Fox, Milwaukee and Build Up

It's not Thursday, but I have three "things" to talk about, nonetheless!

Fox
It was about 6:45 last Wednesday morning and I was out for an easy six miler on my normal residential running route. I noticed an animal run across the street so I stopped running. I'm paranoid about being chased and bitten by a dog, so whenever I see an animal running near me, I stop dead in my tracks, so as not to provoke them. I quickly realized that this wasn't a dog or a cat, but a fox. I tried to slowly walk away from it, but it followed me. I walked in another direction, and it continued to follow me. I started getting scared. I almost screamed for help.

The fox looked a lot like this one.

There was a long driveway that had a car with its lights on, so I walked toward that, and waved at the car. The fox still followed. I motioned to the driver that I wanted to talk to him, so he rolled down his window. It was a 16-year-old kid on his way to school. "Is that a fox?" I asked? He said it was. "I'm scared. It's following me. Is it going to bite me?" The kid said it shouldn't bite me and that I had nothing to worry about. I almost asked him to drive me up the street, but I didn't. The car left and the fox was still there. I slowly put some distance between myself and the fox and then sprinted away as soon as I felt like I had a decent head start. The fox didn't follow, thank God.

My husband and co-workers later told me that foxes don't bite unless they have Rabies. And they should be afraid of humans unless they have a lot of human interaction and become domesticated. It seems like this neighborhood fox might have had a little too much human interaction because it certainly took an interest in me.

Milwaukee
The Milwaukee Lakefront marathon is this weekend. I ran that race last year and it was disastrous. I was in the best shape of my life, fully prepared to run between a 3:30 and 3:35. All of my training runs had been solid, particularly the long runs. I had just run a 35:53 8K, so I knew my speed was there as well. The weather was great for racing and everything was in place for a huge success. And yet, at mile 9, I knew my race was over, despite a conservative start. I actually had to start walking shortly after the halfway point.

Milwaukee Lakefront 2011, before the crash

This race was a turning point for me because it made me realize that my streak of marathon bonks were due to anxiety and stress. Physiologically, everything was great. But I put so much pressure on myself to perform well at a marathon, and I felt like so much was riding on it, that I would lose a ton of energy by stressing out the week before the race. I tried to addresses this issue at my next marathon, Shamrock this past March, but telling myself to " just relax" wasn't doing the trick. If you're anxious about something and feel that you have a lot riding on it, and you've had a lot of disappointment in the past, then you need to work through it rather than just saying "I'm not going to stress." That's the tough thing about self-fulfilling prophecies.

Shamrock was also a bust. I didn't even finish the thing. I dropped out at mile 13 and spent the rest of the week feeling as if I had expended the effort of a full marathon. I've run many half marathons faster than that pace and have only required 1-2 days of recovery. Again, a strong indication that something was seriously off.

Why am I dredging all of this up now? In addition to being the 1-year anniversary of Milwaukee, my sports psychologist is having me work on attaching emotions to the process, as opposed to the outcome. Ironically, I was in peak condition last year at this time, but didn't have it together mentally. Today, I feel like I've made huge gains in the area of mental strength, although physically I am very far off from where I used to be. Anyway, to help tie emotions to the process rather than the race result, he asked me to take a close look at my last four marathons and re-review them. He wants me to find sources of accomplishment, pride, excitement, happiness, satisfaction and enjoyment.

I won't go through this entire exercise on my blog, but I will point out a few things about Milwaukee that could have brought me these emotions.

• Accomplishment: I finished the race. I wanted so badly to give up. Everything hurt and I was crushed emotionally. At one point I even lied down on the ground. But I pushed on, through run-walking, and endured it until I crossed the finish line. Finishing, in and of itself, was an accomplishment.
• Pride: My training cycle was awesome. I was in fantastic shape, and all of my training runs indicated that. I was really proud of the hard work I put in on the track and on the weekend long runs. I had also incorporated pool running and swimming into my training, as well as core work. This was new for me, and I felt proud that I worked so hard.
• Excitement: I don't really see anything to be excited about. Maybe the fact that I traveled to a new city.
• Happiness: I wasn't happy. I was crushed. Where could have happiness come from? I just don't see it.
• Satisfaction: I was anything but satisfied with this race and I don't see anything that could have made me feel satisfied.
• Enjoyment: Even though I felt "off" early in the race, I enjoyed the first 8 miles. It was fun to be running somewhere new. I love the race atmosphere. I did enjoy the scenery during the last 4 miles. The weekend as a whole was enjoyable. 

