"DESIRE" (Race Prep 1)

Warning... this ended up long and drawn out. Sorry.

Today was one of 2 "race preps" (race simulations run) we have before Boston. Something in my head kept telling me I absolutely just had to try to run today (hence the run attempt yesterday) to see where I stand, with so little time left.

Meb Keflezighi (2009 NY Marathon winner, and Silver Medalist at the Olympics games in 2004) posted on his Twitter last Thursday:

"First Intervals since end of January. Felt good & strong. 2X 2mile & mile repeats. Why is that knee pain is less w/ speed?"

For some reason, this really made sense to me. Running faster means a faster turnover, which is more of a glide, instead of warm-up paces which are slower and add impact, which give the knee a beating.

I was completely undecided and unaware of what would happen today, but I just went with it. As I mentioned yesterday, gentle rolling hills were fine on my knee, so I knew i could run 4 miles with Karma on the trails to warm up and keep the knee impact to a minimum. I would then set out to try 1, five mile loop, maybe 2 loops of the knee held together and no major discomfort. If it was a no-go, I'd know within minutes, and I would just hop back on the greenbelt trails for another 30-45 minutes.

The team was running out towards downtown on an out-and-back-course with quite a bit of hills, and since that was the cause of my knee injury, i opted to run an old 5 mile loop we've done, right by the trail entrance, so it couldn't have been a better layout for me. The only drawback is that I'd be out there on my own, and not see a soul to help in the mental motivation department.

Dan opted to join in on the trail run to do a little recovery run from his long run Saturday, which was welcome. He lives about 1/2 a mile from the trail entrance so after the trail run, he offered to go get his bike and keep me company for a while.

From where I started today, the 5 mile loop has a steep hill on the 3rd mile, and then another not so steep, but twice as long hill on mile 5. The plan was to run as close to 6:45 pace (my goal for Boston 2:57:30) for as many as possible, but also not risk further knee issues on the hill miles by being conservative.

Dan ended up joining me on his bike for a total of five miles starting at mile 3, so the last 12 miles were entirely solo.

I did well. Pretty quickly i felt that the knee was not giving me problems, after the first loop was done, i set out of loop 2 (of 2). I very quickly realized HOW BAD I WANT THIS BOSTON SUB 3, and it became the fuel to my run.

When i had about a mile to go, i was feeling OK, and figured I'd go for another loop to see if I could hold pace for 15 miles. (19miles total with warm up)

I was running on pure desire, and kept visualizing the word DESIRE in big letters. This third loop was solo, and pretty tough physically, but mentally I was rocking this. With one mile to go, I decided that I'd go for a 4th loop and match my teammates running across town for a total of 24 miles with 20 at race pace, but if the knee gave ANY issue, I'd call it a day and walk back to the car. I clearly didn't plan nutritionally the 2 or 3 days leading up to Sunday to run 24 miles with 20 hard ones. But mentally I was ROCK SOLID. Absolutely ROCK SOLID. The word DESIRE was fantastic, kept visualizing happy thoughts that kept me smiling, alternating with the word DESIRE, smiled and just ran. I had 2 or 3 back-to-back great songs come in, and I fell into what I call "The runner trance". It was awesome!

With 3 miles to go, it got REALLY tough physically, as my legs were literally depleted of all energy, but mentally I was still rocking this. I had a gel in the pocket which would have helped, but for some reason I decided to just let ride the mental strength since I was already a winner for the day, having over-exceeded my plan.

Overall, i couldn't be happier. I ran the fastest 20 miles I have ever run in my life, and it also showed me I don't need my team or other runners around me to do what I need to do.

At bfast, i took an anti-inflammatory and iced the knee and both hamstrings for 20 minutes while i devoured a Ham & Cheese Omelet, Black Beans, Roasted Potatoes and French Toast. I was hungry!

Here are the stats:

4 mile trail warm up (middle road loop.)

4x 5mile loops at Travis country at 6:41 overall pace which is a 2:55:13 marathon pace.

Splits: a star (*) show the aforementioned hill miles.

Goal was 6:45 pace or so, over 5 miles. