Jake's Winter / Spring Racing Schedule - London Marathon!

2015 Winter/Spring Race Schedule

Feb 7th - USA XC Championships (12K)
Feb 28th - Phoenix Half Marathon
April 26th - London Marathon

SkiMo Race Schedule

Jan 31st - CROWBAR
Mar 7th - Wasatch Powderkeg

The obvious big update here is that I'm entered in April's London Marathon! Getting a spot in the race was not a sure thing and wouldn't have happened without some major help from the team at Saucony. As always, I'm so thankful for their support over the past four years. Some awesome folks at Saucony went out of their way to make this dream possible (they know who they are) and I definitely owe them one!

WHOA. Saucony is an awesome company. I'm very proud to represent them.
(Gonna need to find a pair of these)

My plan for the London buildup is to be conservative. I don't think I'll be able to knock out any very impressive tune-up races along the way nor will I even attempt to do the specific training for a fast XC race of half-marathon. I'm going to use these next three months to get marathon fit, get healthier, and be ready to pop one really good one over in London. I'll keep my running miles a lot lower than what I did leading up to Chicago (but considering the time spent uphill skiing, the training volume will probably be about the same). Two stress days per week is plenty - not two stress days plus a long run... the long run IS a stress day and I'll probably be incorporating a lot of quality miles / workouts into my longer efforts. I'd rather be a tiny bit under-trained than straddling the razor's edge and risk compromising my race performance, as I've done in the past. I have a tendency to get a little crazy 3-5 weeks out from a marathon when I start to feel like I'm in good shape. It will be important to be sensible during that time period (late March / early April).

Chicago took a lot out of me - I raced hard in a compromised state of health. My hamstrings took a beating, and I still feel the effects from time to time. So on that note I finally broke down and I'm going to start seeing Andrea's physical therapist next week, in hopes that he can help me get to the line 100% healthy this time around. I re-started some upper body strength training about a month ago, which I believe helps me hold form late in races... and get this - stopped eating ice cream altogether.

The other noticeable update is that the race schedule is now split - there's a running AND SkiMo component. Andrea and I took the plunge and bought our own SkiMo racing equipment - lightweight skis, boots, bindings... and are in the process of fashioning several pairs of racing skins (I even had a power tool out the other night and didn't seriously injure myself!). We have a long way to go before we are really competitive in that sport (I mentioned that a bit in this post) but we are both excited about making SkiMo a big part of our winters from now on. Check out some of those races I linked above (CROWBAR / Powderkeg).

The main reason I ski is because I love it - not for any training benefit. Drop in and float through some deep turns on a powder day and you'll know what I mean - it's a downright spiritual experience and hard to explain to someone that has never done it.

BUT I actually think backcountry skiing and SkiMo training/racing make me a stronger runner. All of the climbing at high altitude adds a huge aerobic stimulus, without the pounding of extra running miles... it works different muscle groups than running, which is especially helpful. There's a huge mental benefit in being out in the beautiful mountains during the cold, sometimes smoggy (in the valley) winter months. I'm sure plenty of people would still disagree with the idea of skiing a lot during a marathon buildup, and I have two words for them: [redacted by Andrea]  :-)

I anticipate Wasatch and Beyond will still be dominated by skiing posts for the next few months (daily log is here), so back to running for a bit...

I'm at a decent fitness level right now but nowhere near race form. I've been averaging 90-100 miles per week for the last couple months, I've built up my long runs to 20 miles, and I've slowly increased the length and dropped the pace of my tempo runs.

Here's the training summary from Chicago leading up to now (13 weeks out from London). I feel like I can be ready for my best marathon to date in three months.

Tan = Long Runs / Steady State; Brown = AT (Aerobic Threshold); Blue = Ski; Green = Faster
Orange Cloud = Smog.

I'll be the first to admit that I should have just taken 2+ additional weeks completely off after Chicago. At the time, however, I was thinking I going to bounce back and run CIM (in an effort to boost my chances of getting an entry to London), but I was too beat up from Chicago to do that. In hindsight I delayed my recovery quite a bit, to the point where even in December, I started to write off the idea of being able to run a fast Spring marathon. Hopefully I'll learn from that mistake and May will be a very low mileage month.