If I were to run the same race again today, I don't know if I'd be able to focus on positive, process-oriented things. But I've committed to working on being more positive, so I would try to.

Build Up
I've now been running for about a month post-mono. I'm pleased to report that I feel 100% recovered. I think that the illness is behind me now and I no longer fear relapse like I did when I last posted two weeks ago.

I started by jog-walking and I've finally removed walk breaks. All runs (except one) have been "easy", endurance-building, zone 2 runs. I'm focusing on building endurance now, so that I can build speed on top of that later. In summary, here is a look at the last few weeks:

I didn't try to make it such a "perfect" progression, but I do love seeing this! As I said above, all of these were heart-rate based, zone 2 runs, with one exception.

On Tuesday, I decided it was time for an "easy tempo".  I know, an oxymoron! I did 2 x 1.5 miles at Lactate Threshold with 1/2 mile recovery. Unfortunately, it was pouring rain really hard, so I used a treadmill. I set the treadmill to 7.0 (8:34 pace) and did the workout. This felt tough, but not "tempo tough". It truly was an easy tempo. Had I been outside, I am sure I would have run faster, but I overheat very easily on a treadmill so I was conservative.

Yesterday, I ran 10 miles at an average 9:57 pace. I didn't take walk breaks, but I figured I'd have to stop for traffic lights anyway. Of course, on the one run where I want to stop at a light, they are all green. I don't think I ever have a run when all the lights are green. But they were yesterday, so I ran straight through and felt good the whole way. Huge progress from last weekend when I ran 9 miles and mile 9 felt like mile 20 of a 20-miler.

I'm not making any judgments about where I am at fitness-wise. As shown above, I'm progressing every week and I know that no one single run can determine what kind of shape I'm in. I'm going to run all my planned races this fall. I probably won't race them all at full effort (some I will), but I don't want to shy away from races that I am fully capable of participating in just because my time will be slow. It will be a true lesson in trying my best and having that be good enough.

Milbonkee Lakefront Marathon

Yesterday morning I completed my 13th marathon-- the Milwaukee Lakefront Marathon. It was a huge disappointment for me, but I think I took away some valuable lessons.

I think it makes the most sense for me to write this blog backwards, starting with the race itself, then moving on to the taper, and then taking a look at my previous marathons.

The Race
Even though I was miserable for the majority of this race, I have nothing but words of praise for the Milwaukee Lakefront marathon. It’s a great course, extremely well organized, a highly competitive field, not too large or too small, and with plenty of runner amenities. Before the race started we waited inside a high school with access to bathrooms that had running water. We weren’t called to the start line until about 15-minutes pre-race, so there was minimal waiting around in the cold.

The weather was near perfect. Low 40’s and sunny at the start, mid 50’s at the finish. A 5 mph tailwind. Everything was in my favor. Training had gone well, I avoided injuries and illness, I had some good tune-up races. I was ready!

Strategy
I didn’t have a particular time goal in mind for this race. My coach recommended that I go out at a pace of 8:20-8:30 for the first 10K, and then gradually speed up. I assume he based this starting pace on my training paces, successful training cycle, recent 8K race and half marathon PR. He’s a conservative coach with a “start slow finish fast mentality” and I agreed that a pace of around 8:25 was easy for me.

He told me not to over-think it or look at my Garmin too much. This sounded like a great plan. Before I got a Garmin, I ran all of my marathons on feel and I had a streak of 7 races that all went better than I hoped for. Somewhere along the way I got addicted to the Garmin’s feedback and stopped running marathons by feel.

My mentality going into the race was to “just do it” and let the race come to me. I wasn’t going to be constantly monitoring the Garmin. I was going to enjoy the marathon and I was confident in my fitness level. I know I tend to psych myself out over marathons, so this time was going to be different because I was just going to relax and run by feel—like how I used to do before my series of bonks.

