Three runs so far this week and all of them were run over lunch at work. It is a great way to put in the miles without disrupting the day much. Plus, I get to run with 1-3 other people which always makes things easier. Especially when compared to the block of solitary running I have been doing as of late.

Tuesday was 7 miles along Valley Creek, across route 29 from the corporate complex I work in. This was real trail running with a couple creek crossings, some trail blazing through bushes and high grass, plus 2 ticks to cap things off when we got back. 52 minutes.

Wednesday was some easier stuff along the road and flat trails. The air was thick and muggy making it difficult for me to cool down before heading back to work. 5 miles in 42 minutes.

Today was the Diamond Rock Hill route. We rolled through another corporate site built around a deep, water filled quarry before turning up Diamond Rock Hill. It's one of the highest points in the region at a little over 600 feet and the hill getting to the top was long although not horribly steep. We chugged up to the top and then onto some trails which led us to the crest of this ridge. Unfortunately the heavy trees and foliage spoiled our view from the top. After some winding around we eventually ended up on the route we had taken up for a speedy and jarring trip back down the hill. 8.4 miles in 60 minutes.

This was one of the best runs I've had in weeks. The pace started easy but over the last few miles a coworker Paul and I were cruising along well under 7:00 pace. I felt invigorated and eager to push the pace, something that really has lacked in my runs for a long while.

I'm back form Key West and strangely the weather here is almost exactly the same as it was there. I hoped to get in a few runs but only managed two hot and sweaty trips on the island. Was I training my legs or my sweat glands? The runs consisted of beaches, palm trees, scooters and sunburn. 60 minutes and 45 minutes. Heather also found this beautiful outdoor lap pool which I spent a couple hours in. If I had a pool like that close to home I'd be swimming 2 times a week during the summer.

Key West was great. I only knew it as a party island and Heather and I aren't really partying much these days. Of course there was fishing, (caught a mackerel which we grilled and had for dinner), snorkeling, sitting on my ass by the pool, and walking and bike riding all over the island. We were in full relax mode. We even managed a quick peek into the Everglades on the drive back to Miami. Now it is back to reality.

I made it into the park for an hour on the trails last night. Not a great run. I felt slow and out of shape. I am blaming it on the heat and short sleep Saturday night. I think the truth is that I am slow and out of shape. At least relative to last year this time.

I start a 6 week summer statistics class this week that I have been dreading since last summer. Conveniently the professor has to miss two weeks of class right in the middle of the semester (which really burns me). Now we can squeeze a full semester into 4 weeks. I imagine this is going to put a real crimp on any running plans so I'll just take June running as it comes to me.

It was more easy miles last night in Wissahickon Park. I threw in some trails but tried to hold back and relax as much as I could as I bounced around. I ended up at Lincoln Drive and hopped on Forbidden for the trip back home. About 9.5 miles in 1:26.

My work location has temporarily switched (until September) from Springhouse out to Malvern PA. This adds 15 minute to my commute but should make for great experience. There is a group of guys that runs at lunch 3-4 days a week out here and I joined them for a several miles today. For the most part the run consisted of lightly travelled roads and some trails. They were also discussing some heavy hills that we avoided today. 5.5 miles 50 minutes.

I had some mild pain in my hip after my run last night and then again this morning. It felt decent during the run today but has now tightened up again. Pain in this area is a first for me and it seems odd because I have been running easy miles the past several days. Maybe that is culprit? Overall my mileage is down a good bit from it's peak before the marathon and I wouldn't expect something like this to crop up. I have run 44 miles in the past week but still that doesn't seem over the top.

I'll have a break over the next week. Heather and I are headed to Key West tomorrow night and don't return until Sunday May 24th. It is going to be a well deserved break after a long winter of working, school and marathon training. I making a promise to myself to run at least 3 times while I'm down there. Do you think it will really happen?

I had thoughts of sticking to the training program I detailed last few posts from now until September and then seeing what happens in the Philly Distance Run. To do this I would have to avoid moutain bike rides and wisshickon trail races over the summer Also, Heather is due in late August and I really I don't know what that is going to mean in terms of time for running and sleeping. I can guess what things are going to be like but in reality I have no idea. All of late August and into the fall just seems a little up in the air until Heather, the baby and I hopefully get into a new routine. I don't want to have to think about training and racing then.

So I think I'll put this off until late December. School should be finished (Praise the Lord!) and what the hell is there to do in the winter but run miles anyhow. I can totally geek out with my heart rate monitor, schedules, and evaluation runs then. For now I am just going to enjoy the summer and do whatever I do or don't feel like doing. Last night that meant run a slow 6.5 miles around Chestnut Hill.