Details on the progression of AT runs (really, my only workouts other than a couple token sets of intervals) to date:

So that's where I'm at. Next stop on the running circuit = the USA Cross Country Championships in Boulder. What a terrible and painful choice for a season-opening rust-buster! It should be a really good experience and fun weekend with friends - that's why I'm headed there.

Still ticking... Thanksgiving in Connecticut

Family turnout for the Commodore Hull Road Race

It dawned on me over Thanksgiving that I haven't posted anything about running here since Chicago. At that time, I was planning on running CIM... but the hamstring that was bothering me leading up to and during Chicago didn't bounce back quick enough, and I decided to just jog my way through November. I posted some of my thoughts on my training log on November 3rd. Essentially I've just been run-commuting (my forte!) and enjoying the relaxed and no-pressure running. I'll start ramping it back up soon, and will post something about my spring 2015 plans shortly.

We had an excellent Thanksgiving back east in Connecticut, highlighted by a nice family turnout at the Commodore Hull Road Race, bingo, hot tubbing, Christmas sweaters, and plenty of good food / wine.

With my parents and cousin Andy at the Turkey Trot

Running (slowly) with flowier hair

Drone view of the Commodore Hull Road Race

Ammunition for an excellent multiday Thanksgiving celebration

Andrea and I

Krong family

A white, snowy Thanksgiving in Connecticut this year

Grandma is partially proud of us, and partially scared of us

We spent a lot of time in the new hot tub

Chicago Training #6 - Wrapping it all up

The 2014 Bank of American Chicago Marathon is this Sunday, October 12th, and the gun goes off at 7:30am Central Time. 

Here's the link for Runner Tracking. I'll be wearing bib #344.

Here's the link for the Webcast

Men's Preview from Letsrun. Bekele vs. Kipchoge is going to be awesome.

OK, time for my longish recap of the training cycle along with some charts and tables. Some of this is duplicate, as I already did five posts over the summer leading up to this one...

Chicago Training #1 (July 27)

Chicago Training #2 (August 20)

Chicago Training #3 (September 7)

Chicago Training #4 (September 14)

Chicago Training #5 (October 6)

Background...

The 2013 season ended on an upswing - 1:05:54 at the IMM 1/2 on Nov 2, then 2:20:41 at CIM on Dec 8th. The 2014 season started on a good note as well - I tried some different things in training (lower mileage, bigger emphasis on faster track and threshold-type workouts) and was building fitness from January through April with visions of running a big half-marathon PR on the streets of Duluth in June. For a variety of reasons, I completely fell apart in May. I encountered a perfect storm of physical and mental stress (the body interprets both the same way) and didn't handle it well. By the beginning of June I finally came to terms with the fact that I was on a major downslide, over-trained, and decided not to race or do workouts for a while. At the end of June I got really sick (likely salmonella poisoning, which rocked me hard since I didn't take any antibiotics), and officially hit my fitness nadir. That's where the Chicago buildup began...

14 Weeks to Chicago...

Over July 4th weekend Andrea and I debated whether it was even possible to get in reasonable marathon shape by October. We decided that if I used my time wisely, focused on my strengths (not my weaknesses), didn't race much, and kept the expectations low, it was worth taking a shot. While timelines are arbitrary, I considered the week starting July 7th to be the beginning of my Chicago Marathon buildup, as that was when I laid out the first draft of the training schedule and mentally committed to the race.

The first cycle of training was simple - a track workout once per week, building in repetition distance and decreasing in pace. Long runs got a little longer each week. I alternated 200s and 30s hill reps once a week as well. The TOU 1/2 was the first checkpoint: I won in 1:07:37. Winning is always nice, but after running 1:05:40, 1:06:03, and 1:05:39 the previous three years at the same race, it was obvious I still had a lot of work to do.

After that race I was essentially done with interval-style workouts. I moved on to progression runs and eventually wave tempos. I kept the total volume high, and tried to run on grass/dirt as much as possible. A few of the long runs got faster (a 26.2K "simulator" and the TOU Marathon). My workouts throughout this entire cycle were consistently quite a bit slower than I've run in past marathon buildups, and I didn't do a lot of race-specific workouts, yet I wasn't really too concerned. Aerobically I was building a very strong foundation, and I felt that would be enough to run well in Chicago, and then propel me forward to whatever comes next. 

