Week 21 – Training Report

<- Carriage Trail (loop) picked from Towpath Trail

One week after the marathon. Logged a lot of miles! The highlight of the week is my new system of running back from the Rec Center via the Buckeye trail. I leave Brecksville Road running up. Then at the Parkway drive I enter the trail, go down, then continue on the Buckeye trail until Snowville and then run uphill home.

S: Towpath Carriage Trail with Liz, 5.2 mi.
M: Memorial Day. Ran alone from Columbia to Boston via the Buckeye Trail & back, 6 mi.
T: Fitness and back via Buckeye Trail, 8 mi, The trail is in beautiful & dry condition.
W: w/Liz Snowville down, buckeye trail, and back via Columbia, 6 mi, fun!
T: Same as Tuesday. I ran ALL the uphills! I really enjoy these trail runs.
F: Slow 2 mi with Lea.
S: Trail running 6:30 with Cindy’s group. Started at Boston and did the winter Falls part first and then the Pine lane part. It rained the night before and the trails were muddy, so they were not fun. I collapsed in the way back and started walking. Felt really hard and was eating all day long. Total of 13.5 mi.

Total for the week: 49 miles, 165 lbs

Lessons Learned from Recent Marathon

Ready for a bit of controversy? Before my marathon race I did a lot of reading. I read all the recommendations and then, as usual, I did my own thing. Here are my observations.

1- Mileage: It is disturbing to read (for example in the Cleveland Marathon official literature) that to run a marathon you need to be running 50-70 miles/week. My first 3 marathons were done with only 20-30 miles a week, peaking to 35. This year I was up to 40 miles/week, peaking at 50 mi/week. Yes, maybe you will run a better race with 70 miles/week (at what cost?) but please do not tell people that they need 50 miles/week to complete a marathon.

2. Long Runs: Yes, I know, they are important. But somehow I have managed to complete 5 marathons with basically only one 20 mile run.

3. Tapering: I never understood or experienced “Taper Madness”. For me, cutting down on mileage is a welcome relief after hard training.

After the experience of last year’s marathon, I became a believer of shorter tapering. They say that you cannot gain fitness the last two weeks before the marathon. Maybe, but you can lose fitness if you are not careful. This is what happened to me last year. An injury forced me to do very little running the last two weeks before the marathon. I did not mind it, thinking that tapering was good, and I paid for it.

This year, against the usual recommendations, I peaked mileage-wise two weeks before the marathon. A week before the marathon, 8 mi. long run is recommended. I did a 12 mile run at near marathon pace and then 7 more easy miles with my wife in the afternoon. I only tapered one week. The last week I ran every day, but shorter runs, but I did not run the last 2 days before the marathon. That's enough rest for me. And it worked well, since I had plenty of strength in the last part of the marathon.

4. Eating & Diet (my favorite topic!): Against most published advice, I went on a diet 3 weeks before the marathon. I kept the diet until the last days before the race. On Friday morning I was 162.5 lbs. I then ate well for two days. On race day (Sunday) I was 166.5 lbs. 4 lbs of glycogen and water that I needed for the race.

I am wondering about some of the things I read... "4 hours before the race eat a small meal...." Do they really expect me to wake up at 3 am to eat? All my eating was done on Saturday. When I got up on Sunday I only ate a 1/3 slide of bread with almond butter and half an orange. And a sip of water.

During the race I did not have anything to eat. No energy bars, liquid packs, gels, nothing. No food at all. It is not that I have sensitive stomach (I do not). It's just that I was not hungry, or weak, or anything like that. I did not need to eat and I was not going to force myself to eat. And I did not hit the wall. I did not come anywhere near feeling weak. I think I have large glycogen reserves. One day of eating (the day before the race or a long run) is enough for me.

4. Hydration: In my opinion, hydration is overrated. :) I made no effort to hydrate before the race. The morning of race I only had a sip of water. I was not thirsty and I did not want to force myself to drink water. This extra water will only be a problem at the race. Having to pee, holding it, looking for potties, and wasting time to pee. Who needs that?

