Half a Mile From Tucson, By The Morning Light

When you're trained to go under 3:00, it's impossible to run any slower than 7:30 because that's now easy run pace. Smart move on stopping early. Now rest up, get healed and blow the doors off Tucson.

Neat story about Cassidy. I'll be on the look out, even though our kids are now Cartoon Network only fans(Gumball, Regular Show, and Ninjago).

My buddy Scott just told me is OUT for Tucson. Bummer. He ended up having to have surgery post-Boston for pf issues and while there's hope that its a miracle cure for him, the doctors have forced him to stop his rapid ramping back into running he was doing to do more healing. So I'm on my own for my long runs and for traveling out to Arizona. The loss of a long run partner hurts me more. Its always so much more pleasant to do the 2+ hour runs with a buddy and he keeps my speed nice and mellow for those weekend runs wheras going solo, I always run them a bit too fast and aggressively. Hopefully, he'll be fixed after all this and fully ready for returning to marathoning and training in 2013. I'll do 20 tomorrow morning and then I'd like to bounce back and do at least 10 Sunday but I'll see how I feel before doing that. I need to get my mileage up over the next few months. I think I'm over the side thing although I thought that last week and it still was barking at me in Chicago. But its felt fine all this week. Legs-wise, I feel great. Just need to pile on some mileage and do I'd like to do that 20 this weekend, another 20 next weekend and then a full 26.2 at Marine Corps the following weekend. No off days over the next 3+ weeks. Gotta pour it on.

I woke up early this morning and drove down to Kevin's house in DC and we ran 20 together. It was awesome. Just a perfect cool crisp morning for running and we headed down from his place down to the Potomac River and did 3 "laps" about about 3 miles each around Potomac Park (including jumping in a 5k that was going on....we didn't place well!) before heading back UP (ugh) to his house to finish the 20. Always sooooo much more fun to run a long one with a buddy. He was telling me about his recent 4 month stay in Rwanda. Wow, very different than a 2-day business trip to Chicago. Then Cassidy had a soccer game and we roared back from being down 2-0 to tie it late 2-2. Felt like a victory coming from behind like that. Now we are off soon to a nice dinner out. Busy day!

Dam you and Kevin! Can you say jealous!!!!

First tell Scott that I hope that his surgery fixes his PF! He really is a talented runner and I know that he has much better runs in him if he can stay healthy!!

As for you, you do remember our talked about your MCM plan correct????

Schuey wrote:First tell Scott that I hope that his surgery fixes his PF! He really is a talented runner and I know that he has much better runs in him if he can stay healthy!!

As for you, you do remember our talked about your MCM plan correct????

Ha ha! Yes, I'm on board with the Schuey plan. Nice and easy.

Schuey wrote:Dam you and Kevin! Can you say jealous!!!!

I'm a bit jealous too.

Chris M wrote:

Schuey wrote:First tell Scott that I hope that his surgery fixes his PF! He really is a talented runner and I know that he has much better runs in him if he can stay healthy!!

As for you, you do remember our talked about your MCM plan correct????

Ha ha! Yes, I'm on board with the Schuey plan. Nice and easy.

Ok, I'm watching on line so I can learn for NYC. And I'm still in for Tucson - hubby and I arrive on Saturday morning.

Schuey wrote:Dam you and Kevin! Can you say jealous!!!!

I didn't tire him out enough. Kevin went and did another 20 today! Back to back 20s! Geesh.

I went with my brother to the Ravens/Cowboys game today. Crazy game. The Ravens couldn't stop the Cowboys all day but a 108 yard kickoff return and a bad Romo INT in the redzone had the Ravens clinging to a late game lead that they almost blew. The Cowboys recovered an onside kick and actually had about a 50 FG attempt for the win as the game ended but the guy missed it. It was fun to be at the game and we had really good seats. Only downside was missing all of the other NFL games. Now I gotta go figure out what happened in all of the other games. I missed my Skins win a big one and saw a highlight of RGIII running all over the Vikings. Dave knows I am sooooo sold on RGIII as the REAL DEAL.