Then about a week ago I did get concerned. My right hamstring, which has been bothersome (off and on) since the 2012 TOU Marathon, decided it was time to be annoying again. I had to take a few days off (rare for me) and basically throw my plan for tune-up workouts during the taper out the window. For a couple days I was a total basket-case and questioned whether it was even worth making the trip to Chicago. At this point I don't really know how it's going to hold up for 2+ hours of fast running, but I feel decent enough to toe the line and find out.

Early in the summer, I said I'd be thrilled to get to a point where I felt like my PR was within reach by October. So that's what I'm aiming for on Sunday - under 2:20:41.

Some things I think I did well...

-Averaged 130 miles per week over 13 weeks (from 14 weeks out until 1 week out)

-All the workouts were done in sets that progressed and made sense

-I stayed committed to the 200s/hills (until it was time to phase them out during the last month)

-Created a template that I'll replicate (with adjustments, of course) next spring and fall. The training was smart.

-14 weeks was a nice chunk of time to stay focused on one race. I see the value in dedicating 16-20 weeks to a marathon buildup, and maybe I'll be more likely to do that in the future (assuming this one goes well!)

-I really enjoyed the training this summer. Running was fun, every day.

There are a few things I will adjust in the next big buildup, but for now, I'm focusing on all positives.

Now, the exciting stuff - all my charts and tables...

Summary of the Chicago buildup
(I had to make a few adjustments in the final two weeks)

Weekly Mileage

The entire summer training in calendar fashion (Big View)

Blood values don't correlate to performance, but this tells me I was building myself UP

this summer, not breaking myself down. Eight-minute miles on grass/dirt are valuable!

Some more specifics of the workouts during the first half of the cycle

AT runs after TOU 1/2

Wave runs over the last three weeks. The hamstring prevented me from doing these exactly as intended.

And finally, after evaluating all of my choices, this was the decision...

Chicago Training #5 - Hold on for one more week

The 2014 Chicago Marathon is only a week away now! In the upcoming week, I'll post a full summary of all the training leading up to this race, as well as my goals for October 12th.

Previous Chicago training posts:

Chicago Training #1 (July 27)

Chicago Training #2 (August 20)

Chicago Training #3 (September 7)

Chicago Training #4 (September 14)

I felt pretty good coming off my biggest volume week of the buildup, then ran the TOU Marathon in a controlled 2:28:14. I was able to keep my mileage up during that stretch, and despite the first two wave workouts not being extremely fast (4x1K/2K, 5x1K/2K), I was feeling confident it would all come together once I finally backed off the mileage.

However, during this same time, my right hamstring started to get a little cranky. This has been an on and off issue for me since the 2012 TOU Marathon. This time around, it seemed manageable as long as I didn't push the pace too close the 5:00 threshold.

The day after my 5x1K/1K session on October 2nd, something felt "off" in that leg - weakness, aching - so I ended up having to take two days off and started to wonder whether I'd even be able to race in Chicago. On Sunday I felt better (not 100% though) and got in an easy 20 miler. That run boosted my confidence that I'd be able to run in Chicago next weekend.

So after a solid summer of training, the last couple weeks haven't gone exactly as planned. It's not ideal, but it's not the end of the world either. The marathon is more about your body of work over 3 months, not the last 3 workouts.

I'm hoping I'll feel OK over the next few days and will head to Chicago with a healthy body and mind next weekend!

Here's the calendar for the last weeks leading up to race week...

Chicago Training #3 - Vacation, High Mileage, Races, Altitude... yeah, keeping busy!

#ChurchofSundayLongRun (video link)

The last couple weeks have been busy. But it's been good busy, not the bad kind. We spent close to a week in Southern Utah around Labor Day, and I'll be posting lots of photos from that trip over the next couple days. Since my last training update everything has continued to go really well. I won the Top of Utah Half Marathon, then got right back into my marathon buildup with a couple higher mileage weeks that included solid workouts and long runs. I'm just building fitness, day by day, and feeling pretty good.

Summary of last 3 weeks

Key sessions: 17 miles w/ 6M AT + 10x30s hills; 26 mile LR in Torrey; 17 miles w/ 8M AT; Layton Classic 10K (race); 23 mile LR in Park City.

Chicago is only 5 weeks away - but I can still do a lot to transform my general fitness (which is good right now) into marathon-specific fitness over the next month. I'll probably do one more week with mileage in the 140s, then start dropping it down a little.

Elite fields were announced this week. It's gonna be stacked.

