A long run that taught me a lesson

On yesterday’s 17 mile run I learned a hard lesson.

While the treadmill can be a safe and incredibly effective way to keep your fitness up during difficult weather conditions, outdoor fitness is just a different animal from indoor fitness.

Now that’s not some new or groundbreaking revelation but it’s a reminder I needed.

I’ve been mostly on the treadmill since Thanksgiving and while I love the convenience of it (and the entertainment I can find (i.e. Netflix, podcasts, music, etc) while using it), it can soften you up a bit if you’re not careful.

There’s something to be said about toughing out a run in colder weather. I don’t think running in icy conditions is a smart idea or running in weather that forces your pace to slow down by more than a minute is all that productive.

Yesterday’s run was an eye opener. I felt off from the very beginning. I felt uneven – like my legs were totally and utterly confused. Make no mistake about it – there’s a HUGE physical demand running long outdoors vs. indoors and I felt every bit of it afterwards. My calves were on fire for 5 minutes when I stepped in the house (a familiar feeling from the past). A sign I was not running with the help of my glutes at all.

Besides that, I felt like my form was all sorts of funky. My hip flexors felt tight and very much restricted. After the run, my upper back was sore, another indicator my form was quite different than how I run on DA TREADY.

It didn’t help that there was 20+mph winds at points. I hated those moments, if I’m being honest. There was 2 times where I literally screamed into the wind as it slapped me across the face. Kind of like a braveheart moment. The hills also had an impact on my legs later in the run but that’s my fault for not doing any sort of incline work.

I could not hit my power goals because of the damn wind. That’s one thing a Stryd power meter does not account for; wind.

I would say that was the most discouraging part of the run – feeling like I couldn’t nail my power goals. After 10 miles I was supposed to run 5 tempo miles @ 225-229 watts but I knew it would be a challenge with the wind and I simply couldn’t get there. I tried my best and wasn’t TOO far off but still, I hate coming up short.

I had to run today because it was 38 degrees and way less wind (about 7-10mph). And it felt so much better (I made sure to go through some of the lunge matrix I used to routinely do and some basic hip flexor stretches). My body responded so much better as well. After a good night’s rest, I had no soreness from yesterday’s run which is a quick recovery. Because I was forced to take 2 days off this week, I thought I’d run easy today (normally a rest day) to make up for it and I’m so glad I did.

I feel almost refreshed from the past 2 days. I’m ready to kick things in a higher gear. It is officially 17 weeks away until the big race. It’s time to make the most of my time and I’m ready to commit. Part of that means I need to get outdoors as much as I can. I’ll be honest, after yesterday’s run I was very worried about hitting my power goals during tougher workouts in the week but today gave me my confidence back as I found myself barely staying in Zone 1C and slowing down a few times to do so. I think I could have run 5 miles @ 225-229 watts today without much of a problem.

Here are the numbers from yesterday and today’s runs:

Check out my RE and LSS/kg for today’s EZ run (pretty good) :

Right knee

Sorry for the lack of updates this week – I’ve had to rearrange my schedule a bit for it all to work and as a result, every minute matters. I have posted daily videos on Instagram’s story platform (you have to follow @pacpie on Instagram and look for my “story” at the top of the app) following most of my runs this week.

Don’t worry though (as if), I will continue to blog about the march towards a BQ while training with a power device.

I wanted to briefly touch upon my right leg. Since last Summer, it has given me issues I’ve never had to deal with before. I did a lot of self diagnosing which led to inconsistent results and ultimately, an aggravated right knee. I then saw a professional. After feeling like all they wanted was a weekly co-pay, I abandoned that. I then figured it out on my own (for now).

I am thankful for how good my right leg/knee has felt for the past week or so. The last thing I wanted to deal with before my official training block begins with Coach is a bad or weaker knee. So I prioritized it recently (along with figuring out my GI issues) with the hopes of going into my marathon specific training block as close to 100% as I can be.

It was never what I’d call an injury (recently, at least, maybe last Summer it was) but rather an annoyance. My right leg was definitively weaker than my left and I had to figure out why. One benefit of seeing a professional was getting and learning how to do specific exercises to correct this imbalance.

Next up is getting some answers on my GI issues – something I’ve dealt with for a while now. I have a temporary solution in place and I am going through a round of tests to rule out stuff, like Celiacs for example. I had blood drawn for that last week and the results came back negative.

This week was my first full load of workouts in 3 weeks and it hasn’t been easy but it hasn’t killed me either. Tomorrow, I have to run long in the early AM. But everything has to go right in order for me to make it work (that includes waking up early enough, getting to the Arena as soon as the doors open, doing my morning duty, etc..).  I’ll let you know how that goes.