The weather is a big factor. It was rainy and 50F. That's not weather for needing water. I took a bit water and gatorade at the aid stations and that was all I needed for the race.

5. Pacing & Walking Breaks: Even pacing is a myth that does not apply for ordinary runners. There is no way you can maintain the same pace for 26 miles. You have to plan for a at least 30 seconds difference in pace between the first and the last miles. You have to run the bulk of the marathon at about 10-15 second pace faster than expected time, to account for expected slowing down later on.

My first 3 miles were slow/cautious. I then settled in a comfortable pace for the next 19 miles. This pace was 15 sec faster than projected time. I built up a 3 minute buffer which helped me psychologically. I slowed down the last miles by about 30 seconds/mile but I had enough strength to finish with a fast last mile. I finished 2 1/2 minutes faster than goal time.

In past years I had taken walking/stretching breaks, even a break to change clothes, including shoes! This year I did not need/use any of that. I even ran through the water stops (trying to drink while running, something I had not practiced before). No potty breaks either. Just running.
Considering the good outcome, I plan to stick with this plan, until I have a problem next time :)

Recovery

It’s been almost 3 weeks since the Cleveland Marathon. Recovery from this marathon went extremely well. Much better than in previous years.

In previous marathons I followed this pattern: For the first two days after the marathon I am unable to run, I am walking with difficulty, and I have a lot of pain going down stairs. The first attempt to run is usually the 3rd day after the marathon but only for a mile or so. By the end of the week I was able to run maybe 6 miles.

This year I clearly had less pain. Two days after the marathon I went running 2 miles at noon at 3 1/2 miles in the afternoon. I had very little pain. On Saturday, just 6 days after the marathon, I ran 15 miles, 5 on trails and 10 in the towpath.

Does that mean that I did not try my hardest at the marathon? Nahhh… It just means that I was better trained for this marathon than previous ones. But I am wondering about my wife. She does not have any leg pain/discomfort after her 5Ks and the recent 10K. I am telling her that if her legs/muscles do not hurt the day after the race, then she did not run hard enough. Am I right in saying this?

Cleveland Marathon 2008 - Race Report

Today was the Cleveland Marathon and I had only one goal in mind: 3:30 (my Boston qualifying time)

Mission Accomplished!

For the past 4 years I have been running one marathon a year, the Towpath marathon in October. My previous times: 2004-3:55, 2005-3:45, 2006-3:36. Last year I thought I was ready for a 3:30, but I collapsed, starting at mile 16.

This year I decided to try a spring Marathon, the Cleveland Marathon. Training was OK, with more miles than last year (40-50 mi/week) but only one 20 mile long run. I lost a bit of weight and felt prepared for the marathon.

The day did not look good, weather-wise. It was raining hard since 3 am in the morning... It was pouring while waiting in line for the start. The temperature was 50F. I was standing with shorts and short sleeves, wondering if I was under-dressed, but, I was actually fine.

The race started at 7:07 am. For the first 3 miles I followed the 3:30 pace group. The field was crowded and the roads wet with puddles. I then moved ahead, running on my own, and managed to build a 2-3 minute buffer from the desired 8 min/mile pace. I was afraid I'd hit the wall by mile 16, like last year, but it never happened. The miles were rolling rather comfortably. I was running strong, and kept running through the water stops. I did not need any gels or any food, just water and the occasional Gatorade. I did not need bathroom breaks. I actually enjoyed the route. Last year I did the half and was familiar with the west side. This year I saw the East side and it was beautiful (park, lake shore, etc).

My Garmin was lagging behind the official mile markers, by as much as 0.2 miles in the end, but it was giving me a good idea of my average pace. My mile splits (according to the Garmin):

Mile -- Time
1 8:10
2 7:32
3 7:56
4 7:26
5 7:23
6 7:55
7 7:44
8 7:44
9 7:49
10 7:41
11 7:41
12 7:30
13 7:40
14 7:56
15 7:51
16 7:48
17 7:44
18 7:27
19 7:38
20 7:54
21 8:01
22 8:07
23 8:28
24 8:16
25 8:12
26 7:55
+0.4 7:18 (0.4 mi according to my Garmin)

With some variations, due to the topography (slight up/down hills), my splits were remarkably even, averaging 7:45 from mile 2 to mile 20.


