long runs – First Time Marathoner's Diary

Entering the Home Stretch: Being Coachable

Sunrise at the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, Alexandria, VA, Oct. 12, 2019

Chapter 7

Race day is one week from today!

Seven months ago, nearly to the day, I put my name in the lottery for the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington, DC – a distance that I had once sworn I would never do. But some time over the winter, the marathon bug hit me, and so here I am, seven days to one of the most memorable experiences of my life.

The truth is, the journey has been even more memorable. And none of it would have been possible without being coachable.

Being coachable means giving yourself over to the wisdom of someone who’s traveled your path before. Someone who knows the ups and downs, twists and turns, and holds your commitment as if it was their own.

For me, my “coach” has been the staff of the New York Road Runners, who built the Virtual Trainer app and have guided me through the four half-marathons that have formed the foundation of this training experience. Their guidance has never let me down.

My other coach has been you, my community – encouraging me, and quietly holding my goal as their own. I owe a special debt to my new friends, the social runners with Pacers Running in Northern Virginia. They’ve been a great support through the last big long runs of my training program.

You must be humble to be coachable – which, for me, is sometimes easier said than done. If you ask for a coach, and then don’t do what the coach says, what are you actually trying to prove? Michael Jordan had a coach. Michael Phelps had a coach. Bobby Orr had a coach. So who am I to reject a coach?

In this program, being coachable means doing what the training program tells you to do. If it says you should do 5 miler today, you go out and do it, exactly the way the plan says you should. If it says don’t run too fast today, then take it easy even if you feel great. There’s a reason for it, even if you can’t see it. This plan provides one back door, and only one. If you’re hurt or feel sick, you can deviate. Pushing through an injury is just stupid, and grinding through an illness proves nothing.

So this week’s objective, as it has been the last two, has been to get my legs fresh without losing my edge. That means two short runs, and four days of rest. What’s the fine line between resting and regressing? Easy – do what the plan says to do! As the training plan states:

“What you’ve accomplished over these past weeks is what you signed up for. You’ve accomplished your goal, and you know it. You trained through difficult weather conditions, you’ve skipped parties, awaken early, suffered through Long Runs — you have nothing to prove.”

I definitely feel ready. I am the most fit I have ever been. I will try not to obsess about what I cannot control (weather), and focus on what I can – nutrition, rest, and preparation. If you’re in the DC area on the morning of Oct. 27, I invite you to join my family on the course. They’ll be at the western end of East Potomac Park, where miles 12, 15 and 20 converge, near the Jefferson Memorial.

Millions of people have run a marathon. So why not me?

Running, the Problem-Solver

Chapter 5

Running is one of the best problem-solving tools that I know. When I’m stuck on something – a problem to solve, a crucial work conversation to get just right – a good run will produce a better answer than the one I already have.

A few years ago, I was applying for a big job, and a major part of the interview was a presentation on an assigned topic. With a week to go before the interview, I still wasn’t close to nailing it, despite working on it for hours. After a relatively short run, the answer came to me, and it was a good answer. I got the job.

Why does this happen? I don’t know HOW it works, but I just know that a mile or two into a run, I’m in a steady rhythm, just listening to my breathing, monitoring how my legs and body feels, and solutions start to present themselves.

Unless like many runners, I don’t listen to music when I run. It doesn’t work for me. It throws off my pace, and I’m not truly monitoring how I feel. So I’m alone with my thoughts. I don’t think I’ve ever experienced the clichéd “runner’s high.” But I do know that in many runs, I have zoned out enough so that I will “wake up” and not remember how I got from there to here. It makes the run go faster, and quite often, I have a problem solved.

My last couple of weeks

I did SEVENTEEN miles today! It was my longest run ever, and I did it in 2 hours and 54 minutes – much faster than my goal of finishing between 2:58 and 3:02.

I really did not know how it would go. Ten days ago, I got the second dose of the shingles vaccine, and I felt run down for three days – two more than the last time. Still, I was able to run four straight days, pursuant to my training plan, kicking off with a relatively easy 11-miler.

However, after those four days (which coincided with four especially long days at work), I was feeling run down, and felt really tired for the next four days, almost as if I was fighting a cold. This has happened before – three of my four half-marathon training periods were marked by mild breakdowns like this. This week, for recovery, I had two scheduled off days, skipped another scheduled workout, and deferred the 17-miler by a day, to see if I could get myself together.

Sunday morning dawned and I felt pretty good, so I decided to give it a go. The temperature was 68, and not too muggy. I had no idea if I would wear down after 10 miles, 15 miles, or even 5 miles. This FORCED me to start off slowly.

I saw a lot of interesting things today. I started around 6:45 a.m., early enough to see a light blanket of mist settle over some soccer fields. I saw a deer bounding down the road, a female cardinal darting across the path, and a squirrel collide with a bicyclist. Poor squirrel!

Around Mile 4, I fell into a good rhythm, knocking off 10:15 miles where the goal was 10:30-10:45. By Mile 8, I knew I could do it. I was SO happy when I finished it – not only beating the goal, but beating the cold, too.

Next week is a recovery week, with the long run dropping back down to 13. Then in two weeks, the BIG long run – 19 miles! Then taper time starts.