John Coyle outkicked me at the Classic 10K. I can live with that during a marathon buildup.

A few more that Andrea (providing excellent bike support) took on this weekend's long run

Chicago Marathon Training #2 - Blue Collar Approach

"The schedule is pretty simple. We don’t have complicated workouts. We just do the basic 3-4 types of reps, the tempo run, and the long run with relatively high mileage. There are no drills; there is no core or lifting—any of that. I do put a little of that in myself, but from my standpoint you just need to be fit from running to be good at running." - Molly Huddle

A good quote that jives well with the approach I've been taking this summer. Here's a bunch of random but connected thoughts about my training for the past couple weeks.

My first Chicago Marathon training recap left off on July 27th (link). Since then, I've continued to make some nice progress:

After weeks of 115, 125, and 135 miles, I bumped it up just a bit over these past three weeks and did 135, 140, and 145 miles. I added one mile to the long run each week, and kept alternating between 200s on the track and 30 second hill reps once per week. Simple stuff. I've continued to extend the length of the track intervals while progressively ratcheting up the pace a little bit each week. Workout details: 5 x 2000m; 3 x 3000m; 2 x 4000m; 1 x 5000m.

This weekend I'll run the Top of Utah Half Marathon - my favorite race in Utah and one where I've performed consistently well in the past (2011 - 1:05:40, 2nd; 2012 - 1:06:03, 1st; 2013 - 1:05:39, 2nd). I'm not in shape to challenge my course PR - my goal is to compete for the win, and continue to build momentum.

Another way to look at the first half of the buildup towards Chicago is this handy little chart...

Not impressively fast workouts by any means, but I'm staying very patient and looking for gradual, consistent improvements.

Bloodwork done a few weeks ago shows my levels moving back in the right direction after hitting a lowpoint in June:

This loop in Park City's South Snyderville Basin has become my new favorite long run:

Chicago Marathon Training #1 - Laying Some Base

Knocking out a long run in Park City on July 26th

In my last training update, I was slowly starting to get back into the swing of things. The night I made that post, I got really sick, which put me in survival mode for a full week. I missed a few days because I could barely get out of bed, then really struggled to even complete easy runs for five more. On the way home from our trip to Steamboat Springs, I wondered whether it was even worth thinking about Chicago anymore. But then we counted the weeks and I realized I had a touch more time than I originally thought.

As I wrote on my log for July 8th...

For some reason I had an idea stuck in my head that Chicago was 12 weeks from July 4th weekend, and on the drive home from Steamboat we were discussing potentially shifting the timeline to a Nov/Dec target because my fitness is poor at the moment (May/June were definitely a regression) and it's going to take some time to rebuild. Then we actually counted and it turns out I have 14 weeks, which is a world of difference for me right now. I'm very motivated to get going, but I'm also essentially starting this buildup from scratch and need some more time before I start the workout cycle. Luckily I have two things going for me - I don't mind training in the heat, and I can handle jumping straight to 100 mile weeks as I start putting down a mileage base. With consistency and patience (lots of patience!), I think there is enough time to get ready for a marathon by October. I'm not going to repeat 2013's summer racing frenzy (it would be ugly, anyways). Gradual, incremental fitness progression is the primary objective for the rest of the summer... the more boring this looks, the better. 

First 7 weeks of summer training

The hair is coming back!

In the 3 weeks since I wrote that entry, things have started to come around. I've increased my mileage, knocked out some 20+ mile long runs, and started incorporating some track sessions such as 8 x 1000m and 6 x 1500m. As I move forward, I'll extend the length of the weekly track reps while hopefully dropping the pace. The long runs will stay easy (whatever easy means when you are running 20+ at 6-7K feet) for a few more weeks before I start adding some quality component to them, and I'll keep doing either some hill reps or short track reps once a week. It's a simple schedule, and my hope is that by the beginning of September, I'm fit enough to crank it up another notch.

It feels good to be knocking out 20 mile days again in the heat of the summer. This is my favorite time of the year to train. Some people hate the 100 degree afternoons, but I think they really provide a huge boost... when you toe the line on a crisp 45 degree morning in fall.

Spring Training #4 - Four weeks leading up to Indianapolis

Fourth installment in my training summaries. Previous posts: #1 - #2 - #3

Here are the key workouts for the past four weeks. Click the links for details/splits.