Miles 1-13
During the first few miles I just focused on being relaxed and enjoying the scenery. I listened to other people's conversations and was trying to focus on my surroundings instead of the fact that this was my marathon. This was just like a long run.

It was a bit crowded and the 3:40 pace group was just ahead of me. I told myself that I shouldn’t try passing them until after the 10K mark, or even later if I didn’t feel comfortable speeding up soon.

It felt very easy. In fact, I could hear others around me breathing heavily. I knew I was in great shape because I felt like I wasn't exerting much effort at all.

After mile marker 6 I knew I had the coach’s ok to pick up the pace a bit, but I didn’t feel ready for that.  My official pace at the 7-mile split was 8:27 and I didn’t feel like I should be speeding up. I was okay with this. I thought maybe by mile 8, 9 or even 10 I would be ready to start picking it up. But instead, I just started to feel worse and worse. 8 miles into the race and I knew something was wrong.

Yup, something is wrong.

Once again, trying to stay mentally positive, I told myself it was okay if I couldn’t speed up. A 3:40 would be a great time for me, so just continue at this pace. By mile 10 I knew my race was not going to end well. I just felt exhausted. A bit nauseous. Lacking energy. I didn’t feel out of shape, I just didn’t feel physically well. I know that positive self-talk can go a long way, so I kept reminding myself that I was very well trained and that this feeling would pass. I would be able to maintain this pace for awhile. I was doing great!
I crossed the halfway point at 1:50:xx. I had planned on being there at around 1:48, so I wasn’t too far off, but the fact that the race was no longer in my control at the halfway point was not a good sign.

Normally bonking is a sign of going out too fast. A rookie mistake. And if I had felt this bonk at mile 19 or 20, then I would have thought that I went out too fast. But after just 8 miles at a pace of 8:27, I was feeling “off” so I think that there was a lot more going on here. After all, I recently ran 5 miles at a pace of 7:13 and felt fantastic at the end. Yesterday, I ran 8 miles at a pace of 8:27 and was feeling drained.

Miles 14-Finish
The bonk didn’t “officially” start until mile 15 when I went into a porta potty and then just couldn’t get going again. I thought I might just finish the race at a slower pace until I realized that I didn’t think I could run much further. I still had 11 miles to go and I wanted to stop completely.

Then, the all-too-familiar bonking things happened. I started getting passed by pace groups that were slower than my PR, and as they passed I remember how great I felt when I ran that 3:51 at Shamrock nearly 4 years ago.  I was reduced to a run-walk. My easy pace is now faster than my marathon PR pace. So when I was able to run, I was running at around an 8:50. But I could only run for about 5 minutes at a time before feeling just completely knocked out.

My husband had struggled with Plantar Fasciitis this entire training cycle, so he was in shape for somewhere around 4:00. I knew that eventually he would catch up with me, I just didn’t know when. We had joked before hand that he’d better not find me walking on the side of the course at mile 20, and that’s exactly what happened. He said his heart sunk when he realized it was me. He was running at about a 9:00 pace and I was able to run with him for almost a mile until I had to stop again. I told him to finish and that I didn’t want to ruin his race. He insisted on staying with me and I felt so guilty. At this point, I sat down on the grass, and then lied down on the grass. I just felt completely defeated. I could not go one step further. He told me that I shouldn’t lie down on the grass, got me to my feet again, and we began walking.

The last six miles were torture. I started getting side stitches, I felt like I needed to vomit. I was thirsty, but whenever I drank water, my stomach would revolt and I’d feel even more nauseated. I thought maybe I had overdone the hydration thing because my body didn’t like the water. I was crying, I was depressed and I was hurting. I couldn’t understand why this was happening to me again and why it always happened to me.

Maybe I drank too much water the day before and the morning of. I don't measure my water, I just try to drink lots of it along with electrolytes. Maybe I struck the wrong balance. Maybe I shouldn't have force fed myself so much food the day before because I had very little appetite. My best marathons were all run under cloudy skies, maybe I can't handle the sun at all. I couldn't figure it out. There seemed to be no logical explanation for why I felt so horrible, and why it started so early in the race. One thing that I am certain of-- I did NOT go out too fast for my fitness level. I have far too many races and tempo runs and other factors that indicate that 8:25 is a very conservative pace.