In about 3 or so weeks (maybe 4), Coach will start with the marathon specific training and I really look forward to a long but productive training cycle. I want this to be one of my best ever.

Whatever it takes

The workout lived up to the pain I expected. It wasn’t my legs that couldn’t handle it but rather my lungs this time. I only felt sorry for myself ONCE (during the 4th rep) but I got over it quick. Check out where my HR maxed out below and you’ll see I WAS WERKIN’.

Also important to note that Coach prescribed my range as 252-254W, slightly above the range of recent similar workouts. I was a little ahead on the first 3 reps as you’ll see above. This is called a SUPRA Threshold workout. I freakin’ love that name, by the way.

My buddy Andrew gave me a song recommendation as motivation for my upcoming training block leading up to Buffalo. The song? Whatever it takes. The message? Do whatever it takes to get that BQ. That helped me crush my first few reps here.

Afterwards I used Instagram Story to document the pain verbally. I was a hot sweaty mess.

You’ll see some extra laps before the 5th rep. That was my bad. Total accident. I went to change the song (to get extra pumped up!!!) but I accidentally hit the cool down button which caused a comedy of errors. First it slowed down dramatically and then when I raised the speed it came back down so I just had to restart the run.

I was much stronger (mentally) on my last rep. Held on and left no doubt I would finish this damn workout.

 

It’s time to pick it back up

Coach gave me a full week of EZ running last week.

I took it as an opportunity to refresh my mind and my legs because he had an interesting note at the end of this past week: “20 weeks until Buffalo”

Now 20 weeks may seem like a long time to you but to me it’s not. I’ve traditionally done 18 week builds. And then another 4 weeks later, he noted, “16 weeks until Buffalo.”

If Coach doesn’t decide to start the marathon build at 18, I’m sure he’ll strongly consider somewhere around that 16 week mark.

He asked how I was doing and if I’ll be ready to start marathon specific training in “4-5 weeks” which lines up with the thinking above. I told him let’s roll!

I feel like a bit of a wimp from these last 2 weeks being mostly EZ running. Tomorrow is my first workout in that time period. I am nervous and excited about executing it. I know it won’t be easy (they never are) but necessary.

I will hopefully blog about it afterwards at some point. I am trying to update my Instagram “story” (@pacpie) on a daily basis. I hope to sprinkle in as many training updates as I can, as more instant updates. And then I’ll send you back here for the full scoop.

New Years Resolutions

It’s 2018. A brand new day, a brand new year.

I love thinking about and setting goals for the short and long term.

Here are some of the big ones for me:

BQ or BUST. 
Of course, this one is to be expected. It is the name of this blog after all. But seriously, I need to make it happen this year. I need to end it. The Buffalo Bills just ended a 17 year playoff drought and similarly I need to end a 35 year BQ drought. Granted, I’ve only been running for so many years but you get the point. I’d really love to get this monkey off my back. I knew it was a stretch for it to go down in 2017. I knew I had no chance in 2016. But something feels right about finally getting that BQ in 2018. “If you believe it, you can achieve it.”

Better Balance.

I’ve talked about this a little bit and it remains a goal of mine. I tend to obsess over one thing and it becomes my singular focus. I’d really like to be better balanced as a person. My goals in life are to be the best father I can be. To be the best husband I can be. To be a good friend. To be a good son. To be a good employee. To be a good runner. I think I’m decent at all of these most of the time but I tend to be really good (or really focused, I should say) on one of them until I move onto the next. 2018 is the year I conquer better balance.

Stronger, not lighter.

2017 was a year where I tested the theory: lighter = faster. I think it applies in certain situations (like if you’re 180lbs, and roughly 10-15lbs overweight, getting down to 165 could make a big difference). But for me, that is not the case. I ate incredibly healthy for a period of time and got down to a weight where I felt weak. Since the bod pod test, I’ve packed on some weight and feel better about my goal of getting stronger. I have this out-there theory that I’m fortunate where my body puts on muscle rather easily and if I just tried a bit more in that category, I could see results. I’ve always been “skinny jacked” – a phrase I’ve coined for those who show more muscle because they’re so dang skinny. I’d like to actually develop a little more upper body muscle and not feel like I have a wimpy chest.

Full body strength

As kind of a follow-up to that, I really want to be consistent with a strength routine of some kind and my goal right now is to follow Jay Dicharry’s program (in his new book) with some degree of consistency. All it takes is 3 times a week (20 minutes a session) for his program and that sounds doable to me. It could lead to a big breakthrough (it could for most), in my opinion (this I believe x 1000000). I love his new book and I think he explains it all so well. My biggest issue is perfecting how to do the movements in his plan. It takes good form and that’s something I’ll have to practice a lot of. I’m so terrible at trying these movements.

