with 5 x 20 push-ups and 3 x 1 minute planks. The planks hurt and were a great reminder that i need to get my core back in shape!

No running today. Don’t want to aggravate the foot any more than necessary. Tomorrow, I’m running 2 x 5k’s in the morning as part of the Kale Running East Beach Run~Swim~Run Relay, where wife Ally will be the swimmer doing her best to dodge the jellyfish in the Chesapeake Bay.

In the evening, assuming I can still put weight on my foot, I’ll be running the Crystal City Twilighter 5k in Arlington, VA, which looks to be a great event and is billed as “the area’s premier twilight event with a flat course, great runner premiums and perks, and a fabulous after party.” I signed up earlier in the week and so far there are over 2000 entrants (not including elites). Looks like a ton of fun – I just hope I’ll be able to enjoy it and race well.

Monday (Day 8): Circumstances dictated a treadmill run on Monday. I wasn’t really looking forward to being stuck inside but oddly enough, it turned out to be quite a pleasant change from my usual road routes. Stuck to the McMillan “easy pace” and felt comfortable throughout. Hopefully normal service resumes tomorrow and I’ll be back outside running my intervals….

Plan: 35 to 50 minute easy run
Actual: 6.6 miles in 49 minutes

Tuesday (Day 9): Pretty much the same workout as last Tuesday except for the striders being 25 seconds in duration instead of 20 seconds.

I think yesterday’s treadmill run drained a lot of my energy – the legs definitely felt a little heavy today. Met the required goals though, so all is well on the marathon training front.

Plan: 15 to 30 minute warm up, followed by 8 to 10 times 25 seconds with 1 minute jog recovery, 15 to 30 minute cool down.
Actual: 30 minutes warm up, 8 to 10 x 25 seconds fast (one minute recovery), 30 minutes cool down.
Splits: 7:38 7:24 7:13 7:23 6:48 6:54 7:09 7:17 7:01 7:03

Wednesday (Day 10): Marathon training Day 10 called for 50 to 70 minutes at 7:05 to 7:35 pace. Didn’t look at my Garmin until Mile 4 and by that time I was two minutes faster than planned. I backed off a little in Mile 5, but the slower pace felt awkward so I sped up to a more “natural” rhythm. Then, with about 10 minutes to go I remembered I have a challenging Pace-Booster workout tomorrow, so shut things down and cruised home to the finish. I’ll probably regret this run on Thursday afternoon, but I shouldn’t complain about a solid 10 miler.

Plan: 50 to 70 minute easy run
Splits: 7:12 6:55 6:54 6:50 7:02 6:52 6:45 6:42 6:44 7:11

For the record, the temperature was 88°F at the start and 84°F at the finish. To help with hydration, I carried a handheld full of Melon flavored HEED, popped a couple of Endurolytes midway through the run and had 24oz of Recoverite waiting in the fridge for my return. Loving the Hammer Nutrition on these challenging summer runs….

Day 5: A very enjoyable, controlled easy run. No problems at all meeting goal pace (7:05 to 7:35) and great to have some recovery miles after yesterday’s Pace Booster Run.

Splits: 7:20 7:17 7:15 7:08 7:03

Day 6: In honor of 7-Eleven Day (7/11) I ran past 7 different 7-Eleven’s on my longish run today. The temperature was a balmy 80°F throughout and I treated myself to a free 7.11oz Banana Fanta Slurpee at the last 7-Eleven on my route. Felt absolutely tremendous throughout, and ran faster than the planned 7:05 to 8:05 pace. Oh well.

Splits: 7:09 7:14 7:03 7:03 7:02 7:02 6:58 7:02 7:00 6:56 6:57 6:52

Day 7: Pleasant morning run to finish off the week. Goal was 40 to 60 minutes in the “easy zone”. No problems hitting the target but for some reason it didn’t feel as comfortable as yesterday’s longer run.

Splits: 7:58 7:43 7:37 7:23 7:08 7:02

Summary: 62 miles for the week – most since February or March I believe. All workouts completed as per the plan with no real challenges. 18 weeks/126 days until the Richmond Marathon…

I found it difficult to keep it “easy” at first, but soon got into a nice comfortable groove and clicked off pretty consistent miles. No major issues tonight, although I do seem to have developed some sort of hot spot on my right foot. Weird…

Splits: 7:25 7:20 7:19 7:14 7:20 7:18 7:19 7:07 7:16

Day 4 of the marathon plan called for a 60 to 70 minute run with 30 to 40 minutes at “Steady State Pace” – which, according to the McMillan Calculator, is 6:14 to 6:25 per mile. I must admit, going into the workout I wasn’t totally confident of hitting the goal pace, but as always, decided to give it my best shot.