In the last miles we had a head wind that might contributed to the slower pace. I looked at my watch after mile 23 and got scared when I saw 8:28. I knew I had built a 2 minute time buffer but this could evaporate if my pace slowed to 9 min/mile. So I made an effort to pick up the pace in the last miles. I passed quite a few runners. I had the strength to finish with an under 8 min mile 26 and sprint to the end.

The clock was reading 3:27:11 and my chip time was 3:26:22. I was 26/179 in my age group, 232 overal and 217 among males.

So, I made my 3:30 goal and qualified for Boston!!! Now, with this out of the way, I can relax and enjoy a Fall marathon or two. (I am actually thinking of running both Akron and Towpath this year).

My wife, Liz, ran her first 10K in the same race. Her goal was to finish under 1 hour, She is rather conservative/pessimistic - last weekend she managed to run 7 miles and her time at 6.2 miles (10K) was one hour, so I told her she should aim for 57 minutes instead. And right I was! :) Her chip time was 56:49.

Her race started 30 minutes after the marathon. By the time she was done, she had to wait for me for 2 hours. The sun came out for the last hour so it was not too bad. Her job was to take a 3d picture of me at the finish. I was carrying a cell phone (in my hands actually, I like to hold something while running) so I kept her informed of my projected arrival time. But as I was sprinting at the finish line, someone was blocking the view so the picture would not come our very good. Oh well... we both had good races.

And talking about pictures, in the expo yesterday I managed to have my picture taken with; 1) John "The Penguin" Bingham, 2) Bart Yasso (I bought his new book and he autographed it for me), 3) Bill Rodgers. They were all nice, and Bill was perhaps the nicest of all. Some fun memories... These pictures are in slides, so when I get the roll developed, I will scan and post the pictures here.

My Marathon History

I have run the Marathon, 4 times so far, once a year, the Towpath Marathon. You can see my times in the table here.

2004: This was my first Marathon and my aim was 1) to finish, 2) to finish under 4 hours. I ran with worn/inferior shoes and inadequate training (19 miles longest run) but finished with a respectable 3:55. However, I developed ITBS which took several months to clear up.

2005: With good shoes, and without worrying about time, I improved my time to 3:45. No problems, but it did feel exceptionally hard and recovery was harder. Again, I did not have sufficient long runs.

2006: This was the surprise year. I was prepared for the worse since a trip to Greece had disrupted my long runs, plus my racing times (5K, 19K, 1/2M) this year were slower than the previous year. But I ran a strong race and finished at 3:36. That included at 2 ½ minutes delay to change shoes.

2007: All indicators were pointing to a terrific marathon: I had lost weight and had PRed in all distances. I was a leaner and faster runner, plus for the first time the 20 mile training runs (at 8:30 pace) felt very easy. Seemed like the 3:30 goal was easily within reach. However, minor injuries prevented me from running the last two weeks before the marathon. The first 12 miles were fast (7:30 to 7:40) – possibly a mistake - but my legs got tired and by mile 19 I was walking and was considering dropping off the race. The hot weather contributed to slower times and many runners were walking in the last miles (The marathon was the same day with the Chicago marathon that ended in a distaster). I finally finished at 3:47 and gained new respect for the distance (never underestimate the Marathon). I tried an ice bath and that helped a lot initially but recovery was rather slow. This race took a lot out of me.

2008: This is my first Spring Marathon and first all-roads marathon. I have trained OK (I could have done more long runs – 3d weekend prevented me from running a long 20+ mile run 3 weeks before the marathon). I have lost a bit of weight and my running times are better than last year’s (so far). If the weather cooperates, I think I have a shot at 3:30 but it is going to be difficult.

Detox Diet – Works for me!

<--- Since 2001 I have kept data like this one. I weigh myself every morning and then average the numbers every week. I plot this weekly weight in a graph as you see here (for 2005 in this case).

