Recap of 2009 - Looking ahead for 2010

Happy 2010. Well, I have not been back here to post weekly as I have planned. Nevertheless, I am pleased to report that I rang out 2009 pretty successfully and am right on track for my next running goal.

First, here is a brief set of highlights of my running from 2009:

- Total miles: 2,800 (53.6 miles/week average). This was a substantial increase from the 2,262 miles that I ran in 2008. God has blessed me. I was not injured at all in 2009 and I was able to live my life pretty much the way I wanted to while getting in the runs. This includes a whopping 296 miles in the month of December, which I hope puts me on track to shatter my marathon PR in March.

- Despite the huge PR in annual mileage, I am a marathon runner and all of my training was centered around the long run. Thus, my total race count for 2009 was a paltry eight; down from 11 last year. However, I ran 8 strong races and PR'd in 6 of them. You might say that I like to make them count.

- I ran four marathons which included my first ever two sub-3's races. I ran wonderful marathons in the great cities of Austin, Boston, San Francisco and my current hometown of Chicago. My average time was 3:01:42 for these four marathons.

- Outside of the marathon, I set major PR's in the 1/2 marathon, the 10-miler and the 5k, in which I finally broke 19 minutes.

Now, what is in store for 2010?

As I posted in late November, I am being very careful about making running commitments for 2010. I have a second child due in April and I need to be sure that my running does not interfere with my value of being a dedicated parent and husband. I also have career goals and realize that running 10 hours per week does have an impact on my work-life balance.

The number one goal I have in 2010 is to run a sub 2:55 at my next marathon, which is confirmed to be on March 7th, 2010 in Little Rock, AR. I am now registered and gunning for this goal. Achieving this time will get me guaranteed entry into the 2011 NYC Marathon, which is one I still aspire to run.

Outside of this goal, I am not sure what to set. My other planned goal was to complete the Naperville Triathlon on August 8th, which will require me to learn how to swim and ride my crappy Schwinn. However, I am slightly reluctant since I do not want to put pressure on my family as I train. Maybe this is a short enough event that I can just show up and do it?

Someone asked me recently about how the running group that I started in my town is going. I have to be honest and say that things started out strong but became challenging late in the summer/early fall timeframe. I realized that I wanted to put my training first; and not necessarily spend time on the planning and organization required for the club, which seemingly was not as effective as I had hoped.

At this point, I still do want to play a role in organizing runners in my community. However, I do not want to be the sole leader for doing so. I also am trying to be encouraging of newer, beginning runners; without sacrificing the time necessary to achieve my own goals. I learned that this is much harder to do that it initially sounds.

I will end by saying that I am very proud to be the runner that I am; as well as that I am very gratified by how running has shaped me over the past nine years since that first marathon. I have been blessed with a few talents in life, a couple of which are a bias toward planning and discipline to do what I commit to do. These skills, and to a far, far lesser degree my physical ability, have allowed me to run in a way that has exceeded my wildest expectations.

Ramping up for marathon #18 with an eye on the future

The handful of you that check in on this blog from time to time may have noticed that it has been seven weeks since my last post. Fret not, friends. After a brief recovery after Chicago, I have been running quite well as hopefully my training log will demonstrate.

I simply was not feeling all that verbose about my running. Simply put, I wanted to just run and not talk or write about it.

For the weeks leading up to the Chicago Marathon, I promised myself that I would not commit to another marathon until after I gave it my all on October 11th. I held true to that commitment. I was able to put up yet another PR and savor my accomplishment.

Immediately following the Chicago Marathon, I decided that I would carefully evaluate my next running endeavor. This task has been fresh on my mind ever since October 11th, and not surprisingly, I have been waffling over a few options.

This time around, I wanted to fully recover and take a full 18-week cycle to make a big dent in my Chicago PR. That's why I wanted to push my next race out to March.

During the last several weeks, I realize that I need to be careful so not to take running for granted. The major impending change in my life is that my wife and I are expecting our second child in April. I am thrilled, and realize more than ever that I have a lot of responsibility to be a family man.

Right off the bat, this eliminated any consideration to go back to Boston this year. So, all along, my thinking has been I need to prepare to absolutely crush one more marathon before the baby comes.

I also have been giving my career a lot of thought and want to make sure I allocate enough time to accomplish my goals there. I also have been trying to broaden my horizons spiritually and in other areas in my life. Bottom line: I think that this upcoming marathon cycle will be about the most amount of running that I can afford to fit into my priorities.

The goal I have been thinking of setting is to qualify outright for entry into the NYC Marathon on November 7th, 2010. However, I do not want to take my chances in a lottery, which I lost out on 2008. I want guaranteed entry with a qualifying time.