Week of April 7: - LT Shuffle: 10 x 3/1 minutes. I was coming off the Cherry Blossom 10 mile race on April 6th, so I was only planning one quality workout this week. The rest of the week was just easy miles and strides.

Week of April 14: 8 x 400m (1500); LT Shuffle: 8 x 5/1 minutes; 5 x 800m + 10 x 200m (3K/1500). A solid but not spectacular series of sessions. My splits in these workouts were very similar to the last time I ran some of these same exact workouts about a month before.

Week of April 21: LT Shuffle: 2 x 10/1 minutes (bombed workout); 8 x 600m + 6 x 400m + 4 x 200m (5K/3K/1500). The Tuesday workout was planned to be 4x10/1, but I had stomach issues and had to bag it. The Saturday track workout felt good... easy.

Week of April 28: 2 mile LT effort; Indianapolis 500 Festival Half Marathon (1:07:00, 16th place). I never felt sharp and got the pop in my legs as I tapered for the race. On Thursday I woke up with a very tight back and wondered if I could even race. Luckily I got it sorted out, but couldn't turn the week around and pull off a good race at the Indy Mini.

A disappointing race in Indianapolis...

Yeah, that didn't quite go as planned! I knew that sub-65 was probably not realistic at this point, but I did feel like my fitness was at a strong enough place to take down my PR.

Where did the long runs go?

The one thing you notice in this block of workouts is that I didn't have any long runs. I thought those long LT workouts (which are a total of ~18 miles with half of that mileage at LT effort or faster) would be enough to carry me through. The lack of aerobic long runs certainly wasn't the reason I ran 1:07:00, but I do know that I respond very well to that type of stimulus in training...

What adjustments will I make now?

One bad race doesn't mean the last two months of training were a bust. A number of factors contributed to a sub-par performance, and I know I'm in very good shape at the moment. However, I think you always need to be looking for ways to make beneficial adjustments. That being said, over the next month I plan to:

-Bring back the long runs (at Jeremy Ranch, the high-altitude, hilly dirt road that has helped me get very fit in the past)
-Drop the length/frequency of the LT workouts a bit. I've done a lot of them over the past couple months, so I don't need to hammer that system much more during this next block.
-Focus the multi-pace track sessions on 5000m pace.
-Increase my overall mileage. I've been living in the 90-100 miles/week range this year, after years of putting in 120-140 mpw during important training cycles. I'm very healthy at the moment, so I plan to ramp up the mileage for the next month. High mileage training is what I thrive on, and what gives me the most confidence going into races.

The big target race for the remainder of the spring is the Bjorklund Half-Marathon in Duluth on June 21st. I feel like I need a couple tune-up races before that one, so at the moment I'm planning to (change my race schedule AGAIN) and run a 5000m on June 7th (Jim Bush USATF West Regions Champs) and a 10,000m on June 14th (Portland Track Festival). The challenge is 3 PRs in 15 days.

My log for the whole month of April.. we got in lots of good skiing!

Winter/Spring Training Block #2, continued...

A few weeks ago I summarized all of my January/February workouts leading up to the Phoenix Half Marathon. This post is a continuation of that entry with two more weeks added.

Key Workouts:

Week of March 3:  4 miles AT/LT + 10x45s hills; 4 x 10 minute LT Efforts; 19 mile long run with 1 mile LT finish.

Week of March 10:  8 + 4 x 5 minutes at LT/10K effort; 2 x 20 minutes LT Efforts; 18 mile long run at 83% MP with 3 mile AT finish.

Other stuff:
-Continuing to follow phase one of Jay Dicharry's program, probably 4X week. I'm about to start incorporating the phase two exercises at this point.
-8 x 100m strides twice a week
-Skiing on weekends

Here's how it looked when put together...

To summarize, the primary workouts during this block of training were the "by feel" LT efforts (green). I started with 2 x 20 minutes, worked down (in effort length), the rebounded back up to 2 x 20 minutes... the second time I ran that workout, I was a bit faster despite having some cumulative fatigue in my legs. Mission accomplished.

The secondary workouts were the combo sessions with hill repeats (blue). These were meant to (safely) get me moving faster, and strengthen the musculoskeletal system for the harder/faster track workouts in March and April.

I used long runs for aerobic support, but these weren't very specific, and won't be until I get closer to Grandma's Marathon.

