What's next?

That’s the inevitable question that comes up after finishing a big event – what’s next? Sometimes it’s in our own heads, more often it’s from friends.

So first off – what’s next is RECOVERY. It would be good to be able to walk normally again, to be able to go up and down stairs without leaning heavily on the railing (or taking the elevator), even to just be able to run a few steps.

I used to be in a place where very soon after finishing a big event, the question of ‘what’s next?’ would pop into my head. I seem to be past that stage now. Still I know for many people it an can an unquenchable thirst; reaching one milestone and immediately wondering and chasing what the next one will be. It’s also not uncommon for some people to fall into a depressive mood for a while after finishing a big event. After all, they’ve spent months and months preparing and getting ready for an event, with so much focus on it, and then suddenly it’s over and no next thing to focus on. What’s next becomes the obvious question.

For me, I can certainly think of many possibilities – running a marathon with not such a fast time goal, running an ultramarathon, even shooting for that sub-3 hour marathon, or running faster in shorter events. This marathon was about as perfect as I could imagine, so if I never ran another marathon, I’d be thrilled with this one. At some point I will likely pick one to consider and maybe even do (probably the ultramarathon).

For now though, I am going to relish the experience and aftermath of this marathon. For now, I’m going to relax and recover, and then go out and enjoy all the Boulder trails just to enjoy the trails, to dance with the dirt, be outside, celebrate the body – and do it with no goals in mind whatsoever. That’s what’s next.

3%

That’s the difference between my marathon time of 3:06 and running a sub-3 hour marathon. Just 3%.

Being so close to the magical sub 3-hour mark, my mind has wondered there. In some ways the difference between a 3:06 and under 3 hours seems huge and in some ways it seems like very little. It pure terms of numbers it’s a 14 second per mile difference from 7:06/mile to 6:52/mile. Not much really for just 1 mile, but it seems like a lot over 26 miles.

In major competitions, the difference between first, second, and third place can sometimes be measured in seconds or even less. The difference being 0.1% - a tiny fraction of a difference. The Tour de France cyclists race for over 80 hours and the difference between first and second is often just a few minutes, even less than 0.1%. To that measure 3% seems huge.

I’ve trained well for the past 6 months. I pay attention to what I eat and nutrition. I do my best to get a good night’s sleep. I stretch (sometimes) and have done yoga for some core strength and flexibility. I get bodywork; I have a recovery drink after almost every run. I pay attention to form. I’ve done pacing work and endurance work. So it is no accident that I had such a good race. Much of this is just the way I live.

There’s also the rest of life to live from all the little things that are so enjoyable and refreshing like hearing birds upon waking to all the little nuisances – oil changes for the car and such.

I’ve lived well, and turned it into good training and a nearly perfectly executed race. The question becomes what’s the difference to gain 3%? It is more speedwork? Or strength work? Or better nutrition, more bodywork?

That 3% gives me perspective. The pros and serious competitors do all they can do for the extra 1%. There’s a lot of focus required for that additional 1%, to go from being extremely good to being the best, at least for one event. I’ve put in my share of that effort over the past 30 years of competing – and still I’m impressed with the focus the pros have.

There’s a question of is that 3% worth it?

I don’t know.

What’s this measured against anyway?

I don’t know that either.

Will I go for it? ;-)

I don’t know either – I’m still in recovery mode.

I do know if I do, the only reason will be to see if I can do it, nothing more.

For me it’s something to ponder with curiosity, perspective, amazement, and wonder.

3%

Goals, Pacing, and Strategy (Tunnel Marathon)

After deciding to race a marathon in July, the next question was, ‘what would be my goal?’ The first one that came up was simply to finish. I knew that one was very realistic even if I walked the whole thing. So then it was a time goal. I knew I could do 3:30 since I’ve done plenty of training runs at an 8:00/mile pace or better. That one was also very realistic but wouldn’t push me to an edge. The next goal was a Boston Marathon qualifying time, which for the 40-45 year old men is 3:15 (7:27/mile pace). This seemed possible as well after running a 1:35 half-marathon this past February. Time to get serious, what could I really do?

