Run to Win

Rick Karboviak believes that most high school running coaches in this country are training our kids incorrectly, and that it is hurting the sport. He believes that we need to do more to develop the next generation of runners, and provides some solutions and strategies to do so in his book, “Endure!”

This book is not for everybody. In fact, I think that its appeal will be for a very small segment of the running community. For that small segment, though, it is probably worth taking a look at given its low cost. The book is delivered electronically, and includes a couple of bonuses including a 20 page “bonus” section, a phone consultation with the author (a certified coach) and a month free in a training club. I have not made use of the phone consultation or the training club, so I can not offer an opinion on either of those.

The book recommends that we take a different look at how we train our children, and offers up the experiences of the author as he has grown as both an athlete and as a coach. The book is divided into 7 sections.
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It is only a few days before I leave for the Virginia/Washington D.C. area to run the Marine Corps Marathon. I have started thinking about my race strategies and what I hope to accomplish. The race’s website, though, leaves a bit to be desired.

Their course map is atrocious. It is really neat in terms of how it works, but they do not offer a downloadable PDF that I could print off and study. If they do, then I could not find it.

The elevation map is useful, however:

Looking just at the elevation profile, this just might be my easiest course yet. There is a short climb in the third mile up to not even 250 feet above sea level, with another climb up to about 150 feet from miles 5 through 8. After that, you are looking at what has to be one of the flattest courses that I can imagine up until you finish at the Iwo Jima memorial.

My general game plan is to take it a little conservative for the first few miles. If I run at a 7 minute pace at any point through mile 3, I will not mind at all. I will probably let myself stretch my legs out from there through mile 5, where you drop almost back to sea level. I will probably be around 6 minute pace or a little quicker through here. From 5 through 8, I will aim for 6:25 pace or 6:30 pace. Once I am past there, then I will try to run around 6:15 or better for the rest of the race. At a conservative estimate, that puts me at around 2:45:05. That will serve as my base line that I am going to beat.

I have set up the website here to update as I pass each check point. The Athlete Alert system will let RunToWin.com know where I am and will leave an article here on the site. If you were here earlier this evening, then you may have noticed that I was testing the system.

This week last year I was getting ready for the New York City marathon, although that did not keep me from racing. I had not quite started tapering yet, though.

• I planned out my NYC race strategy, since I would be pacing a friend through his first one. Our race almost exactly mimicked the race strategy that I had put forward, except that we never got around to slowing down to 6:50 pace. In fact, the last two miles, I sped up to 6:00 pace.
• There were a couple of races. There was the inaugural Saco Bay 5k on Saturday, and the Physical Therapy 8k in Brunswick on Sunday. I ran in the 8k, as it was a part of the grand prix. Dirigo won, which was nice.
• Scott continued our series on rest by discussing measuring rest with your heart. I discussed the benefits of vitamin supplementation.
• This week last year was the first time that I ran with a headlamp. I was not completely sold on it after the run, but in the past year I have used the thing so often that I think I can consider myself sold now…

There is (less than) one week to go until the Boston Marathon, and I set a new PR today. It is amazing how much easier swimming is when you don’t work very hard in the day(s) before the swim. This weekend, I only ran 17 miles and averaged around 7:00 minute pace. When I got to the pool this afternoon, I managed to swim an extra lap in less time than my previous best.

My swims basically amount to how many laps I can swim in 30 minutes, which is about how much time I can afford in the pool on my lunch breaks. I have managed to swim 27 laps the last 3 times that I have been to the pool, with my quickest being in 29:50. Today I managed 28 laps in 29:47. Only a little over 5 laps to go and I will have managed to swim a full mile in under 30 minutes. I don’t actually expect to get to that point, however.
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Last night, I published my Eastern States 20 Miler race plan. The race was going to be my last long run before beginning my taper for the Boston Marathon. My race plan had four distinct sections to it.

Miles 1 and 2
The first couple of miles were going to serve as my warm up. I meant to get a mile or two of actual warm up before the race, but I got busy chatting with some of the other runners and only jogged around for a minimal amount. I thought that the race had gone out really slow, until we crossed over into New Hampshire at the 1 mile marker and I realized that I was running faster than I wanted to be. That trend continued for another mile, despite chatting with the guys around me.

Miles 2 through 12
The next 10 miles were supposed to be the meat of my workout. I wanted to run between 6:10 and 6:20 pace, and I pretty much managed that. I think that mile 4 was a little long (making mile 5 a little short), which would mean that I basically ran right around 6:10 or a little quicker the entire time. I felt quite comfortable and I am confident that I can run at that pace for most of my marathon, so I think that Boston should turn in a good time for me. I did miss a few mile markers in a row; those three miles took 18 minutes and 33 seconds to run.

Miles 13 through 18
The next 6 miles were supposed to just be junk miles to get through. I wanted to run around 6:25 or 6:30 pace through these miles. I mostly was in the 6:20 to 6:30 range; I’m not really sure exactly how long I spent on these miles since they didn’t seem very accurate. I did impress myself, however, by declining to race with somebody. I kept up the pace that I was supposed to be running, and let him burn himself out chasing down the next guy. By the end of mile 18 I was ready to see what I had left, since I figured that I could probably run in the 5:30 or 5:40 range without much trouble.

Miles 19 and 20
Mile 18 was definitely short. This was lucky, since I wanted to start racing and was getting antsy. The side effect of this, though, is that my 5:40 or 5:50 pace for mile 19 came through as 7:26. I did run a 5:38 for the 20^th mile. The goal pace had been to see what was left, and I had just penciled in 6:10 and 6:00.
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Tomorrow is the Eastern States 20 Miler, which will be my last long training run before the Boston Marathon. The race itself is 20 miles, which goes from Maine to Massachussetts. I will probably get a few more miles in on top of that, I would guess.

My goal is not to treat this as a race. This is a difficult thing for me; when I have paid for a race or I have people around me, then my inclination is to beat as many people as I can. Preferably, all of them. I think that if I can go into this race with a strategy that will serve me for Boston, then I might be able to stick to it.

My plan is to go out slow. My first few miles should be around 6:50 or 7:00 minute pace. This will allow me to only take a short warm up before the race, as I will be running for 13 or 14 minutes at this easy pace. The next ten miles I would like to race around my projected pace for Boston. I want to run around 62 or 63 minutes for this stretch of the race, which means running at around 6:10 to 6:20 pace. That should be the easy part.

Once I have gotten in a good 10 miles at race pace, I want to back off a little until the end. Not a lot; perhaps 6:30 or 6:40 pace or somewhere in the vicinity for the next 6 or 7 miles. That would leave me a mile or two to drop a few hammers and see what is left in my gas tank. If I feel good, then I will race in the last two miles, and if not, then I’ll settle for one mile to pick people off. I should be able to manage at least 6:10 pace, but I expect that I can get down to around 6:00 minute pace or under. I do not want to go too far under 6:00 minute pace, as this still will in essence be a training run. In Boston, the goal will be to run from mile 24 to the finish in around twelve and a half minutes, around 5:45 pace or under.

Here are my projected splits. After the race tomorrow, I will update the table with how I actually did so that we can see how well my race plan worked out for me.
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