The red workouts were faster than LT effort, and those were another way to transition into some of the faster track workouts that are coming next.

So, what's next?

I have 7 weeks until the Indy 500 half-marathon which is my primary target. I'll run a 5000m track race on March 28th, then the USA 10 Mile Champs on April 6th. Those are my only races before Indy 500.

Most of the workouts during these next 7 weeks will fall into two categories:
1) Multi-pace track intervals (400s, 800s, 1600s at 1500/3K/5K pace)
2) LT Shuffles (LT efforts with injections of 3K/5K pace). I'll post a more detailed explanation of the LT shuffles after I've done a few of them.

I'll probably get in 3 more long runs over this stretch, and will aim to keep those runs under or around 2 hours. Just aerobic support and setting up the foundation for when I begin some marathon-specific work in May.

Merry Christmas, Marathon Recovery

We’re a little late on getting that obligatory Merry Christmas blog posted… we also haven’t mailed out our holiday cards yet (they've been ordered, though!). You’d think I’d be on top of things after actually taking some time off from running after CIM.

For once, I actually did take a decent period of total time off after the marathon (after putting it down beforehand in writing to hold myself accountable.

The down time was good – it allowed my body to recover from all of the damage a marathon (and training for one) does to it.

For comparison’s sake, here’s how much I ran in the 2 weeks after my other marathons. TOU 2013 was a “train through”:

I posted some thoughts about my 2014 season on my training blog entry for December 18^th, and I’d like to share them here as well (although the 10.5 weeks I mention below is actually 9 weeks now):

From right now, I have 10.5 Weeks to the Phoenix Half Marathon (March 1), then another 8 weeks from that point until the Indy 500 Half Marathon (May 3). Those will probably be my two target races for the winter/spring. Since I'm going to continue to lay relatively low for the rest of December (but start phasing in some lighter efforts next week), it essentially breaks down to two 8-week training blocks with a little lead-in to the first one. I'm going to mainly use a 14 day / 5 quality efforts cycle. A lot of things will be similar to what I've done before, but with some tweaks such as wave tempos and different ways of using intervals to get the body good at clearing lactate.

I've built the outline of the calendar for the next four months, and then a sketch of what the rest of the year might look like... of course that is somewhat (but not completely) easy, the devil is in the details. I don't plan specifics of workouts this far in advance, for obvious reasons. I mainly like to have an outline to see how the types of workouts will flow, and it gives me an idea of where to start (from working backwards).

I'll run some other races during the first eight week cycle (USA 1/2 in Houston, and the SLC Winter Series). I'm not going to try and cram for Houston, I'm just going to slot it in as a hard workout and part of the buildup, with an extra easy day or two on either side of it. If it wasn't a free trip, I wouldn't be going. But it is a free trip, so why not? If nothing else, it will be a good checkpoint, and opportunity to race on the course that will also be hosting the USA 1/2 Champs in 2015. The fitness I'm carrying over from the fall should at least put me in a position to run a decent time. The winter series races can serve as a substitute for tempo runs of varying intensities (and they are on the best course in SLC!). Between Phoenix and Indy, I don't really plan to race at all. There isn't much that interests me during March/April other than the USA 15K (and Jacksonville is expensive and logistically difficult to get to). Plus that's the bigger and more important of those two training blocks, so there would be a lot of advantages to having no interruptions.

I like many of the things I did this fall, but there are obvious areas to improve. Spacing out workouts and giving myself more recovery was a sound move. I'll continue to do that. I'll take more breaks, and more days off. That doesn't bother me anymore. Mileage needs to be lower in January/February, then build cycle to cycle. I'll also continue to do more of the huge workouts, especially when preparing for a marathon. On the flip side, racing a half marathon (that you want to do really well in) five weeks before a marathon isn't necessarily bad, but I've found it isn't ideal. In the future, I'd want at least 7 or 8 weeks between a target half marathon and a marathon.

My spring marathon will be Grandmas Marathon in Duluth, which is more like a summer marathon (late June). Like Indy, they take good care of runners who want to come there and run fast. There are a lot of reasons why Grandmas is a good fit - I know the second half of the course well, they'll assemble a top-notch field, and if I decide in May that I want to keep my focus on the half, I can drop down to the Gary Bjorklund Half Marathon. Plus, I like visiting Duluth. Its become something of a summer tradition for us.
And assuming all that goes as planned, I'd take a good break (like I'm doing now), do a short summer speed cycle, then train exclusively for a fall marathon with a proper, longer (10-12 week) marathon-specific buildup.