3:10? Yes, I figured I could do a 3:10. I also asked my friend Marty about 3:15 and even 3:10 and he agreed. It would be hard and I could do it.

Could I do better? In my head I had 3:08 if I was really on and running well. Maybe …

I just had to figure out how to actually run a 7:15/mile pace for 26 miles, and that’s where working with Marty was awesome. He set up twice-a-week pacing runs for me for 6 of the last 7 weeks before the race. I really enjoyed doing that, both on the track, and on the road – and those pacing workouts really set the foundation for the race.

So the plan was to run the first mile at 7:45 and then settle into a 7:15/mile pace for the next 19 (until mile 20) and then see what I had left. That would get me to 3:10.

The first three miles was dead on – 22:15 – and I hit this after running 2 ¼ miles in a tunnel with just the feel of my body and the pace. This was also the flattest three miles of the course. Mile 4 was 29:10 (a 6:55 mile), followed by mile 5 at 36:20 (a 7:10 mile). With the elevation starting to drop just a little pacing was a little off and still right in a good range. When I did my pacing runs in Boulder I remembered the sensation of the pacing so I could try to duplicate that sensation, or some sense of it. With a different elevation, cool weather, and a solid taper, the first 5 miles were a breeze and much easier than the pacing I had done in training.

I had been trying to use my Garmin watch for pacing, but it seemed to give me numbers all over the place with a pace varying by 30 seconds or so within a minute of checking the watch. I knew my pace wasn’t that erratic. After mile 5, I tried following the watch, but it was too frustrating. At that point, I decided to follow my body feel. That’s worked pretty well for most of the year – AND – I knew I was in a completely unknown area, both for pacing and distance. Still I decided to trust my body.

I kept a smooth pace hitting mile 8 at 57:30 (7:11/mile pace), which was a minute faster than predicted. Still I wasn’t pushing at all. Mile 10 went by at 1:11 (7:07/mile pace). The time at the half way point was 1:32.33 (7:04/mile pace). That was a half marathon PR for me by 2 minutes and nowhere near the effort I used for the half marathon I ran in February. Still feeling very good and not pushing.

At this point I was a little excited – could I do a negative split? That felt very doable. 3:03:24 would be a 7:00/mile marathon pace. Could I hit that? That would mean a 1:31 second half. Possible?!?!? I also knew it was still too soon to increase my pace, so there was a balancing act there between my body holding a good, stead, strong pace, and not listening (too much) to the echoes of glory ringing in my head. A long way to go still.

At two hours I had covered about 17.2 miles (I think) or just under a 7:00/mile pace. Mile 20 was between 2:19 and 2:20 (I couldn’t see the seconds on my watch) – still under 7:00/mile pace. Still going strong. 22 miles was between 2:33 and 2:34 (that means I ran the 8.9 miles from halfway to this point at about a 6:50/mile pace!).

Just around 2 ½ hours I finally started to feel the effort. I wasn’t sure when it would happen, but I knew it would. Around this point, we made a turn and had about a ¼ mile of wind, twisty, steeper trail. That was too much of for my legs and quite quickly it felt like both calves and my right hamstring were getting tight and wanting to cramp. Yikes – still over 4 miles to go.

The last four miles were hard! This wasn’t the wall I’d read about where energy is gone and the mind is sapped; this was my body yelling for a stop. I am going to write about these four miles in another post, what a journey that was. In that last four miles I stopped once to walk for a bit, I must have looked quite hilarious waddling down the trail arms and legs swinging in an awkward rhythm. I also stopped once to stretch my calf. A third stop was almost necessary about ½ mile from the finish – that one I pushed through. My pace was all over the place – I just needed to keep going and get to the finish. The last 4.2 miles were over 7:30/mile pace.

I was told after the race by Marty that if I was really running at the edge, something would happen around mile 22, and if I was running too hard, it would have happened earlier. While I may have perhaps ‘lost’ a couple minutes in the last 4 miles, if I slowed down earlier it would have been the same two minutes. The 3:06 time was it – that was as hard as I could do.

Thanks to Marty for the advice, and pacing. And thanks to a body that has such a fine and subtle knowledge – better and deeper than I could do with my mind and with effort. All-in-all that was pretty close to perfect for pacing and strategy.