Greg McMillan describes the Steady-State Run as follows:

The Steady-State Run is one of the most beneficial types of workouts especially as you complete your base training and during the initial parts of your Stamina phase. The appropriate pace range for Steady-State Run Runs is between your 30k and half-marathon race pace. Your heart rate will likely be between 83 and 87% of maximum and the runs should last at least 25 minutes and can go as long as an hour and 15 minutes.

These are pretty tough efforts not because of the pace but because of the duration of running, so be prepared to increase your concentration to stay on pace and to take a good recovery day afterwards in order to reap the full benefits.

As per the workout instructions, I warmed up for a while (2.7 miles) and then proceeded to run 5 miles at steady-state pace:

Splits: 6:22 6:14 6:14 6:19 6:14

Just like Greg stated, it really took a lot of focus and determination to hit the required pace, but as you can see from the splits above, I made it.

I cooled down for just over a mile and to be honest couldn’t have run much more even if I wanted to. I did take a few minutes to do some stretches though…

Easy run tomorrow. I definitely need it!

Last night was a slightly more challenging workout – a 15 to 30 minute warm up, followed by 8 to 10 times 20 seconds with a 1 minute recovery jog between, followed by a 15 to 30 minute cool down. The workout took place at the Norfolk Botanical Garden where the first event in the Tidewater Striders Summer Series was taking place. I arrived early and pretty much had the trails to myself for a very enjoyable run.

I ended up covering 10 miles in about 71 minutes and felt strong throughout. The 10 x 20 second efforts were not flat out sprints, but definitely fast, controlled efforts which should help develop my neuromuscular system. Hopefully, according to McMillan, I will also see a difference in my finishing kick at the races too.

Finally, about an hour after the 10 miles was complete, it was time for the Countdown Four Miler – a great idea for a run race where you pick when you want to start a 4 mile run with the goal of crossing the finish line when the clock strikes zero. This year the clock started at 80 minutes which allowed for walkers hoping to pace at 20 minutes per mile. I chose to start at 28 minutes with the aim of running even 7 minute miles. The one mile marker was located in the wrong place, so in the end my pacing went out the window and I just ran on “feel”. Of course my pace judgment was awful and I finished the four miles about a minute ahead of schedule in just under 27 minutes for an average 6:45 pace.

So, all in all, not a bad evening’s work – 14 miles in the bag at a little under 7 minute mile pace. Just hope I can recover in time for today’s easy run in which I need to remember the following:

Adaptation does not occur during stressful workouts, it occurs during the rest/recovery periods. With optimal stress and optimal rest, we will achieve optimal progress!

With just 19 weeks to go until the 2009 Richmond Marathon, I figured it was time to start adding a little focus to my training and kick off the plan. So, for the next 133 days I’ll be following Greg’s workouts as close as possible and hoping his expertise will pull me through to a new marathon PR – anything under 2 hours 51 minutes will do the trick.

Last year I came oh-so-close, but missed the PR by just 27 seconds. This year, I intend on training just as hard, and coupled with my usual focus and determination, hope that I can put something special together on November 14th.

More as a point of reference than anything else, here are my training paces based on Saturday’s Independence Day 5k (adjusted due to the slightly long course):

Endurance Workouts
Recovery Jogs – 8:05 to 8:35
Long Runs – 7:05 to 8:05
Easy Runs – 7:05 to 7:35

Stamina Workouts
Steady-State Runs – 6:14 to 6:25
Tempo Runs – 5:59 to 6:14
Tempo Intervals – 5:54 to 6:06

I also have optimal training paces worked out for Cruise Intervals and various Speed Workouts, but the figures listed above make up the majority of my training plan.

One thing that stands out (and I need to remember) from Greg McMillan’s training guidelines is that:

Adaptation does not occur during stressful workouts, it occurs during the rest/recovery periods. With optimal stress and optimal rest, we will achieve optimal progress!

So, here’s to the next 19 weeks of training. I’m sure it will be a fun journey and hope you’ll enjoy tagging along….