I was crying off and on. I felt like I had ruined my husband's race and I had let everyone down. Why was this happening to me?

Greg told me that I had the rest of my life to think about that but for now I had to focus on finishing the marathon. I just wanted to wallow and cry and not finish, but Greg helped me run/walk.

The last three miles were actually easier than miles 20-23. The course was mainly downhill for those last three miles so we were able to run without too much effort. The scenery started to get really good with a nice view of the lake and some gorgeous houses. That actually helped. We finished the race holding hands and I was so relieved to be done with it. 4:18:51. My third slowest marathon out of 13 and my 6th bonk.

I got my medal, but I just wanted to throw it on the ground. I didn't feel like I deserved a medal and I didn't feel at all proud of myself. I didn't even want to take off my shoes (which is normally the very first thing I do post marathon). I just wanted to be miserable.

When we got back to our hotel I called my coach. I wanted answers and I knew he’d have them. He did. He said he had a feeling earlier in the week that this could happen to me, simply based on my Facebook wall. He said that the race got built up so much and that I had so many people tracking me that I likely caved under the pressure. He told me how he once won a half marathon in a time of 1:05 and was the favorite to win a subsequent marathon. But the pressure got to be too much and he ended up dropping out at mile 20. He said he’s seen this happen before, when the athlete gets too hyped up about the race beforehand.

I was really trying to NOT do this during my taper, but I just couldn’t help it. He told me I should have stayed away from Facebook the week before my race and relaxed more. Most importantly, he assured me that I was a good marathoner in great shape, and I should just brush this one off and get there and try again as soon as possible.

The Taper
I took what my coach said and then I combined it with what I knew to be true about my taper. Suddenly all the pieces started to fit. In the two weeks leading up to my marathon, I was a ball of anxiety.

For those of us who love the adrenaline high of running a lot, the taper is not a fun time. We're forced to cut back our mileage and simply rest up for the marathon. It sounds easy to non-runners: all you need to do is eat well, sleep well and just relax. I know that these things are critical to marathon performance, but my anxiety often gets the better of me and this was my worst taper ever.


Aside from the usual taper anxiety, I was also dealing with other stresses. Squirrels were getting into my house and my husband was out of town on business and unavailable to assist or help calm my nerves. Additionally, my job has been really stressing me out as the environment there is changing rapidly and we have a huge event coming up. In fact, one of the reasons I chose Oct. 2 as a target marathon date was because I didn't want that large work event to interfere with my training.

I was trying so hard not to think about the race, but by doing that, I think I made my physical anxiety worse. On a daily basis I was dealing with:

• Night sweats: waking up at around 2:00am covered in sweat
• Insomnia: Not being able to fall back asleep after waking up at 2:00am
• Loss of appetite
• Weight Loss

You aren't supposed to lose weight during the taper. If anything, you gain it. I lost 4 lbs in the two weeks before my race, and that's a lot for a person of my height. I could just feel that my body was on overdrive and I'd wake up in the middle of the night with my heart pounding. 

To combat all of this, I used Advil PM on some nights and was able to get a reasonable number of hours of sleep. The quality wasn't great, but I was sleeping so I thought I'd be fine for the race. Even though I wasn't at all hungry, I ate anyway. Bagels are one of my all-time favorite foods and on Friday morning, it was just so uncomfortable for me to be eating one. 

Despite all of this, I never doubted that I would still have a great marathon. I thought I had done everything right in terms of training, nutrition, hydration, etc. I went into the race with a good attitude and I didn't feel stressed on race morning. I had a healthy mentality during the race, but by that time it was too late.

I had already worn out my body in the weeks before my race with physical anxiety. This was my mistake and this is where things went wrong. It's wonderful that I can identify what the problem was, but now I have no idea how to fix it. It's like when someone tells you not to think about an elephant, you can't help but think of an elephant. 

The more I tell myself to relax about the marathon and not to have anxiety during the taper, the more I will probably stress about it. And even if I shove it out of my mind, which I did during the taper, the anxiety is there under the surface. 

Previous Marathons & The Big Picture

I think I'm finally starting to see what's has been going on with my previous marathons. The first 7 marathons I ran went perfectly and I exceeded my goal each time. The next 6 marathons were all bonks. Yes, some were weather related. But I think weather was only part of the problem.

Here's my theory. During my first 7 marathons, I didn't use a formal training plan and I ran relatively low weekly mileage. I was just doing my own thing and enjoying PR after PR. I was doing so well with marathons, that I couldn't get my 5K and 10K times to be as fast as my marathons suggested. Physiologically, my V02 max test revealed that I work aerobically at a higher percentage of my max heart rate than most people, which means my body is more suited for distance than speed. I was a great marathoner. I always ran negative or even splits. It came naturally to me. 4:46, 4:24, 4:13, 4:05, 3:56, 3:51, and then a "fun run" in London of 4:11. 

So I thought to myself, if I can run so well with no formal plan, just imagine what I could do if I followed a plan and increased the mileage! I could probably qualify for Boston!

That's when I started following training plans and got my mileage up a lot higher. Along with this came huge PRs in other distances. My 2:00 half marathon PR gradually turned into a 1:41. My 53:00 10K shot down to a 46:34. Instead of a middle of the pack runner, I was winning age group awards on a regular basis and almost always in the top 5th percentile. And yet, the marathons started to go in the other direction.

In January 2009, I had my first shot at a BQ after a fantastic training cycle. I wasn't sure if I could run a 3:40, but if I missed that, I figured that a 3:45 was certainly realistic. Unfortunately, Arizona had an unexpected heat wave and I wasn't at all acclimated to the warm weather, so I bonked at mile 16. It was awful. It was my first marathon that did not go according to plan.

This race was a legitimate heat bonk and many others were having a tough time in the heat as well. Since then, I've been terrified of running a marathon in hot weather. Also, by the time the next marathon finally rolled around, over a year after my 3:51 PR, I felt like I was long overdue. I had been training to BQ since June of 2008 and now it was April of 2009, so it was definitely time to show off my hard work. But once again, it was a bonk. True, I ended up in the medical tent with hypothermia, but there could have been something else going on. So it was just bonk after bonk after bonk and I chalked it all up to being bad luck. Yes, luck was a huge part of it, but the common factor in all of these marathons was ME. I was the problem. 

I don't mean this in a negative way, but the problem is that with every bonk, the more and more determined I became not to bonk. The more and more anxiety would build up pre-race, and I couldn't perform. A good example of this is the Shamrock marathon 2010. That was a very hot race. However, I started feeling awful at mile 10 before it even got to be 65 degrees. I DNFed at mile 13.5 and I felt like I had run a full marathon I was so spent. 

Another interesting example was the Potomac River Marathon. That was my back-up race after my Shamrock DNF in 2010. However, when the forecast a week out was for 70's and 90% humidity, I found another back-up two weeks later. I still went to the Potomac River Marathon with the intent of having it be a nice training run of 13 miles. There was zero pressure on me because I wasn't racing it. However, I just felt so great, despite that heat and humidity, that I just kept running and running. All the way to 19. Stupidly, I stopped because I wasn't on pace for a 3:40. (I also had run 10 miles just two days before and was worried that I would be paying for that). But I felt pretty good at mile 19 and I am sure I could have run a 3:45. I performed SO WELL at that race in horrible conditions because. . . .I wasn't racing. I was relaxed.

The pieces are finally coming together for me and I know what the problem is. I know why I keep bonking. I have too much pre-race anxiety and it wears my body out. Unfortunately, this isn't something you can just fix overnight like a hydration issue. I'm probably going to see a sports psychologist and really find a way to let go. I'll probably do another marathon later in the season, but I'm skeptical that I will be able to solve the anxiety issue before then. This has just been snowballing for years.  

The good news is, I do know how to run a great marathon. I have seven of them that were well-executed and perfectly paced without the help of the Garmin. I just have to find some way to get back there. 

Training Cycle in Review: This is the Journey

The Milwaukee Lakefront Marathon is just one week away! It's hard to believe it's here already. I think it's really important to reflect back on all my hard work because the journey is what it's all about. Regardless of what time I actually run, I know that I have put in a solid training cycle and that I am a stronger, faster runner because of it. With so much that is out of my control on race day, I have to focus on controlling the things I can, and that's the training.