Time to test out a little speed this week running-wise. I've avoided it while my intercostal muscle healed but this week I'll do some type of repeat (800s most likely) AND a tempo (maybe 3x2) to introduce back some significantly faster than MP running. My legs won't know what hit them the first time I try and hit 5K or even 10K pace!

I was pleasantly surprised to see RG3 play the way he did this week after taking that big hit and concussion last week. I thought he was gonna play far more tentatively, but he shut me up in a big way! So much fun to watch!



Just catching up on things now, good luck on the sub-3 this season Chris!!

Well, Chris, I might have spoken too soon about Tucson as I may have to bail and on JFK as I have to schedule in surgery for some woman's issues and depending on the type, it will be anywhere from 1 wk to 4 wks of down time. Since I want to run Boston well, this might mean scheduling this as early as the week or two after NY. We will see.

Michele "1L" Keane wrote:Well, Chris, I might have spoken too soon about Tucson as I may have to bail and on JFK as I have to schedule in surgery for some woman's issues and depending on the type, it will be anywhere from 1 wk to 4 wks of down time. Since I want to run Boston well, this might mean scheduling this as early as the week or two after NY. We will see.

Ah, that's a bummer to hear but first things first and that's getting healthy and recovered from your upcoming surgery.

Chris M wrote:

Michele "1L" Keane wrote:Well, Chris, I might have spoken too soon about Tucson as I may have to bail and on JFK as I have to schedule in surgery for some woman's issues and depending on the type, it will be anywhere from 1 wk to 4 wks of down time. Since I want to run Boston well, this might mean scheduling this as early as the week or two after NY. We will see.

Ah, that's a bummer to hear but first things first and that's getting healthy and recovered from your upcoming surgery.

It all depends on timing and figuring out the best course of action to be ready for April.

That WAS an exciting game. Can imagine how fun it would've been to be there.

Any runs since your 20?

It does seem you're in top shape to go for sub 3 Chris.

I'm still going - sorry there haven't been many updates. I'm going to run the Marine Corps Marathon on Sunday. Yes, Schuey, I'll go slow and do the whole thing as an LSD run. I'm pacing Gillian (Cassidy's best friend) in a 5k on Saturday so that will serve as a little tempo run before the 26.2 mile long run on Sunday. Gillian's PR is from when I paced her to a 20:48 (6:41 pace) in July. I don't know that she's quite ready to do 6:30s all the way through but maybe its time to find out and that's the pace I'll run at unless she falls off a bit. We tried that once at 6:45 pace in June and she kind of blew up and was over 21 mins before nailing sub 21 at the July race so maybe it will be trial and error again with 6:30 or 6:35. Actually, 6:35 would still be a significant PR and get her under 20:30 so maybe that's the pace I should run at? Hmmm. But either way, its good tempo pacing discipline for me. My job is to run the agreed upon pace like a metronome and talk her through the rough spots. Believe me, there are not other 12 year old girls in any race running those speeds so you also get the crowd and other runners involved once they see a little kid motoring along. Both Cassidy and Gillian then have a soccer game after the 5k so Cassidy will have to pick up the slack on the soccer field because I can't imagine what playing soccer would be like after trying bust a 5k PR. Gillian may be pretty useless in the soccer game.

Did 10x800 today at lunch on the mill. Short recoveries since I didn't have much time - my fault for sleeping in and needing to compress the workout time-wise. Didn't feel like pushing it so I did 9 x 800 at 10 mph (6:00 pace) and the last one at 10.4 mph (5:46 pace). Felt fine. 800s are always a pretty easy workout on me and 6:00 pace is cheating a bit on my part and I should be running all of them slightly faster than that. But I wasn't in the mood for a lung buster - just an easy 60 mins and done workout. Mission accomplished.

Today is Jennifer's birthday so Cassidy and I will be taking her to Bazin's (the Schueys have been there). Midweek night out on the town. How indulgent! Then i should wake my butt up early tomorrow and do a decent sized run and hopefully double.

First you would have to run with Kevin for a week straight to tired that guy out!

Good luck this Sunday with MCM, Lisa and I will have to come out and do that race again. I loved it the only time her and I ran it!! Good to hear that you are going to stick to the plan on this one buddy! Remember it's all about spending that time on your feet and getting ready for the big pop "half mile from Tucson"! And my buddy better not be moving to SLOW!!!