Solve my stomach issues

My GI issues are no secret. I still struggle with them to this day. This will be the year I figure out how to fully manage the situation. The other week when my runs were being interrupted on a daily basis – I couldn’t deal with it. It’s embarrassing having to note in every single run to Coach that “hey, that pause after mile 2 was me using the restroom.” It’s normal to happen every once in a while but not every run. And I’ve experimented and tried a lot of things but I’ve finally set something up with a specialist to talk about the issue. I admit that here in an effort to be as transparent as possible on this blog. For now though, I have some tricks up my sleeve that help me avoid Code Brown on some days. It’s when my routine is thrown off is when I struggle the most.

Continue the path of good eating

I recently had my blood drawn to be analyzed by the fine folks at Inside Tracker. My dude Jonathan Levitt strongly recommended the Ultimate Plan so that I did and I’m anxious to see my results. I hope to maximize this opportunity and find out what I’m lacking and learn from it. I made huge strides this year learning about what is good food and what is bad food and what works well for me. Again, it comes back to being better balanced in this area. I’ve done the ultra healthy style and I’ve also binged on pizza & wings & sweets. A little moderation goes a long way.

Be a better blogger

Blogging is hard. It’s an outdated way of communicating in this day and age, it feels like (side note: I’ve been trying to use Twitter/Instagram story more for training updates). But I think it has its place and just because it’s not the most popular method doesn’t mean I have to give up on it. Sometimes you can spend hours penciling a piece only to receive 1 comment. But I’m not doing it for that reason. I’m doing it to become a better writer, to learn from previous mistakes and it’s my form of therapy sometimes. Don’t get me wrong – this blog has built up a nice amount of followers and every time someone new subscribes via email, I get excited. When I first started this, I wrote every single day and tried my hardest to keep it entertaining. But over time I realized it wasn’t sustainable. Again, I won’t use that as an excuse to not write. I hope to continue to write as often as I can and deliver worthwhile content. I thank you for following along and hope you can pull something meaningful from this blog.

Here’s to a great 2018. On a personal level, 2017 was the most challenging year of my life. But my wife and I not only survived it, we came out stronger from the many road blocks in our way. I learned a lot about keeping the faith, staying strong in your weakest moments and believing that the best is yet to come. In my heart of hearts, I believe 2018 will be a fantastic year. Let’s make it happen..

An extra rest day

Darn, I had a feeling it was coming.

Saturday’s long run went down without too much of a hitch. But I wouldn’t be telling the truth if I said it was easy.

The first part felt normal. But as the miles progressed, I just felt more fatigued. The plan was to do 1 minute intervals x 6 @ 5K pace at some point but because this entire week was changed around, I decided that doing what I normally do (4-5 miles @ 220-225W) would suffice. I don’t think to do this (change the plan) normally but because this week was all goofed up, I hope Coach didn’t mind. Doing 5K intervals on this particular treadmill I was using didn’t sound like fun or easy to pull off (from a technical perspective – the speed button is a toggle switch).

So 11 miles roll by and I started the next set of miles @ 220 watts. I knew I was in for it as my legs and breathing were not on par compared to previous efforts.

I decide (pretty early in the 11th mile) that 4 miles at this pace was all I had in me. I couldn’t stretch it to 5 like previous weeks. And it was hard getting through that 4th mile but I got it done and 16 miles in total (after a slower than usual cool down mile).

I was worried what Coach would say in his weekly comments to my runs.

But it happened. Based on bailing out of the Critical Power test and what transpired during my long run, he thought it was a good idea for me to rest some more.

So he gave me an extra rest day today (Monday) and kept all of my miles easy this week. At first I thought, “bummer.” But then I realized it’s probably for the best long term.

I noticed at the end of this coming week he put a note on the calendar: “20 weeks until Buffalo” and similarly  4 weeks from then “16 weeks until Buffalo” and I thought, “holy moly we are getting close!”

I don’t think I was burnt out this week. I think I was just a bit tired. Coach put up a nice post about my progression since starting with him and we’ve increased the workload every week successfully.  I was due for a small break in the action.

I normally can just keep going and going but there’s no sense in risking burn out when we haven’t even started the marathon specific training.

So while at first I was disappointed about not running today, I know it’s for the best. And as a result, I’ve really felt so much better these last 2 days. I know I’ll come back super strong.

Before I know it, the real work will begin.

Up next (hopefully tonight): New Years Resolutions..