First, a message, ostensibly to another EN athlete prepping for an Ironman at the end of this month, but actually one I should follow as well:
So here are some things to think about for the run:
- For the first 6-8 miles, don’t pay any attention to your pace, and pay little attention to you HR, as long as it is 145 or below. What you should pay more attention to are your cadence and your breathing. If you can hear yourself breathing, you are running too fast. If your cadence is below 90, you are probably working your running muscles too hard. The combination of these two will mean (a) you will be running stupid slow”, which is OK and (b) you will feel like a mincing ballerina from Sawn Lake or something, That’s OK.
- Also, during those first 6-8 miles, your other main task is to get sufficient fluids in. Your “bring the HR down while walking” strategy is a good way to help with this. Depending on the temps, one “cup” (often 4-6 oz) of Gatorade each aid station is probably not enough. That might be as little as 25-30 oz of fluid; you can probably take up to twice that. I suggest taking a cup of water and a cup of gatorade, and combining the two, to both increase the amount you get, and dilute the sweetness of the gatorade.
- In the “middle” of the marathon (say, miles 8-17), things will get progressively harder. Unless you increase your perceived effort level (and start to hear your breathing), your pace will gradually slow, as well as your HR. There is no “steady state”. Things just get harder and harder, even as your pace stays the same or slows. Prepare yourself mentally for that, and, quite frankly,to ignore the increasing feelings of how hard its getting. Counting stuff helps here; also, having a few short 4-5 syllable mantras to endlessly repeat as works. Anything to give your ever-active brain something else to focus on.
- The end of the run is where you will test the second of your two goals (execute within your capabilities.) Your first goal is in the bag; you’re an EN athlete! But the second requires that your trust your training plan to have prepared your body to perform in the final 1.5-1.75 hours. You will probably remember the phrase “honor your training self”. That means not just racing as if that guy (the one who did all that training) deserves to be get a good reward for all that work, but also to remember that all the effort, time, and miles has changed your body and your concept of effort, and has made you capable (despite feelings to the contrary) of doing things you can’t really imagine yourself doing.
Then, my current status on my running “injury”:
Update … after doing two “long” runs in three days. 13.1 miles on Sunday, the 16 today, both on a track. This was not nearly as boring as I anticipated. First off, there are always new people coming and going to share the track with, pass or be passed by. Second, I could just leave my gatorade bottles at the side, and stop every 2 miles (first 8 or so), then every mile to drink up.
Yesterday, my butt pain was pretty apparent, but this morning, I hit the pool at 0800 for Monday’s sprint session, then drove to the college Tartan track for my run. I started out the first six miles at my “stoopid slow” pace, meaning HR of 114>>117, 9:10 >> 8:50, with my cadence at 91-2. I felt no *increase* in pain, so I started gradually opening things up – literally, meaning taking longer strides. By mile 14, I was down below 7:59, and actually feeling kinda powerful. Finished 16 miles in 2:20. And now, 4 hours later, no disturbing sensations from my backside.
One interesting set of data…my Garmin records my vertical oscillation (“OCT”?) When running on the road, that has been in the range of 7.1-7.3, which I think means bobbing up and down 7 cm. While on the track, and running with my more guarded style trying to avoid pain, my vertical oscillation is 6.5-6.7 cm. I;m not quite sure what this means, whether its good or bad, but it is a definite change.
A final note, just for this forum at present: I’m currently negotiating with a general surgeon about getting an inguinal hernia repair as soon as possible after Kona. This was discovered by my GP 2 years ago, but in the last month, it’s become real apparent size-wise (like a 5-6 cm bulge!), and I think its presence may be contributing to my year-long battle with right leg and R lower back issues. Meaning, there’s no pain, but my body is probably aware something is amiss, and is separately trying to guard against further injury, disrupting my normal gait and riding style. That will mean no IM AZ after Kona in all probability (assuming I can get a surgery date before Nov 16), as well as a couple of months of enforced time off after. Given 30 IMs in 15 years, I’m guessing its about time, though.