2010 Running Year in Review

Overview

2010 was more of an up-and-down year for me than it was for Lebron James' popularity. I'll elaborate in a later post, but the year started with a medical episode that kept me from running from about October 2009 until March 2010. However, once I got back on my feet I had the best 9 months of training and racing yet. This was fortuitous and necessary, since the first 3 months were the rock bottom of my running career. In July I finished my first ultra-marathon (the Midnight Madness 50 miler); in October I set a PR in the Niagara Falls International Marathon; and finished off the year with 2 months of excellent training in preparation for the Rock & Roll Arizona Marathon in January 2011.

Races

Oklahoma Aquarium Half - A small race I did just as the first part of a 26 mile training run in preparation for the Midnight Madness 6 weeks later.

Midnight Madness 50 Miler - This race was the dominating event in my life for 3.5 months. I heard of this race when I was first starting to run again in March. Beyond anything I could control, the seed of ambition was planted in my mind to run it. I saw it as part redemption, part exercise in discipline, and part fulfillment of a bucketlist goal. Once I had even the notion that I could do it, it was over; I had to try it. The race itself started at 11:59 PM on July 2nd, and consisted of 5 loops around a 10.3 mile loop on a humid night. I threw up a bunch, generally hated life by mile 30, but got through it. Here is a video of me saying hello after about 6 hours:

 And me finally getting the thing done (and swearing to myself I'd never run again):

Philadelphia Rock & Roll Half Marathon - A great race around some the most famous Philadelphia landmarks. I loved the whole experience.

Niagara Falls International Marathon - I didn't focus too much on this race, as I just looked at it as a test of my fitness in preparation for the rest of the year. However, I got caught up in the competitive atmosphere and felt better during the race than I expected, which led to a great performance (new PR by 10 minutes). The weather was perfect and the course was decent. It also traces the route Quenton Cassidy ran in the Olympic Trials at the end of Again to Carthage. And yes, the ghost of Jack Nubbins did appear to pace me the last 7 miles.

Run for the Ranch Half Marathon - Also supposed to just be a test of my fitness, but like I always do, I started running much faster than I planned on running. (Un)Fortunately, I couldn't talk myself into slowing down early, then just tried to hang on late. I didn't set a PR, but in this small race, I actually won the 20-29 age group and picked up my first trophy. I'm glad I stuck around for the awards ceremony.

Training

Where & What I Ran

As shown below, I logged about a third of my miles on 'Easy' efforts, a third on 'Tempo' efforts, and a little less than a third on long runs. I'm satisfied with this distribution, and I think it's a big reason why I stayed relatively injury free throughout the year.

With my graduate student lifestyle, I spent the Spring and Fall semesters in New York City, and did a Summer internship in Tulsa, OK. This explains why these two cities account for about 70% of my miles. Additionally, the Central Park loop is a fantastic place to run, but putting in nearly 800 miles on a 6 mile course gets a little monotonous. My back of the envelope calculation says I did the loop over 130 times in 2010. Also, I logged lots of miles on the treadmill over the summer to try and avoid the sweltering heat and humidity of summer in Oklahoma. However, I have tried to avoid the machine as much as possible since then because it's really just not the same workout. Otherwise that number would have been much bigger.

This same analysis of miles-by-shoe should look much differently in 2011. I started the year loyal to the Brooks Addiction 8. I've gone through probably 7 or 8 pairs of this shoe, and loved it for years. However, over the Summer and into the Fall, I became a bigger devotee to the minimalist shoe movement, and really concentrated on changing my stride so that I landed less on my heel, and more on my mid-foot. This made the over-pronation mitigation provided by the Addiction unnecessary, and rendering the shoe nothing more than a heavy, over-cushioned boot. Next year, I expect to see more 'less-shoe' shoes on this list, such as the Free & Kinvara, as well as maybe the New Balance 101 or Brooks Green Silence.

How I Ran

As would be expected, the first third of the year barely even registers on my charts. However, once I made the commitment in mid-March to run an Ultra in July, my miles picked up very quickly. My average pace actually got slower as I worked myself into better shape from March to July. This seems counter-intuitive until you consider two things: more of my mileage came from longer & slower runs as I approached the race, and the changing of the season to Summer created significantly more difficult weather conditions. After July, my focus shifted towards shorter distances, and temperatures eventually started to cool down. My training intensity really kicked up in September, resulting in more miles at faster paces.

I like to calculate my 'rolling' totals, which is just how many miles I've run in a trailing period of X days. I think it's a good measure of the fatigue and work you've put your body through. The main idea is any mile run when your rolling 7 or 28 day total is high is of higher value than when the rolling total is low since you'll be running through more fatigue.

*I've cut off the max pace, as my 13:00 pace for the Midnight Madness 50 miler in July skewed that month significantly. Suffice it to say that my average pace during that time was sloooow.

The more days I can spend above certain thresholds of rolling totals, the better. This means my body will spend more time in a 'broken-down' state during training, thus yielding better and stronger results. The tables below show how many days my rolling totals were above certain thresholds. As you can see, I spent almost half the year with "over 175 miles in 28 days" fatigue; and more than a month of  "60 mile week" fatigue. This is good, but ideally, I'd live with perpetual 200 mile/28 day fatigue.

Summary

I'm pleased with my accomplishments in 2010, and feel I've set myself up for a good start to 2011. I earned the title "Ultra-Marathoner", set a new Marathon PR by 10 minutes, and picked up my first age-group victory in the half-marathon distance. Additionally, I worked myself into the best marathon condition I've ever been in, and am poised to set another marathon PR on January 16, 2011 in the Rock & Roll Arizona Marathon. I came back from a pretty serious medical condition, and taught myself about the impact that can be achieved with a good mentality and dedication to a goal.