Training Summary - 3 weeks leading up to Indy HM

Recently I've been posting training summaries - my daily log is always accessible, but hopefully these recaps are useful to those trying to see the bigger picture and how I try to put the pieces together. I had 6 weeks between the TOU Marathon and Indianapolis Monumental Half Marathon. The first three weeks of that stretch is documented here. The following three weeks is summarized below...

I've added (in parenthesis) my AM/PM mileage to the bottom of each cell. I think that information is useful for those looking to see how I break up the weekly mileage.

The goal for the two weeks before Indy was to get in a few HM-specific workouts, while keeping the volume reasonably high and not shying too far away from some Marathon-specific (MP, or usually labeled as "AT" = aerobic threshold) work.

On October 16th I did an 18 mile run that included 8.4 miles of hard, hilly, rhythm breaking running at MP or faster. These hills were more challening than what I'll face on the CIM course, but I'd rather be over-prepared for the hills. Later than week I ran a 5K race followed immediately by 7 miles at MP, which ended up being a 20 miler including warmup and cooldown.

The following week I did a hard HM-specific workout 10 days out from Indy: 2 x 5K in 15:22, 15:21. That weekend I did a 5 mile AT tempo at 5:12 pace, following by 2 x 1 mile in 4:53. I didn't try to squeeze in anything extra; those two sessions got the job done.

In the week leading up to Indy I cut back my mileage quite a bit and did a few light workouts to stay sharp: 5 x 1K at 3:04, and then 6 x 1/4 at 5K pace. 

The race in Indianapolis (1:05:54) wasn't fantastic, but wasn't terrible either. Realistically I knew that ~1:05:20 - 1:05:30 was what I should be aiming for, but I got sucked out too quick and basically had to just hang on after 10K. I learned some valuable lessons that I'll incorporate into my training over the next month and race strategy at CIM.

Now I've got 4 weeks of training (followed by a 1 week taper) before the marathon. I'm going to continue to stick with 2 hard sessions per week, keeping the workouts spaced out and of high-quality. Most of the work will be very marathon-specific from this point forward. I've got a 10K race on the schedule 10 days out from the marathon (Thanksgiving morning).

Post-TOU Training and Big Races for the Fall

I took a day off after the TOU Marathon, and then the next three weeks have looked like this:

At first glance it looks like the worst post-marathon recovery period ever designed, but like I said after the race - I wasn't running all-out, and I wouldn't have been able to train like this afterwards if I had. I realize its sort of walking a fine line and a risky move to "train through" a marathon, but I might have pulled it off.

Week #1 after the marathon was just very easy running and a lot of time spent stretching and in the hot tub - keeping the muscles loose. Six days after the marathon I did a short track workout (400s in 68s and 200s in 33s) just to wake my legs back up a little. A nice 15 miler at Jeremy Ranch with the high school team was a great way to cap off that week.

Alta High School XC

Week #2 after TOU re-incorporated some workouts (6 mile tempo at 5:09 avg, and 5K tempo at 5:01 avg) and a long run up in Park City. My mileage for the week got about as high as I've gotten all year.

Long Run in Park City

Week #3 after TOU, things really start to click. I started off the week with a 8 mile MP tempo (5:17 avg), then a few days later knocked out a big session of mile repeats (10 x 1 at 4:57 avg), and capped off the week by doing a 23 mile long run with 10 miles under 5:30 pace at the end. This was actually the first week I've been over 140 miles all year (after doing it a lot, too much, last year).

Right now I'm 8 weeks out from CIM, and I'm excited about the challenges of the training (and the possibilities of where it might take me) over the next couple months. A few of my friends in SLC (low 2:20 guys) are also running CIM, so we're trying to do workouts together when possible as we all move towards a common goal.

But first up, in three short weeks, is the Indianapolis Monumental Half Marathon. The race has put together an excellent field of runners who are trying to dip under the Olympic Trials standard of 1:05:00.

As I mentioned in my summer training recap, over the next two months I'm going to continue to focus on the big workouts and take extra recovery days between those harder sessions. In an ideal world, I'll turn myself into a marathon machine... who can also pop off a fast half in early November.