Philadelphia Marathon

This race was my first marathon, and I spent around 23 weeks training using the Daniels Plan A with a peak of 90mpw as general guidance. I had two tune-up races, a September 18 miler I finished in 1:54, and a somewhat disappointing 1:20 half marathon in October.

Once I got to the start I jogged about ¾ miles to at least get warm enough to stretch out a little. I wasn’t planning on going out particularly hard, but I never feel comfortable starting a race without at least an abbreviated warm up, but at the same time I wanted to conserve my glycogen stores as much as possible. I came in trying to run 2:48-ish, primarily projecting from the 18 mile race, and a 1:35 15 mile MP run I did 2 weeks out. The plan was 6:30 miles for about 6 miles, then pick it up to 6:25-6:20 for as long as I could manage.

During most LT and marathon pace workouts I have done in preparation for this race I needed 3-4 miles to get into a groove and start feeling comfortable with the pace, but today I remember thinking that I felt really good right from the start, good enough that I actually went a little ahead of planned pace and passed the timing mats that were supposedly at the 10k mark around 39:4x.

I say supposedly because a couple of mile markers at the beginning of the race were almost certainly misplaced. After mile 2 I hit the split button at every mile marker, and my watch showed 6:49 for mile 3 and 6:03 for mile 4. There is no way my pace would vary that much when I am running at a steady effort, and my Garmin recorded 1.07 miles from marker 2 to marker 3, and 0.94 from 3 to 4. Anyway, none of this is really important except for the fact that I was really annoyed and momentarily confused. Maybe I am spoiled because I have run many New York Road Runners races and have never encountered poorly placed mile markers, but I expected better from a major race like Philadelphia. However, I do think that based on the pace my Garmin was indicating that the 10k timing mat was placed correctly.

Anyway, moving on, the race was going pretty smoothly at this point. I was feeling relaxed, taking a few sips of water at every aid station, and sticking to my plan of taking a total of 5 gels, one every 4 miles starting at mile 4. The only thing that did not go to plan is the straw drinking thing. This was going to be my first time using a straw, but at the very first aid station the damn thing fell out of my mouth as I was reaching for a cup of water. Oh well. I found that I don’t have that much trouble drinking without one in a marathon compared to a half because I am not having to gasp for air nearly as much due to the slower pace.

Pretty much everything else went as well as it could have gone. I was focusing on trying to keep a steady 6:20-6:25 pace, easing up a bit on the few up hills, and trying to avoid the temptation to hammer the down hills. The course is indeed fast. I remember just one hill that really forced me to back off my pace, and I think it was around the 9-10 mile mark.

I passed the timing mats at the halfway mark in 1:23:4x, and at that point I was starting to feel fatigued. I never ran into a wall, and I think I finished with glycogen stores to spare, but from the halfway mark I got progressively more fatigued, and past 18 miles it really took concentration to stay on pace. It didn’t get really bad until about 24 miles, at which point my legs were under the kid of distress I had only previously experienced inside a squat rack at the gym. I did fall off pace a little, running my last 4 miles around 6:30 pace and finishing in 2:47:45. Needless to say, I was pretty thrilled with how my race went. I could not have asked for a better day.

Intervals (GPS Interval) (split button hit at mile markers starting mile 2. Missed mile 1)
	Distance	Time	Total Time	Pace
	2.01 Mi	12:43.23	12:43.23	6:20
	0.05 Mi	0:16.74	12:59.97	5:35
	1.07 Mi	6:48.81	19:48.78	6:23
	0.94 Mi	6:03.80	25:52.58	6:28
	1 Mi	6:20.57	32:13.15	6:21
	1.02 Mi	6:21.63	38:34.78	6:15
	1 Mi	6:15.90	44:50.68	6:16
	1 Mi	6:29.62	51:20.30	6:30
	1.04 Mi	6:24.70	57:45	6:10
	1.02 Mi	6:29.30	1:04:14.30	6:22
	1 Mi	6:12.49	1:10:26.79	6:13
	1 Mi	6:17.69	1:16:44.48	6:18
	1.11 Mi	6:56.82	1:23:41.30	6:16
	0.9 Mi	5:36.65	1:29:17.95	6:15
	1.01 Mi	6:22.85	1:35:40.80	6:20
	0.99 Mi	6:21.88	1:42:02.68	6:26
	1 Mi	6:23.20	1:48:25.88	6:24
	0.98 Mi	6:21.05	1:54:46.93	6:29
	1 Mi	6:21.82	2:01:08.75	6:22
	1.01 Mi	6:23.73	2:07:32.48	6:20
	1.01 Mi	6:28.62	2:14:01.10	6:25
	1 Mi	6:26.48	2:20:27.58	6:27
	1.01 Mi	6:29.40	2:26:56.98	6:26
	1.01 Mi	6:25.67	2:33:22.65	6:22
	1 Mi	6:31.32	2:39:53.97	6:32
	1.24 Mi	7:52.24	2:47:46.21	6:21

Surprise Holidays

I did not even realize it was Veteran's Day until I got to work. It is not an official holiday for the company where I work, but the bond market is closed, which means none of out clients are trading, and our client services people are mostly out. Since we have just finished a release and not quite started working on the next one, this pretty much means that I have little to do today. I am thinking early lunch, then head home around 4:00.