What is the qualifying time, you may ask? For men 39 and under, it is a staggering 2:55 flat. And, unlike the Boston qualifying standards, there is no 59 second grace.

Disappointingly, I learned yesterday that a race in March will be too late to get me guaranteed entry into the 2010 NYC Marathon. Apparently, you need to have raced by January 31st, 2010. I will push this detail aside and press on. Running a sub-2:55 will get me into NYC in 2011.

I narrowed it down to two marathons on the weekend of March 5th, 2010: (1) Albany, GA and (2) Little Rock, AR. The factors that went into my narrowing it down are (not listed in order of importance):

• Date of race - It needed to be before April and later than Feb 28th to allow for a full 18-week training cycle
• Location / ease of logistics - I am going by myself, and I am Platinum on American Airlines, so it needs to be somewhere I can get to cheaply and easily
• Course ease (or difficulty, depending on how you look at it) - To go for a sub-2:55, this sucker needs to be flat!
• States in which I have not raced before are preferred - For when I decide to go for the 50 states club later in life (Texas and Florida are out, which made this tough for Feb/March)
• The race must have reasonably favorable reviews on Marathonguide.com.
  

Right now, I am training toward the goal to run a 2:54 at the Snickers Energy Bar Marathon on March 6th, 2010. Little Rock, although it has stellar reviews and is easier to get to for me due to a direct AA flight, may be a bit to hill to achieve that sub 2:55.

Currently, I have completed 4 weeks of an 18-week modified Pfitzinger training plan that will get me up to a new peak of 80 miles per week in week #15 in February.

While visiting my sister's family, I ran in Colorado last week at about 5,800 feet altitude, which was a great stimulus. I am pretty confident that was one of the factors that helped me absolutely destroy a 19-miler in the hills of Waterfall Glen today at an average pace of 7:08/mile.

I am presently 14 weeks ago from running this race. I plan to post a minimum of weekly going forward toward the race date. Please stay tuned and join me for the ride.

Marathon #17: Wonderful PR in Chicago 2009

It was a marvelous day to run a marathon today.  Everything went very smoothly as I knocked out the splits pretty consistently today, which are listed below along with my unofficial result.

I feel very satisfied.  I ran exactly how I had hoped and achieved my "A" goal, which was to PR with a 2:58.  

I am currently undecided on my next goal.  I need to savor this a bit.  Running four marathons in the span of 8 months with an average time of 3:01 (w/ two sub-3's) in all major regions of the USA (West Coast, Midwest, East Coast and Southwest) is more than I would have ever imagined possible for myself.

SPLITS BY THE MILE - CHICAGO MARATHON - OCTOBER 11TH, 2009

7:00

6:45

6:43

6:30

6:47

6:44

6:49

6:49

6:48

6:48

6:44

6:53

6:49

0:44 - 13.1 mi - HALFWAY -- 1:29:00 

6:07 - Balance of mile 14

6:48

6:44

6:50

6:48

6:50

6:53

6:53

6:47

6:55

6:53

6:49

6:43

1:23 - final 0.2 mi

FINISH TIME: 2:58:28

Person
Name	Nied, Ryan (USA)
BIB	574
Div	30-34

Split	Time
START TIME	07:30:19
05K	00:21:13
10K	00:42:03
15K	01:03:11
20K	01:24:24
HALF	01:29:00
25K	01:45:32
30K	02:06:43
35K	02:28:02
40K	02:49:25

Total
Place (total)	699
Place (Gender)	642
Place (Div)	128
Total (Net)	02:58:28
Total (Gun)	02:58:54

Chicago 2009: Ready to Roll

Just a touch above the freezing point with winds around 6 mph.  That's what is expected for conditions as we line up tomorrow for the Chicago Marathon.  Far more comfortable than the heat and humidity that runners felt the past two years.

I hit this week's mileage exactly as I had planned: 25 miles at relatively easy pace for the most part, with exception to a couple of miles at goal pace.  

Unfortunately, I had a really busy week with travel and a couple of poor night's sleep.  Also, my diet was not as strong as I would have like it to have been as I approach a marathon. 

It's all good.  I have put in the training.  I am in pretty good shape.  

I'll be running with the 3:00 pace group tomorrow.  Hopefully, I can sneak out in front of them as we approach the final miles and hang on for a sub-3.  We'll see.  

This will be my 3rd Chicago Marathon and my 17th overall.  I am excited that the conditions will allow us to leave it all out there tomorrow; unlike the last two years.

Marathon #4 of 2009 is here.  Time to go get it...

Celebrating the taper with a 5k PR

Chicago is a mere 13 days away.

Taking a look at my training right now, I feel like I am in pretty good shape for Chicago.  I am in comparable shape to Austin and the good news is that Chicago is a faster course.