As I've written in past blogs, there have been some major changes with this training cycles compared to others in the past:

• Regular core strengthening (I used to do nothing)
• Working with a coach/team
• Lower weekly mileage (avg. low 40's as opposed to low 50's)
• Pool running and swimming twice per week (I used to never go to the pool)

Weekly Mileage For the Past Three Months

I've run two 20-milers and one 22-miler. Each of these were on brutally hot and humid days. At the end of July, I was worried I was developing peroneal tendonitis so I stopped running for six days and substituted pool running. During the taper, I was dealing with DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness) because I didn't allow enough recovery from the half marathon, so I ran less than I would have liked to.

Here are more cross training details from the past eight weeks.

10 minutes of pool running = 1 mile

10 minutes of elliptical = 1 mile

Swimming distances are actual distances

Week of Aug. 1: 22 miles running, 12.5 miles pool running, 12 miles elliptical, 1.4 miles swimming

Week of Aug. 8: 37 miles running, 7 miles pool running, 6.5 miles elliptical, 0.9 miles swimming

Week of Aug. 15: 45.3 miles running, 5 miles pool running, 1.2 miles swimming

Week of Aug. 22: 51 miles running, 0.8 miles swimming

Week of Aug. 30: 43.7 miles running (includes half marathon)

Week of Sept. 5: 44 miles running, 9 miles pool running, 0.6 miles swimming

Week of Sept. 12: 23.2 miles running (includes 8K race), 8 miles pool running, 1.4 miles swimming

Week of Sept. 19: 27.6 miles running, 8.5 miles pool running, 0.5 miles swimming

This week I have planned about 16-18 miles before the marathon on Sunday. I'm not sure if I will pool run or just rest.

My two tune up races went according to plan. The Rock 'N Roll Virginia Beach half marathon was on the slower side, due to the heat and humidity, but it was well executed with negative splits and an amazing final kick. The Run! Geek! Run! 8K last weekend proved that my mental game is "on" and the colder weather allowed me to run a very speedy race, predicting a marathon finish time of much faster than I actually expect.

I still don't have any details on live race tracking. The website mentioned that they might use a Facebook application, but I haven't heard any more about it. 

I feel very prepared and cautiously optimistic for my race next weekend. Even if the unexpected occurs and I have yet another bad marathon, I think this training cycle has prepared me for an overall strong racing season. 

Let The Training Begin!

My training for the Milwaukee Lakefront Marathon on Oct. 2 has officially started. I've been asked many times, why Milwaukee? I don't have any friends or family there, but it worked out for me schedule-wise and hopefully being so far north the weather will be cool. Read all the details here: Why Milwaukee?

There are quite a few changes I am making for this training cycle as opposed to my previous ones. Here are the highlights:

Capital Area Runners

Earlier this year, I met a group of women who train with Capital Area Runners (CAR). My friend Cristina joined them after getting injured last fall and spoke very highly of the coach, George Buckheit, and the group. A bunch of the CAR runners were part of a pool running meetup group that I belonged to, so I met quite a few of them that way.

I had known of the group since 2009, when I  was looking for a coach. I didn't join back then because they meet in Arlington for their runs and with a job in Chantilly, I couldn't make it fit into my schedule. Also, their red racing attire is hard to miss at races-- a group of really fast runners often leading the pack. George had been sending me the newsletter since 2009, and in early June, the newsletter indicated that you could get a "basic" membership which covered the production of the newsletter and the weekend long runs. I decided to go ahead an join officially, since I was friends with so many of the runners already and had heard such great things about George.

Hill workout at Iwo Jima with fellow CAR members

A few weeks ago, I took a random Tuesday off work and decided to drive down to Iwo Jima for the hill workout at 6:15am, just to try it out. And I loved it! I loved the team atmosphere and how we all worked together to power up that hill over and over again. Afterwards, I realized that it was worth it to me to go for the "marathon plan" membership, which would allow me regular access to the weekday workouts. It will make me about an hour late for work (as long as traffic isn't horrible), but my job is pretty flexible. I don't plan to go to all of them, just once every two weeks or so. And on the other days, I can do the same workouts that the group is doing on my local track. I think being part of a team and running with a group of strong runners will motivate me to push myself. I certainly wouldn't have wanted to tackle these hills on my own.