I really wish I could find a way to stop repeating the same mistakes over and over again. It would probably save me a lot of pain. Then again, maybe I just can't be any other way, and I need the worst kind of motivation.

Another miserable Monday morning

I am feeling pretty crappy today, probably because a fairly difficult Sunday afternoon run left me too wound up to fall asleep normally. I wound up going 18 miles, with the first 10 easy, then 3x3200m at threshold pace with 400m recovery on the track. I did not feel too bad running, but I got done at 5:30 in the afternoon, which was late enough to disrupt my sleep cycle by a couple of hours. I probably didn’t fall asleep until 2:00 am, and had to be up at 6:00 to come in to work at 8:00. The end result is that I am feeling pretty stupid and useless today; barely awake, and not very sharp mentally. Sigh.

Too much work, once again

Today I was supposed to participate in a 4 hour "Interview Skills Training" session put on by the HR staff at my office. As is typical whenever I am scheduled to participate in any kind of training, I got yanked out of class at the last moment because something "critical" came up. The word "critical" makes me roll my eyes by now, because everything that ever needs to be done is labeled as "critical."

Anyway, I am not sure why I hot so annoyed, because I don't even like interviewing candidates. It takes time out of my day to prepare, and most people that show up are really not very good. I think I am just tired of constantly having to change and postpone my plans because of the dysfunctional nature if my group.

And here we go again ...

For the past few years, the end of October has marked the beginning of a difficult two month stretch for me. With the days getting shorter, it is still dark when I start my morning runs, and I don’t leave work until well after sunset. I do believe the lack of sunlight tends to foul my mood.

Besides the darkness, the end of the year, along with yet another dreaded and inevitably approaching birthday, always seem to force me to reflect on past failures and mistakes. This time of year is a reminder that time stops for no one, and drives me into a pattern of worry and regret that is probably not healthy for a soon to be twenty nine year old. At times, it can get bad enough that I almost think myself into a panic.

The approaching holidays tend to make things even more uncomfortable for me. Seeing people celebrate and appear joyful during a time that I find difficult makes me feel out of place and out of whack. I get irritable and discontent, even more so than usual.

I am hoping this year will be better than last year. I do seem to be more at peace with many things that drove me up the wall last year, but who knows. I just hope I get through the next two months without doing anything I will later regret.

Staten Island Half Marathon

This was in large part a fitness test to gauge my preparation for the Philadelphia Marathon, and it did not go particularly well. I had some strong workouts in recent weeks and felt like I was fit enough for a PR, but over the past couple of weeks I have been feeling fatigued, and it seems that my 6 day taper for this race failed to cure that. I still went in planning to pace for a 1:18, and I tried sticking to that plan. 

My legs were not feeling good early on, and the fatigue only got worse. There was a pretty good downhill toward the end of mile 2, and I remember thinking that it would probably suck on the way back. It did, as evidenced by my mile 12 split.

I had all sorts of problems getting into a good rhythm, and spent the first half of the race trying to force myself into a pace my legs simply did not want to sustain. Toward the end of the race I was just plain too tired to hold my planned pace. The knockdown punch came during mile 8, where an uphill probably around 1/4 mile long put me into a lot of difficulty, and I never really recovered. This sucker was steeper than I am used to running in races, and it hurt.

Mile 9 had a pretty good downhill, which definitely helped postpone my collapse for a bit. I hit 10 miles in 1:01, already behind PR pace. By mile 11, I was exhausted and fading on flat terrain. At this point, I pretty much gave up on the PR and just tried to get this thing over with. After a tough 12th mile I came back a bit on a downhill final mile to finish in 1:20:33, 1:01 off my PR run at Brooklyn this Spring. I think the 2 courses are comparable, though Staten Island subjectively felt harder to me.

Here are splits, recorded at the mile markers.


1    6:02    (6:02)
2    12:01    (5:59)
3    18:00    (5:59)
4    24:04    (6:04)
5    30:20    (6:16)
6    36:11    (5:51)
7    42:20    (6:09)
8    48:53    (6:33)
9    54:53    (6:00)
10    1:01:00    (6:06)
11    1:07:18    (6:18)
12    1:13:52    (6:34)
13    1:19:56    (6:04)
Finish    1:20:33    (:37)

I am thinking about what went wrong. Perhaps my higher mileage marathon training with more tempo running and fewer intervals was not as suited for a half. Perhaps it was because I got fat, showing up for this half 5-6 lbs heavier than I was this spring. Or perhaps I underestimated the recovery I would need from the pretty tough 3 weeks of training that preceded this race.

Anyway, I will be adjusting my marathon goal by 4 minutes and probably reducing my planned workload for the final few weeks before Philly.