Back in 2001 I had ballooned to 225 lbs. I then started running, to lose weight. In one year I was down to 175 lbs and fell in love with running. I never really dieted. Weight got off as I was running. Since then, I have tried to lose weight (so I can run better) without any success… I tried different things: Calorie counting, fasting, not eating after 5 pm. Each method worked for a while, but I was soon back to where I started.

Things changed about this time last year my wife introduced me to the Detox diet. Here is what I wrote about this diet last year (4/07):

----- My wife put me in this 11 day (Detox) diet, 11 days ago. She told me what to eat (and what not to eat) and she even prepared the food for me. All I had to do was eat what I was served (that's easy) and resist the temptation to snack (I cheated, of course, but only a little bit and mostly with healthy foods, and none of the forbidden sugar-loaded snacks!)
At 175 lbs 5'10" I do not really need to lose weight for health reasons but I WANT to lose weight so I can run faster. My running friends are 132 and 140 lbs. So I started with a 7 day diet, followed a fast (last Tuesday - did not eat anything, that was tough, but I made it), followed by 3 more days of diet. The last day was yesterday.
I started at 174 lbs and ended up at 168 lbs. That might not sound too much, but I was not overweight to start (I have heavy bones :)) and I have never been steadily under 170 for as long as I can remember. So it feels great!
I don't think there are any great secrets in this diet (even though the author of the book/plan puts a lot of emphasis in the "detox" part and avoiding gluten (I don't know what it is but I know I could not eat bread.)) I ate (and will continue to eat) two (organic :)) eggs for breakfast, salads & lean meat for lunch & dinner and I did not snack in-between (just drinking lots of water). We did switch to organic fruits & vegetables and filtered water. I stopped drinking the whole milk cocoa that I love (as a matter of fact, I stopped chocolate completely and I don't miss it) and sugar-loaded products. And I ate smaller portions. I think this is a change for life. In this diet I was eating something like 2,000 calories a day instead of the standard 3,500-4,000 calories I would normally eat. ------


<--- 2007 weight graph. The first drop is the first Detox Diet that help me permanently lose 6 lbs. I started at 174 lbs and ended up at 168 and managed to keep the weight off. This is the first time I was under 170 lbs. My running improved and was able to PR in every distance I raced. I tried the diet again in September but did not manage to keep off the weight.

While I was in this diet, I was of course losing weight, and was not feeling particularly hungry, but my running was definitely affected. I could not run long runs, or run fast, due to lack of energy. In the end, I lost 6 lbs (from 174 to 168 lbs) and I emerged a stronger runner, going on to improve my PR in every distance I raced, except for the Marathon.

I tried the same diet in September of last year (after my marathon) and even though I lost weight while on the diet, I gradually gained all the weight back, maybe because I returned to my old eating habits (chocolate, etc) right when the diet ended.

Spring forward one year. I decided to do the diet again... Some people might question the wisdom of dieting and losing weight 3 weeks before a marathon. I figured, a diet (aimed to lose weight, including a fasting day) is like a long training run. It would be a mistake to diet the week before the marathon. But if I do it 3 weeks ahead of time (just like the last long run), I still have time to "recover" (from the diet, meaning to regain strength and restore my glycogen supplies, not necessarily regain weight - OK, maybe a pound or two)


<--- Recent round of Detox diet has helped me lose 5 lbs. Hopefully, this loss will stick.

So I started Monday two weeks ago. My weight was 169 lbs (I had reached a peak of over 171 lbs just a week or two before). I did a fast 10 mile training run last Wednesday and I felt surprisingly strong. I was busy in a conference last weekend so I could not do a very long run and did not eat much. Tuesday was my fast day, and I went for a 10 mile run without problems. The morning after the fast I was 161 lbs!

Like last year, the thing I like about this diet is that I am not hungry. Yes, when I go to bed at night I feel a bit hungry (since I am not snacking in the evening) but overall I am fine during the day. This year, I am seeing something new: My running has not been affected, while on the diet. Of course, I have not run over 10 miles, but I feel fine running 10 miles relatively fast.