Of course I'm definitely still committed to my role as a Pacers Ambassador and will wear my Pacers gear for most races. Being a Pacers Ambassador is my way of giving back to the running community, while CAR is helping me become faster and stronger.

Fewer Weeks, Fewer Miles, More Cross Training
My best marathon ever, back in March of 2008 was run on just 7 weeks of training. I think that the longer cycles, especially in the summer wear me out too much so I cut back to a 13-week program for Milwaukee. As for weekly mileage, it used to be standard for me to peak at around 60, and average in the upper 40's or lower 50's. But this time, I'm going to peak at around 55 and average in the mid 40's. Instead of running 6 days a week I will run 5.

I plan to supplement this with a pool running-swimming combo twice a week. I typically do pool running for 20-40 minutes, and then follow it up with a swim of 20-40 minutes. The total time in the pool is typically 60-80 minutes. I'd like to give myself one full rest day, so one of my pool days will be on the same day as one of my run days. So that's 4 days of running, 1 day of running + pool, 1 day of pool only, and 1 rest day.

I finished this week with 37 miles, and in previous training cycles I'd be up to 45 by this point. But I feel much stronger and I think I'm getting more of a benefit.

Core Strengthening
Coach George emphasized the importance of core work. Of course I've always known this, but since I'm really trying to improve my whole approach, I decided it was time to take core work seriously. My mother, who is 60, can hold the plank for well over a minute. For me, it was a challenge to make it to just 30 seconds. So I have been doing planks and other core exercises 6 days a week for the past two weeks, and I plan to continue to do so. I'm already up to 3 sets of 40 seconds on the plank! I have a BOSU ball which has literally been collecting dust, which I do a few things with as well.

Long Runs as Progression Runs
I used to do all my long runs in heart rate zone 2 (easy), with the exception of two of them, when I would throw some marathon pace miles in. Sort of like the Pfitzinger approach. But George really advocates breaking all the long runs up into thirds. The first third very easy, the second third, moderately easy, and the last third marathon pace to tempo pace. This isn't as challenging as it sounds if you start out slow enough. I'm actually logging sub-8:00 miles in my long runs which has never happened before. Today's long run ended with 5 miles that were: 8:29, 8:19, 8:11, 7:55, 7:57. And this was in 77 degrees and very humid weather. I did a 14-miler last week when it was much less humid and the last 5 miles were 8:30, 7:57, 7:55, 7:54, 7:42. These runs have been extremely confidence-boosting, which is part of the purpose for running them that way. I'm feeling a little bit nervous that my marathon is on Oct. 2 and my longest run has only been 14 miles, but I've done two of them and both were hard efforts.

No more racing for me until Labor Day weekend, when I may tackle the RnR VA Beach half marathon, depending on the weather. George asked me today what my goal for the marathon was, and I don't think I'll really be able to determine that until closer to the race. Right now I think that a 3:35 is realistic, and so does George, but I might adjust that faster or slower based on how training goes. And I didn't pick 3:35 because of Boston-- that's just the time that my training paces, heart rates and races suggest. I'm picking a goal based on what I think I can do, not based on the golden BQ standard that shaped my mindset for way too long and broke me down more times than I care to admit.

Anyway, I've been feeling strong and healthy lately and I hope it continues!

Why Milwaukee?

A key part of racing strategy isn't the strategy that you bring to each race you run, but the strategy around which races you run-- how many, how often, which kind of courses, and when.

Some runners prefer to race very frequently without choosing a target race. Some marathoners like to simply run as many as possible without much regard for time. My race strategy is to space out my races evenly enough so that I have sufficient time to train/recover between them. When this hasn't been the case, then I have always prioritized one race over the other. For example, in 2008 I ran the Shamrock marathon, followed by the London marathon four weeks later. Shamrock was the target for speed, and London was a fun run.