Here is the link to the page I discuss below.

I've been doing more poking around the internet a stumbled upon some training threads on Letsrun.com. Most of the posts on the website are a bunch of crap but there are some buried in there with a wealth of training info from people who really know what they are talking about. I pulled up a great thread on aerobic training which led to a link then to another link and then a huge description on how to base-train using heart rate to set your pace. I saved the link on my work computer but not here and now I can't find it again.

Anyhow maybe I can relate the main points... or maybe not. Looking back over my training I really haven't just done straight aerobic training since the winter of 2006. During this time the Thursday night crew was in full swing and we were taking 8-10 mile loops through the park at easy paces in the frigid weather. I remember that I didn't go under 7:30 pace for weeks on end. It wasn't really a planned thing just whatever everybody was doing at the time so I stuck to it. It worked, I had a great summer of training, a kick ass marathon in the fall and even a decent marathon the following winter.

I should have gone back to that last winter, easy, easy miles, just pile them up. So how do these easy miles make you run faster? Don't I need tempo runs, speed workouts and hills to maximize my speed? It might be true to squeeze that last little bit out of your legs but to build your speed upon it just doesn't work. The marathon is over 99% aerobic and I think even the 5K is 95% aerobic.

The article used a tube of toothpaste to demonstrate the point. I've been squeezing from the middle of the tube and now trying to get the last little bit out by working hard on the top. The problem is I still have all of the stuff at the bottom but I am not going to reach it with hard workouts.

To do that I have to go slow again, real slow to start. Like 8:30 to 9:00 pace initially. Get well below my lactic threshold and work on a purely aerobic basis. Doing this I can generate more paths for oxygen to get to my leg muscles and use that oxygen more efficiently once it gets into my cells. This will serve to increase my pace while I still keep the same heart rate. it will also increase the pace that I can run before reaching my lactate threshold. Those tempo runs taught my body how to deal with the lactate but the lactate was getting generated at speeds that were to slow so I was overwhelming things. If I train my aerobic system properly I should be able to move that lactate threshold pace further out so when I am running my goal pace in the marathon I won't be generating as much lactate to begin with, I can sustain that pace longer, burn more fat and not crash at mile 20 like I have been.

This might be a little to science based compared to my normal approach of just going out and running and things will happen but I really do think it makes sense. To make this work I need a heart rate monitor and a solid 15-20 weeks of running slow based on heart rate and evaluation runs every 6 weeks. I am not sure if I want to take that step over the summer but I am thinking about it. I'll be my on guinea pig. I'll post the link at work tomorrow if anyone is interested in reading it. It's long.

Tonight 60 minutes about 6.5miles.

I met the wanderers for a long run in the wissahickon this morning. Getting to the start at 8:00 meant running from my house at 7:45. Rain was in the forecast and with the rainy weather of late I kept waiting for it to come but it just never materialized. In, fact it was not only nice all morning but all day.

We started easy on a hilly route along the western side of the park. On the way we stopped at a new to me water fountain in the park. This is like finding gold, especially at the beginning of the summer. I am sure I'll hit this thing many times. I needed it this morning, although it was nice the humidity was high. I was drenched after an hour but felt great. 1 hour and 33 minutes for an unknown distance.

I've continued poking around the internet for solutions to my declining marathon times over the last two years. I was listening to a Podcast by marathon guru John Ellis and he was discussing base training. That 8-16 week period that many runners do over the winter to just run slow and build an aerobic base. The key is slow on almost every run. No tempo runs needed, no track workouts and no hills. In fact these hard workouts take away from the point of base training. Which is to build your aerobic system, grow new capillaries, make mitochondria and get stronger. You come back with a bigger and stronger engine so you are ready for speed work as you approach your goal race.

As John was describing all of this I was thinking I haven't done that type of training in a loooong while. It's been three to four years since I've made a concerted effort to run slow on every run for a couple months. It sticks out in my head because in the spring following this winter of slow running I killed my Broad Street PR and had a great spring of running. I remember being amazed at being able to run so fast (relatively) off of such slow running.

John went on to describe a friend who trained for Boston in a very similar fashion to the way I trained for the previous marathon and he crashed and burned at mile 18. Hmm sounds familiar. He also stated that if you can run much faster in shorter races than the predictors indicate for the marathon than you are most likely lacking in this type of training. My 5 mile race time several weeks before the marathon indicated a 2:54 marathon, I'll remind you all I ran a 3:13 or 3:11 when you adjust for the fact that I finished the half-marathon and the full marathon.