Bottom line: I lost 5 lbs (from 169 to 164) and I hope to keep it off by eating sensibly. I also hope that this weight loss will help me get closer to my goal of a 3:30 marathon.

Week 19 – Training Report

Last week I started the Detox diet. I fasted on Tuesday and I had lost 5 lbs by Saturday. I will continue to eat sensibly, but now I have to focus on my Marathon next Week.

S: 8.5 mi in the morning, then Monster House 3D Movie (part of the 3D Weekend), then 6.5 mi. Columbia road loop w/Liz (slower pace)
M: 5 mi, around EH
T: Fast today. 10 good miles and fitness! OSPS meeting at night.
W. Woke up 161 lbs! 2 mi w/Lea at noon, 4 mi w/Liz in the evening.
T: Nice strong run, loop: Snowville down to towpath, Boston, Riverview, Columbia and back home. Total 9.5 mi.
F: 1 mi w/Liz
S: Last long run before my marathon next week. I did 12.7 miles in 1:41. My mile splits: 8:30 8:00 8:38 8:10 7:58 8:03 8:07 7:35 7:44 7:32 7:27 7:46 7:58. Average pace was 7:57, which should be my marathon pace if I am going to do 3:30.

Totals for the week: 58 miles, 164 lbs

Weeks 17 & 18 – Training Report

<---- The 8 mile route around my neighborhood. By mistake I did one loop twice, so the total for this run was 8.5 miles.

This is a report for the last two weeks.

S: 6.2 mi w/Dan at Towpath
M: Eating a lot, tired, only 2 mi.
T: Today I reached the peak of my weight… Ran to the RC and came back via the Buckeye Trail. See posting “What a day”. I did not eat anything after I came back and my weight decline is starting here.
W: 10 mi w/Dan in Bike & Hike trail (BHT), tired and thirsty
T, F: Rest
S: Hermes 10 miler (see report)

Totals for the week: 33 miles, 167 lbs


S: W/Liz & Lea in Towpath, then home alone up Snowville, 8.5 mi.
M: Start Detox Diet, run around EH, 4.3 mi
T: Around EH, 7.1 mi.
W: W/Dan, BHT, nice 8.7 mi at 8:11 average pace
T: Around EH, 4 mi
F: Rest (busy!)
S: 3D Weekend!

Totals for the week: 53 miles, 169 lbs

Hermes 10 Miler 2008 – Race Report

The bad news: I did not break 1:10. The good news: I ran very strong and improved my time from last year in what appears to be a slower, redesigned course.

<--- The course taken from my Garmin watch. The start is marked. We started going East, part of a loop, then entered the "Death March". returned from across the street to complete the small loop and finish at the start.

Compare the course this year vs. last year. Dan commented that this year’s course should be faster than last year, because two inclines over bridges have been eliminated. But there were still inclines in the last 2 miles and a head wind resulted in slower times, by an average (I estimate) of about 2 minutes.

The race started at 8:30 am. Temperatures were in the upper 60s and it rained right as we lined up in the start. The roads were a bit slippery at first, but dried out later.

We started running east, then turned around. My first 3 miles were: 6:42, 7:06, 6:44. By mile 3 we had entered the long stretch close to the lakefront which I have dubbed "The Death March" because it is long, boring, and hard, due to strong winds.


<--- My friend Dan (left, facing camera), in front of the "House of Blues" where we picked our registration materials and timing chips.

I spotted Dan running not far ahead of me and caught up with him by mile 4. Dan is a faster runner so I teased him for running too slow. My times for miles 4-6: 6:59, 7:01, 7:07.

At mile 5.5 we turned around to run west. Unlike previous years, we followed a different route to run back so we did not get to see the front runners. Now we got the head wind and our times slowed. By mile 8 we were out of the "death march" but now the head winds were even stronger My times for miles 7-10: 7:29, 7:19, 7:26, 7:12.

I struggled in the last 2-3 miles but had some strength left for the infamous DrT kick. According to my Garmin watch, the course was 10 miles and 391 feet. My pace in this last 391 feet was 5:16 min/mile.

