Recovery Week

Except for the Rockford Marathon last Sunday, it has been mostly a recovery week. Quite happy with marathon results. Basically two Boston qualifiers in eight days.

Week of 5/21/17

Time: 12.1 hrs

Distance: 73.1 miles

Longest Run: 28.2 miles

Hills: 60

Marathons ... Done!

Okay, I finished my two marathons in eight days and felt that they were very successful. At Starved Rock, I finished in 3:51:13 for 27th place overall and 1st in my age group with even splits. 

At Rockford, I went out easy at 2:04 and change, but came back with a 1:53 and change 2nd half for a 3:57:39 finish, 63rd overall and 2nd in my age group. Actually, I was very surprised that I could run that fast in the second half after running well at Starved Rock just a week earlier.

With these two under my belt, I feel I really fit. Now to get really into my Tahoe training to build up strength. These next few weeks leading into the Mohican 50 mile will be interesting.

The latest weekly running stats.

Week of 5/7/17

Time: 12.1 hrs

Distance: 78.8 miles

Longest Run: 31.2 miles

Hills: 74

Week of 5/14/17

Time: 8.5 hrs

Distance: 48.7 miles

Longest Run: 9.5 miles

Hills: 40

Hiring A Coach For The Tahoe 200

Week, after all these years of running, I have bitten the bullet and went with a coach to help me succeed at the Tahoe 200 Mile. I haven't had a coach since high school (over 40 years ago). The coach is with Carmichael Training, a firm that includes Jason Koop. For the Tahoe race they offered an opportunity to get a coach for only $1 the first month and $205 for the next three months in a four month plan. After filling out a form with a lot of information about myself and my goals, they matched me up with Adam St. Pierre who lives in Boulder, Colorado. He is a young guy, in his thirties, but after doing a little research I found that he definitely seems to know his stuff.

So, after a preliminary workout we set up through email, we set up a phone conference three days before the official start of coaching on May 1st. It was a good discussion as we felt each other out. This was a Friday and by Sunday he had set out three weeks of workouts starting the next day which would encompass my two upcoming marathons (Starved Rock on May 13th and Rockford on May 20th). Normally, I would not run two of these so close to each other, but when I registered for Rockford it was only $25, so I figured it would make a good supported long run. 

It has been an interesting week and a half so far. Adam decreased my mileage, but upped the intensity. Overall, nothing crazy, but mixing in short sprints and fast short hills. He has given me one very hard workout each week or at least very hard compared to what I have been doing. The first was a progressive run that got me down to sub-7:00 by the time I had to stop. Today was the second. It was a tempo-fartlek workout at 7:00-7:20 on a hilly loop. God, it was hard. I did finish it though, albeit sometimes a bit slower than the target pace.

Is this going to help in the marathons? I don't really know. I do know that I seem to be a little faster with similar effort that I was putting in a few weeks ago. We will just have to see.

The latest weekly running stats.

Week of 4/23/17

Time: 15.4 hrs

Distance: 90 miles

Longest Run: 18.4 miles

Hills: 66

Week of 4/30/17

Time: 10.4 hrs

Distance: 59.7 miles

Longest Run: 12 miles

Hills: 61