Now I haven't been running all speedwork in training, that is obvious from my 8:30 pace morning runs over the winter but I did have 2-3 faster workouts every week and I wasn't running a ton of miles. This type of training will help you progress to a point but then it only provides diminishing returns. I noticed this in my training. The track workouts in December went much better and faster than those in February.

I'm walking the dog, listening to this guy and everything is clicking in my head. It seems I have a reason for the poor races of late. I also have a plan of action for the next marathon, go slow to go fast, at least for an extended block of time before training fast. I know the idea for this type of training isn't a revelation, its been practiced and shown to be effective for years and years. Maybe I just need to get smacked in the face with it to realize my error.

It's May and that means Thursday night trail races with the Wissahickon Wanderers in the park. Always a great time and not just for the run. There is beer and food in the Valley Green restaurant after every run.

Over the years I have become friendly with many of the runners in this club because of these trail races and it was nice to see some familiar faces and catch up. I also bumped into English Mike of the Philly Runners who I think was there more for the beer than the racing.

The course this evening was an out and back on Cresheim Creek, a small tributary of the Wissahickon that meanders out towards Chestnut Hill and is the dividing line between CH and Mt. Airy. There were several creek crossings on the way out and the way back that made for a confusing and wet run. Normally you would be able to skip from rock to rock and stay dry but with all the rain you just had to jump into the calf deep water and avoid get twisted up on the submerged rocks.

I wasn't in the mood to kill myself racing so I laid back and followed a couple guys. It wasn't long before we missed some of the flour marking and went off course. Well not really off course, on course but going the wrong direction. This initiated a series of missteps and wrong turns that had us running longer than the actual course and crossing racers heading in the opposite direction. It was a short race so I was happy to run the extra distance. About 30 minutes.

I'll definitely be out there next week.

Broad Street Run

Heather dropped me off at the start around 7:45. This was much better than taking the damn subway from the sports complex as it allowed me to relax in my house with a cup of coffee and Tom & Jerry Cartoons until nearly 7:30. It was overcast and calm. Rain was forecast but temps were near 60 and I didn't mind a little a rain. I am always nervous that I won't run into friends before the start but within a few blocks of getting dropped off I bumped into 6 people I knew prior to getting into the corrals. This is what happens when you run year in and year out, even in a big city. You become part of the running community.

I warmed up with a mile or so mostly easy with about 1/4 mile at race pace. I hopped in the corral and lined up with Steve K and Luke from winter marathon training. We discussed our race strategy, run and see what happens.

We lined up a little to far back and we were slowed through the first mile in 6:40. I was running with Steve K and we figured the slow start would make for a better second half. I don't have all the splits but mile 2 was around 6:20, still not as fast as I'd hoped. I was feeling good and figured the pace would come as the race progressed. Mile 3 about 6:15. At this point I was slowly pulling away from Steve and although I still felt good I knew it wasn't going to be fast day. The next few miles took us around city hall and into South Philly the pace remained in the upper teens to low 20s, I think there was even a 6:30 mixed in there. 6:30! That was mile 16 in the marathon just over a month ago and today at mile 6 in a 10 mile race I knew I didn't have much better than that.

I held on for the last few feeling like I might be able to push it more but just not having the oomph to do it. Last year I was running the same pace in the second half of the race and it felt like cake, like I was out for moderate workout. Today it felt like a lot more than that.

I thought I'd be able to drop a sub 6:00 in the last mile and pushed hard past the Wachovia Center, under 95 and down the hill into the Navy Yard. Mile 10 6:17?!? Finished in 1:03:51. Not a stellar performance by any means. Last year I blamed my slower race on a Chilli cook-off the night before, this year I have no such excuses.

I was talking to Steve K, who had a similar performance, after the race and it was clear to both of us that we obviously were not near our top form of a few years back. Life has gotten in the way of the training we used to be able to do. The runs with the Thursday night crew just don't happen anymore, not to mention the Tuesday night group runs and most Saturday morning group runs. It isn't necessarily a bad thing but just the way it is. As I was cruising through the last couple miles I just didn't feel that normal fire to kick ass to the finish, I was almost content to cruise it in.

So it is what it is. I am sure that fire will be back but for now I am content to run 20-30 miles a week and hop on my mountain bike for 20 miles or so. I'll let things come as they may.