The big day – the Marine Corps Marathon – is coming!

A success, and a failure

The Washington & Old Dominion Trail,
between Falls Church and Vienna, VA

Chapter 4

A few days ago, I passed the halfway mark of my training program for the Marine Corps Marathon. Eight weeks down, eight weeks to go.

This is where the real work begins. Before today, the plan was mostly familiar – things I had done while training for the four half-marathons I’ve already run. But starting today, it’s uncharted territory.

The plan for today was to go 15 miles, which I had never, ever run in a single day before. The previous week, I did 15 miles spanning two consecutive days, but this was obviously different. I was actually I little nervous this morning getting my stuff together to go out for it. Could I actually do it at all? How would it feel?

This is a familiar pattern – new things make me both nervous and excited. If I’m on top of my game, I’ll push through the nerves, knowing that the sense of satisfaction will be all the better. If I’m not, I’ll hate myself for it.

For today’s run, my goal was not only to finish it, but do it at the same pace that I’m targeting for my marathon, which is between 10:24 and 10:42 per mile. See, that’s the rub. If I’m feeling strong, I typically want to go much faster than that, and see what happens. That’s OK for a shorter race, but potentially disastrous for a marathon.

Training for, and running, a marathon requires discipline. Plan your work, and work your plan. There’s no escape hatch.

So this morning, I both succeeded and failed.

I succeeded because I did the 15 miles without a mishap: Two hours, 27 minutes on the Washington and Old Dominion Trail, on a sunny, mild, dry morning. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky, and I had plenty of company on the trail. I traveled parts I’d never seen before: new hills, new vistas, new experiences. That was great.

And I did 15 miles! Woohoo!

But I also failed because I did not hold my target pace throughout the run. I averaged 9:48, which would be much too fast for a full 26.2 miles. And, the last mile was a grind, which is not a good sign. There is little chance that I would be able to keep that up for my entire race – I would probably bonk. Today, there were some stretches where I hit the sweet zone, but it was on uphill segments, so it doesn’t really count. Mostly, I struggled to stay above a 10-minute pace.

This is something I’ll have to work on. And it will be key to completing the 26.2-mile course on October 27.

Around Mile 10, looking none the worse for wear.

Track Work is the Best

Chapter 3

I absolutely love track work. There may be runners who think I’m out of my mind, but I do love it, and I cannot lie.

Why is there speed work in the training plan of a marathon runner? Because it works.

The best marathon training plans go to work on all aspects of the endeavor – fast running, slow running, hills running, flats running, you name it. In my training plan, one run every week is for speed work. This morning, it required a trip to the local high school track to do seven repeats of 1000 meters at a faster-than-normal pace, each separated by 45 seconds of walking. The last interval had to be same pace as the first one.

I got my start running competitively during the indoor track season of my sophomore year of high school in Providence, R.I. The indoor “track” was an old, stately National Guard armory in the heart of the city. The surface was a flat, one-tenth mile oval painted on an unforgiving hardwood floor. The air in that place seemed intent on sucking every drop of moisture from your lungs.

No matter. I loved it, and my times were quickly improving. I was ALL IN.

When it came time for outdoor season, we ran on the streets until the cinder tracks could dry from the winter snow and mud. But the hard surfaces and my bad shoes punished me, and I hurt my foot. I could barely walk pain-free. Every time I felt better, I would try to run, and the pain would return. I had to stop. I thought it was a muscle strain, but in retrospect, it must have been a stress fracture. I didn’t go back to running until I was done with college.

I missed that outdoor season – perhaps more than I realized at the time.

So this morning, while it was still dark, I did an easy mile and a half jog to the local track to warm up. The school parking lots were still empty, the gates were open, and it was just me, my watch, and my training plan.

A thousand meters is two and half times around the track. My plan prescribed each interval at between 5:35 and 5:47, with very little variation. Faster would be OK, if I could handle it and stay there. And on every other interval, practice drinking water while running.

I did the first 1k within the prescribed range, and then snapped off all the rest at BELOW the range. That’s what felt right. And it forced me to concentrate! Get the distance right, keep the same pace, drink my water, and most important, keep an accurate count of how many intervals I had done. As #5 and #6 approached, I was working harder, but that was exactly the point. I was doing fine.

By the time interval #7 was complete, 45 minutes later, the sky was brighter, my legs were heavier, and I had crushed the workout. Time had flown by, and I felt a deep sense of satisfaction. I was where I was meant to be.

And as a bonus, I didn’t choke when I tried to drink and run at the same time.

The rest of the week

Last Saturday, the long run was a 12-miler. I chose a paved trail in Fairfax County that I had run only once before – the Washington & Old Dominion, a rehabilitated railroad right-of-way. A heat wave had finally broken. At 7 a.m. it was sunny, only 62 degrees, and the dew point was in the 50s. Heaven!

And the trail was busy! Runners, walkers, bikers, people with strollers, and all combinations thereof. I saw one guy pushing a stroller containing a crying infant, a whiny toddler, while dragging a small dog on a leash. He deserved a medal.

The run was quite successful, though I’m a little uncertain about the precise time and distance because of operator error with my watch. (Ugh.)

So far, so good. Next weekend – another 11 miler.