Final time: 1:11:28

Even though I did not meet the 1:10 goal, my time was faster than last year. I was also pleased that I finished very close to Dan (last year he was 3 minutes ahead) and also, during the kick I passed Aaron, a younger runner who is faster than me.


<--- Tired but happy, with a nice medal around my neck.

I stayed around for a while but then left to go home. And here comes the big surprise: I checked the results in the internet and I WON 3rd AGE GROUP AWARD! And I was also 53rd overall This is amazing because we are talking about a 800+ people race, with 53 people in my age group. Last year with a slightly slower time, I was 86th overall and 11th in my age group. This unexpected success was, I believe, the result of a generally slower race. I have asked if it is possible to go and pick up my award. I might never get an award in such a large race.

Next race: Cleveland Marathon in 3 weeks. Ultimate goal: 3:30. (The McMillan calculator predicts 3:20 time based on my 10 mile time, but my times are always slower, compared to the predictions, as the distance increases, so it is going to be a very difficult goal to achieve!)

Hermes 10 Mile Race - History & Predictions

I have run this race 3 times now, starting from the inaugural race in 2005. Here are my times:

2005 – 1:16:30 – 97/692, 11 ag (34F, freezing rain)
2006 – 1:14:52 – 128/840, 17 ag (60 Foggy)
2007 – 1:11:44 – 86/778, 11 ag (50 Rainy)

The inaugural race was done with freezing rain and I was running with shorts! I got hypothermia at the end :). In 2007 I was just coming out from the Detox diet supervised by my wife and I was feeling strong and lean at 168 lbs.

Last year's race went very well for me so my goal for this year’s race is simply to improve my time from last year. If I run strong, I might even break 1:10 (for that, I would need a 7 min/mi pace - the good thing with 10 mile races is that it is easy to figure out pace for a given time and visa versa!)

Here is the report from last year’s race:

So, here I am, showing up for the 10 mi race in downtown Cleveland, with new
shoes, new shorts ($40!!! that's insane!), new socks ($10!) and down to 168
lbs after a 11 day diet.

I did not know what to expect.... The weather was crummy... started raining
just when the race started, but it was not too bad.

Result: I DID GREAT, improving my time from last year by almost 3 minutes!

Mile - 2006 - 2007 - Difference (seconds)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
1 - 7:09 - 7:03 - 6
2 - 6:52 - 7:10 +28 (don't know why I went so fast last year)
3 - 7:35 - 7:08 -27
4 - 7:29 - 7:03 -26
5 - 7:16 - 6:49 -27 (downhill, fast times)
6 - 7:21 - 7:11 -10
7 - 7:34 - 7:10 -24
8 - 7:55 - 7:33 -22 (strong head wind)
9 - 8:04 - 7:47 -17 (uphill)
10 - 7:44 - 7:02 -42

The first two miles were actually faster last year. Then I settled in a 27
second faster pace per mile. My pace up to mile 7 was nearly constant,
around 7:10 (mile 5 was downhill). Miles 6-8 were on a straight stretch by
a small airport, felt like a death march (my comment from last year) but
this year I was feeling strong along this stretch. Mile 8 especially was
against a strong head wind, not very pleasant, time slows down. Mile 9 is
uphill (hence the slow times, both years).

A clear difference from last year is in mile 10. Last year I was tired by
then (I remember I was feeling tired the last 3 miles, and the time shows
it) while this year mile 10 is my best mile for the entire race. I finished
with plenty of energy.

What a Day!

<--- Here I have superimposed the map I get from my Garmin with a Google map of the area. I manually scaled them to the same size and used layers in Photoshop (this is the first time I have tried this). You can see more details (street names, etc) if you click at it to enlarge


Boy, I had a strange day yesterday.

Every Tuesday and Thursday I am taking a fitness class at the Brecksville Rec Center. Sometimes I run to the Rec Center by taking Snowville up, then turn right and run down Brecksville Road. Lately, I have been driving to the RC, parking the car, and then runing a route that goes around the RC.

