14 mile run with Andi in Acton, CA

The only way to get in a long run with Andi is if we stay at her sister's place in Acton, CA (about 20 minutes away) so we can get up early and the boys can stay with her. We did that today, leaving for our run at about 5:45. I had mapped out a 7 mile loop that looked pretty flat on google earth but turned out to have two killer hills. We did the loop twice for a total of 14 miles. Total time was about 2:04 (avg pace 9:00). Our first loop was slow but we picked up the pace on the last loop and ran the last few miles at around 8:20 pace. We got back to her sisters house and everyone was still asleep!

The HDR summer cross country championships was this morning and I went over to watch. The conditions were awesome and that lead to some fast times. It seemed like everyone ran a course best (Neil, Zac, and Dale all did). See Clay's blog and Dale's blog for more commentary.

One of my readers and friends, Dan Ham, was interested in my training plans and how the Twin Cities Marathon fit in to the schedule. It actually fits in perfectly. Andi and I are running the TCM together this year. We haven't run a marathon together since Los Angeles 2005 where I paced her to a 3:38! This will be her first marathon since having Matt and Micah. We are excited. I wrote her a 3 month training plan building up to the marathon and so far she is doing great! She is scheduled to run the Big Bear Half Marathon on September 12 this year with a girl friend and she will use it as a training run as it is only 4 weeks before the marathon. There isn't enough time to taper, race it, and recover, as well as get in all of our scheduled long runs. Plus the altitude is not the place to run a fast time. We are hoping to run around 3:45 in Minnesota. So for me the Twin Cities Marathon will be more like a training run in preparation for California International Marathon, December 6th. Similar to my 30 miler a month ago. My plan, make the speed (6:40 pace), not the distance (26.2 miles), the limiting factor.

I would like to do a 10k time trial in two or three weeks and then again a month after that to use as a fitness guage. I may do a half marathon time trial (1:25ish) in early November. I don't think I can afford to do any other races. After TCM I will have a two month build up that will consist mostly of marathon pace, fast finish long runs, and down hill tempo runs to get my quads used to some hard pounding (there is a net downhill at CIM) all the while maintaining a fairly good mileage of 40-45 miles per week (it would be nice to have a few top out at around 50!). I have never had 6 month training block with this much base work to build on for a marathon so I am excited about my current fitness level. Right now I can recover from a 2 hour long run in about a day. I have not broken 3 hours for a marathon since Grandma's in 2006! The goal this year is 2:55 (6:40 pace)! I will spend the next 2 months doing some hill training, some faster stuff (10k pacing), and helping Andi with her mileage build up.

Dan, I think your idea to run the Long Beach Half Marathon on October 11th is a great idea and it won't disrupt your training at all. I would race it and use it as a fitness guage to help you set your final goals for CIM. I know you were thinking about a Boston qualifier (3:10). You would need to run your half in about 1:30 or faster for an equal effort. You would definitely be on track with a time like that. After the half in October make sure you give yourself about 10-13 days of recovery before the final ramp up for CIM. I would hope your long run before the half would be at least 16 miles, and then after Long Beach you would have time for 3 other runs longer than that, topping out at 20-22 miles.

Thanks for asking Dan!
It was great to see you and run with you in July.
Good luck with the training.

Finally, I have been commenting on a blog post from Coach Jay Johnson's blog out of Boulder, CO. We have had some great dialogue going on and I thought some of my readers might be interested in it. Coach Johnson is a smart coach that has a very similar philosophy about how to train runners to reach their maximum potential and prevent injuries using strength training to supplement their running. He also has some great videos on his blog. Read all the comments here.