St George Experience

Karma! There's something to be said about faith and Karma in running. I just got back from St George and it was a trying experience. I am glad I ran the race and finished, albeit not at a time that I wanted but probably was expected based on my training. Weather forecast for race day changed on a daily basis. The initial report was for hot weather which gradually turned into a windy, rainy day by race morning. Steady rain showers and a 10-15 mph head wind made it for rough going. I knew I was in trouble when at mile two my watch fell off my quick release band as I was taking off my long sleeve shirt. It was still pitch dark and I had no idea where it went nor did I want to get trampled by the hoard of runners behind me. I chalked it up to Karma and decided to go on and run by feel. Unfortunately, St George did not have regular timing. The next timing was at the half way point and by that time I was at 1:50, 5 min behind my pace. I thought I could make this up on the second half with a negative split, but it was not meant to be. At mile 15, the dreaded bowel issues reared its ugly head once again and I spent a good 4 minutes or so in the porta potty. As I sat on the throne, I realized for the first time that is was raining really hard. I could hear the rain hit the roof of the porta potty at a rapid pace and I almost did not leave the warm confines of this little smelly shelter. Somehow, I talked myself into not giving up and went back out to give it another go. At mile 21, I realized that there was no way I would make my goal. The little demons came back and started to screw with my head. I started to take longer walks during aid stations and found myself slowing down even more. Once the original goal was not attainable, it was very difficult to go one. Somehow at mile 23, I got tired of staying out in the miserable rain any longer than I had to and started to pick it up again. I passed a lot of people in the last 3 miles. I have no idea how fast I was running but I just wanted to be done by that time and lay down. When I hit the finish line, I didn't have much left. I think for how my training went for this race, I did pretty much what should have been predicted. In the end, I am still glad I went to St George and finished strong at least for the last three miles. In the end, the running Karma just wasn't good for this race. But that's the thing amount marathon running. You can control only a few factors and the rest are out of your control. It is what makes it so frustrating and yet so rewarding.

I am back!

As some of you know, this has been a very trying and probably most difficult training cycle in my relatively short running career. I have this bad habit of completely stopping after a big race. This happened again after my last marathon in the fall of 2006. In the summer of 2007, I tore my hamstring water skiing which set me back even further. After about 10 lbs of extra weight and lethargy set in, I decided that I needed that running jones back. This meant signing up for another marathon and a new goal to motivate me to get out of bed and on the trails. I chose to do St George and set a lofty goal for myself, a 10 min PR. I started to run some again in mid April and joined Team Apex in May. The training went really well and felt stronger and faster every week for about 6 weeks. In late June and early July, I started to feel poorly. My hip was killing me and I had no aerobic capacity, a classic case of "overtraining". In retrospect, I think it was a combination of my work schedule, lack of sleep and too many hard workouts too soon. My hip was so bad that I couldn't walk down the stairs at my house withoug pain and holding on to the rail. At this point, I was pretty low and feeling sorry for myself. I came very close to shutting it down completely after a bad short 5 mile run that I could not finish. Fortunately, with the support of my wife, brother and PT, I kept going. I lost a good 4 solid weeks of traing and had a lot of doubts about being able to run the race in Oct. I got a bit of confidence back at the Payette lake run, when I was only 4 mins off my PR and felt like I had some left in the tank when I finished. Then came a bad run in Vegas last weekend. It was hot and hilly and I barely finished and at a very slow pace. Yesterday was a great run and it gave me a great deal of confidence for the race. Murali and I ran together at a good pace. I ran 20 miles wit the first 15 miles at about 9 min pace and the last 5 miles were at 8:01, 8:20, 7:40, 7:48, 7:43. I felt great! It's good to be back!

Welcome!

Welcome Andy! As your personal coaches, we make every effort to meet your individual needs to facilitate your achievement of your goal of 3:20 at St. George. Your goal of 3:20 for St.George sounds achievable Andy. I would like to suggest that the training plans we provide for you are meant to assist you to reach your goals and build upon your current fitness. They are intended to be followed as closely as possible for the appropriate build up to take place and decrease risk of injury for your ultimate goal of a 3:20 marathon. Although, I believe that hard work is the key to success, rest and active rest (slow days) are also just as important. Therefore, it is important for you to communicate with us any concerns you may have regarding a workout; if you are unable to complete a scheduled training day as written; if you are experiencing nagging aches/pains/injuries; delayed recovery, or staleness; or if you have an unusual lack of motivation or drive; or work/family/life changes that may affect your training & training schedule.

A training log is a great way to keep track of your progress over a period of time. Analyzing periods of good days and bad days in running can form the basis of future success in racing and training. The log acts as your history book, telling you where you went wrong and where you went right. By analyzing the history of your running it is possible to explain your ups and downs and learn from those experiences. What you write in your training log is data for future training schedules. If you do not currently use a training log, may we suggest the log we have set up for you at http://www.mapmyrun.com/ or using this blog as your running journal and a communication tool for your coaches. Intermittently, we view your training journal via this blog and may make necessary changes to your monthly training schedule based on your journal and continuum of communications. You may opt to send regular emails directly to us as your "training log". Logs are entirely optional on your part, but logging does tend to "keep you on track" to reaching your goals and correct negative training patterns for future goals.

If I recall correctly, you are currently in a re-building phase, running approximately 25 miles per week with the long run of 7-8 miles. Your pacing is approximately 9 min miles on average for these runs. You have run a 3:29:15 at Chicago in 2006 and your goal is to run a 3:20 marathon at St. George and then run Boston in April of 2009.

We sincerely thank you for supporting our vision to promote racing, running, and walking in our community by keeping TEAM APEX up and "running" and by striving toward your personal goals. We truly enjoy coaching and getting to know each of our runners. We aim to make ourselves available always and aspire to offer highly personalized coaching…. while making it fun! If you ever have any questions or concerns, we encourage regular communication via email or call us at 949-3306.

Stay hungry Andy!
Monica, Mike, & Dave
monica@teamapexrunningandwalking.com
mike@teamapexrunningandwalking.com
dave@teamapexrunningandwalking.com