My race strategy for 2011 was to focus on Shamrock (March 20) as the target marathon and then do the Nike Women's Marathon (October) for fun. I'm going to be in San Fransisco for a business event while the Nike Women's Marathon is taking place, and my hotel is just a block or two from the start line. So I can't not run it. I wasn't going to try and race it for time because I've heard that the course is difficult, it's not well-organized, and it's really geared for people who want to run something for fun and get a cool prize at the end (a Tiffany necklace). Quite a few runners have told me not to waste a training cycle on it. So, that left me thinking that I should do the Nike Women's half marathon as a fun run while I am in San Francisco, and pick another marathon to race seriously before then.

Why before and not after? I always run the St. Jude Memphis marathon or half marathon in December, so I wouldn't want to fit in a marathon prior to that. Plus, after my business event, I will be spending 4-5 days in Napa Valley on vacation, which would put a wrench in my training. Why not make St. Jude Memphis the target marathon? Because I am anxious to race one sooner and the Memphis course isn't advantageous to a fast time.

Another factor that I have to deal with is the weather. I am extremely heat sensitive and have DNF'ed two marathons due to the heat, and have bonked in another one because of the heat. If it's going to be above 55 then forget it. Therefore, later in the fall is preferable, but I've already said it needs to be before the weekend of October 15 so that I can take my vacation afterwards. So I decided I would target the weekend of October 1-2.

I started poking around on Marathonguide.com to see what races were going on that weekend. I was pretty flexible travel-wise, but I didn't want to go cross country. An obvious candidate was the Wineglass marathon. I had heard a lot of good things about Wineglass, and with a net downhill elevation, the course profile was certainly in my favor. Another possibility was the Mohawk Hudson River marathon, but that was actually the following weekend, which would prevent me from doing the Nike Woman's half marathon the weekend of the 15th. And, the Mohawk Hudson River marathon is very much of a downhill course, and I want to see what I can do on something that's either flat or has rolling hills. Something like Shamrock is ideal, but of course I am injured and can't run that one! Although Wineglass looked really attractive, it had two drawbacks. 1) There was no airport nearby, so it would mean a 5-6 hour drive. 2) The start time was 8:00am, and I was hoping for 7:00 to 7:30. That extra time without the sun beating down on you can really mean a lot at the end of a marathon.

So, that brought me (well, us-- Greg and I decided on this together) to the Milwaukee Lakefront marathon. It had everything that we were looking for.

• Target weekend of Oct. 1-2
• In the northern part of the country
• Start time of 7:30am
• Medium-sized race
• Reputation for being well organized
• Direct flight without having to rent a car when we get there
• Gently rolling hills for the first 16 miles, and then some nice downhills

The only drawbacks are that I've heard it can get windy in the last 3 miles near the lake. And that "Lakefront" is a misnomer because you don't even see the lake until the last few miles. And of course, with my luck, it could be really hot and spoil the whole thing for me, putting me on a nearly 4-year streak with no marathon PR, despite massive improvements at all other distances over the past few years. (Yah, I'm bitter.)

To recap past marathons:

March 2008: Best marathon ever on very little training

October 2008: Got really sick for 4 weeks, couldn't run the Hartford marathon

January 2009: Overheated in the 65+ degree, sunny weather in Phoenix, AZ

April 2009: Got hypothermia and passed out at the end of the race due to 45 degrees & pouring rain

September 2009: Foot injury, couldn't run the Toronto Waterfront marathon

March 2010: DNF'ed at that Shamrock marathon due to 65+ degree, sunny weather

May 2010: DNF'ed the Potomac River marathon due to 75+ degree weather and 90% humidity

May 2010: Mediocre time at the Bob Potts marathon due to missing my peak, or being worn out from the 18.5 miles I ran at the Potomac River marathon

November 2010: Ran NYC as a fun run with husband for his first (was happy I did this)

December 2010: Stomach issues, extremely painful, walked the last 4 miles

March 2011: Stress fracture, can't run the Shamrock marathon

Maybe to some people these sound like excuses, but I know my training has been rock solid-- especially in comparison to how I trained for the Shamrock in 2008. And my PRs at other distances prove it. I am capable of running a marathon much faster than a 3:51, and one day I'll actually be able to demonstrate that.

So hopefully October 2011 in Milwaukee will be the one!