For some time now I have been thinking that it would be fun to run the Rec Center, following the Buckeye Trail from Snowville Road. I was going to do that yesterday, but I was late and only had one hour so I figured it is better to run on streets (and good thing I did!)

So, I ran up Snowville, down Brecksville Road, then turned right on Parkview Rd to Meadows Dr. then left on Valley Parkway to Brecksville Rd and from there to the RC. This was a total of 7 mi.

Between 5:45-6:30 I did the fitness class with Steve. Since I did not have a car and I had to run back, I decided now to take the Buckeye Trail. I went in the back of the RC, through the woods I managed to find Meadows Dr, ran to Valley Parkway and from there I took the Buckeye trail.

What a disaster! First, I was not sure I was following the right trail. It looked very unfamiliar and I could tell I was running North instead of South. The trail was wet and muddy. And it seemed endless!!! Finally, I found some parts that looked familiar so I knew I was in the right trail and was running towards Snowville, but the ups and downs seemed crazy to me! How did I ran this trail in the summer? Maybe I was just tired. I walked quite a bit. FINALLY, I reached Snowville Rd but had no strength to run up home, so I walked home. It is a good thing I did not attempt to do this before the fitness class!

The total mileage recorded was 14.4 miles, done in 2:36, almost 11 min/mi average pace. Since I have been eating a lot all day long, I decided not to eat dinner. I am continuing with a fast today...

Week 16 – Training Report

The beautiful weather continues…. for the entire week. Temperatures went up to 70s. A bit too hot to run in the middle of the day…

<--- Nice route around the Rec Center in Brecksville... Start from the RC (marked) then up Brecksville Road (21), turn left on Parkway, then down through the trail, more trail, goes around, ends in 82 and from there run back to RC.

S: 6 mi slow w/Liz, Columbia and back
M: 4 mi around EH
T: 3 mi around EH, then fitness
W: With Dan tempo run at the Bike & Hike trail. We started with an easy 2 mi. for warm up. Then fast 4 miles and then easy 2 miles, total 8. My mile splits: 8:59, 8:48 (warm up). 7:18, 7:30, 7:06, 6:56 (fast part), 7:38, 9:04 (cool down). It was fun.
T: Total 8 miles as follows: 1 at lunch, 5 around RC (see route here), 2 inside RC, followed by fitness.
F: 3 mi at lunch. It was hot and I was feeling really bad in the afternoon, a combination of muscle pain from yesterday’s fitness and the hot run.

S: Aided long run with Vertical Runner group. Started at 6:30am. From Peninsula to Boston and then up on Boston Mills road. I was feeling quite weak until our first aided stop in the entry of the Bike & Hike trail. My mile splits for the first 5 miles: 8:44, 8:16, 8:32, 8:40, 8:37 (that includes several large hills). At the 1st aid station I ate a power bar and felt much-much better, as shown by my mile splits at the B&H trail: 7:46, 8:03, 7:54, 7:46, 7:59.


<--- Vertical Runner aided run. Start from Peninsula (Lock 29) then you can see how we turned right to go to the Bike & Hike trail, then from there connect to Carriage Trail (windy), then to Station Road and back via the Towpath.

Around mile 10 we entered the Carriage Trail. My pace slowed at the trail and fell behind the leading group: 8:17, 8:43, 8:28. After we exited from the trail, we turned right on the Towpath, to the Station Road where we had another aided stop and I had an energy gel. From there, we were only 3 left, ran back in the Towpath, through the Red Lock, Boston and back to Peninsula. My mile splits in the last miles: 8:42, 8:30, 8:34, 8:49, 9:00, 9:08, 8:45, 8:39. These are the times that really matter, when I am tired.

Overall, we covered 20.75 miles in 2:55, average pace 8:28. My goal was to keep the average pace under 8:30 and I achieved it. Considering that this route had hills and trails, I hope in the upcoming marathon to be able to average 8 minute miles for 26 miles. Not easy but I will try it!

Totals for the week: 53 miles, 169 lbs