So when are is Scott going to start paying for your pacing duties? Good luck to Gillian on Saturday, maybe you will learn something from pacing about how to pace yourself!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO JENNIFER!!!!!

I'll cross my fingers for any one running the MCM this weekend. Sandy sounds like it will make an unpleasant appearance.

Diego wrote:I'll cross my fingers for any one running the MCM this weekend. Sandy sounds like it will make an unpleasant appearance.

Let's hope they are wrong, Diego as they claim if Sandy makes landfall again in the US, then we (Ohio) will have snow next week. I am not ready for that.

Hope Sandy makes landfall. Maybe for once now Chris will be forced to stick to a race day pacing plan.

Schuey wrote:Hope Sandy makes landfall. Maybe for once now Chris will be forced to stick to a race day pacing plan.

I think the correct race day pacing plans by Chris only happens in his dreams!

Good luck man and I hope you stick with your plan and have a great run.

Schuey wrote:Hope Sandy makes landfall. Maybe for once now Chris will be forced to stick to a race day pacing plan.

Knowing Chris, he'd get a 30 mph tailwind and run the first 5 miles in 30 minutes.

Diego wrote:

Schuey wrote:Hope Sandy makes landfall. Maybe for once now Chris will be forced to stick to a race day pacing plan.

Knowing Chris, he'd get a 30 mph tailwind and run the first 5 miles in 30 minutes.

HaHa I didn't even think of that! Funny thing is you are right that is exactly what he would do!

We got lucky weather-wise for the Marine Corps this morning. Cloudy and very windy but no rains yet as the big storm is still half a day away. As Kevin said in his week in training post, we ran it at around 8:00 pace. I had two lengthy port a john stops in the 2nd half (ugh but a no brainer when not racing) so I let Kevin keep going and tried to reel him after stopping in but didn't make up enough time. He was maybe 3 mins in front of me at the end. I did cramp up a bit during the last two miles which surprised me. I thought going so easy would take care of that and it didn't become a huge issue but it tells me I probably do need to take more than just gels and sports drink/water out there. For marathons, I need to take some kind of supplement beyond that I think. I need to figure out a specific plan on that front. Some type of electrolyte or salt pills or both.

The 5K I did Saturday ended up being more aggressive than I thought it would be but that's a good thing. We were targetting 20:30 as a time for Gillian (Cassidy's best buddy and fellow 6th grader 12 year old) and this was my 4th time as her designated pacer. We went through 1 in 6:28 and she clearly had more in the tank so we cranked it up a bit from there and negative split our way in. 19:35 which is a pretty amazing time for a 12 year old girl (in the 80s in WAVA AG tables) and this is all without her doing ANY running. She does maybe 5-10 miles per week. She had plenty left too (went and played soccer right after and sprinted around all game out there) and I think she could target 18:XX already. On Saturday, when she dropped down to sub 6:00 pace for the final 0.5 I just laughed thinking that today's marathon was going to be a little more interesting as that's hardly a nice and easy pace for me. She ended up as 2nd woman overall in the race and definitely got some double takes coming through the finishing chute with all of these adults. I honestly think she needs to get a coach and there should be professionals out there more than willing to work with someone I think could be a nationally significant runner by the time she is in HS. She has no clue what she's doing and as I said has never really run but there's no difference in her running as she changes gears between 6:20 and 5:50 pace and I gotta believe there are not many 12 year old girls out there who can say that.

Now I'm pretty pooped and its time for NFL, beer and there's a 99.95% chance that will lead to a nap....

I'm glad the storm held off and you had good conditions for MCM, Chris. Looking at your mini "not really a race" report, I think you may have discovered something important - supplementation beyond what you think you need - that could end up being a big help down the road. That's a great case for training races like this one.

Enjoy your nap!

I tended to have leg cramps in marathons until I started taking salt tabs at the start and periodically during races. Has not been a problem since. I take one or two in the chute, and then one every time I eat a gel.

Glad Sandy spared the MCM, and a late happy birthday!