Giving me even a little more confidence was that I finally broke 19 minutes on a 5k this weekend.  OK, so I have not run a 5k in over a year.  That's why I decided to enter the local Plainfield Harvest Fest 5k to see if my speed work was progressing.

My goal was to run an 18:30.  I was really nervous on whether or not I could do this.  I haven't run intervals over 1200m and I simply not as strong on the shorter distances.  

Did I tell you that I hate 5k's?  They f'n hurt.  The good news is that I achieved my goal and ran an 18:22.  (Official time was later posted as 18:25 - but I trust my watch).

I ran splits of 5:48, 6:02, 5:56 and the final 0.1 mile in 0:36.  This earned me another 3rd place age group finish.  More importantly, this time lines up with a 2:59:03 marathon time, if you ask Greg McMillan anyway.

If I take this 5k result and compare it to the strong 22-miler that I knocked out last Sunday, I am feeling pretty good about my progress.  

The takeaway on the 22-miler was not necessarily the pace of the splits, but rather how I felt so strong toward the end.  Granted, I wasn't running race pace until the final couple of miles.  Nevertheless,  I felt stronger on this run that I have on any other training run of this distance in recent memory  -- and it was at the tail end of another 70 mile week.

I feel like I am right on the brink of a 2:59.  It's all about rest, recovery and mental preparation from this point forward.

Tuning up for the Chicago taper

Wow, where has the time gone? There are just over 3 weeks until the Chicago Marathon. I have a plan to nail about 68-69 miles this week and then it's taper time for the 4th time in 2009.

I am starting to build some confidence that I am on the cusp of another sub-3 hour marathon in Chicago.

I ran the Batavia Half Madness 1/2 Marathon about 10 days ago. I wanted a sub 1:25. I came up slightly short. However, I will say that I was happy to have finished as strong as I did.

I ran a 1:25:48, which lines up with a 3:00 marathon. It was a PR by about 50 seconds. I placed 3rd in my age group and 18th overall out of just under 1,000 runners (see results here). OK, so I was little pissed as I struggled to hold 6:30's. You can check out my splits here.

In retrospect, I could have pulled out the excuse monkey and had him say the humidity was very high that day (over 90%), that my weight was up (nearly 170 lbs) and I had a poor diet the night before (thanks to me caving into my neighbor's invite for dinner, since my family was out of town... ribs, chicken, cookies, etc) and that it was the last, tiring run of a 70-mile week (which it was).

But I didn't let the excuse monkey out of his cage. I chalked it up to more work to do.

Since then, I have been running pretty strongly. However, I will say that I have put in a ton of treadmill mileage due to my schedule and my all-weekend daddy duties. It's great fun to nail an 18-mile treadmill run (w/ 15 miles at 6:49/mi pace) while watching my daughter nap on a video monitor right next to me.

I am hitting the workouts. The indicators are there. I am right on the fringe of another PR. I would have felt better had I ran a 1:24 at that half, but I honestly think it wasn't my best day.

Regardless of what happens, it will be my best year of marathoning.... ever.

Margaritaville + Marathon Training = ?

I am continuing to make progress toward a sub-3 marathon run at Chicago on 10/11/06.

I've been able to keep up with the Pfitz plan pretty successfully -- even with numerous distractions, work travel and family obligations.

I did complete 70 miles the week before last even with my business trip to Miami. One of the nights in Miami included a night out at the bar with co-workers until 1:45 AM. No, I didn't get up and run before our 8:30 AM meeting, but I managed make it up in the evening and get back on track the following morning. This included a strong tempo run on the Hilton treadmill for a total of 12 miles. Not bad, right?

Last week, I hit 63 out of 64 planned miles and completed all the speed work. The toughest part was over the weekend. Friday night was my birthday and we had neighbors over late and celebrated. I killed a simulated 10k race on Saturday on the treadmill in 37:58 (which lines up with a 2:58 marathon) with a minor hangover.

On Saturday night, I went to my first Jimmy Buffet concert. I didn't see any others at the show that appeared to be attempting a sub-3 marathon next month. I did 18 miles on the treadmill on Sunday afternoon at an avg of 7:33/mi - with a slightly stronger hangover.

All in all, I am on track. Just got back from a Connecticut trip. I hit my 11 miles this morning - however, I did not get in the 6x1000m repeats on the treadmill as planned. It was 80+ degrees with high humidity in the Hilton fitness room. I did two of the intervals and then headed outside to beautiful temps and completed the final 9 miles in 7:29/mi avg pace. Enjoyed the hills of my former town that I last lived in!

I am pumped for the Batavia Half Madness 1/2 Marathon on Sunday. I should be in position to P.R. My goal is a 1:24:30 and I think it's very doable.

Off to bed so I can get up for a 15-miler... trying to stay on track for a 70-mile week (or something close).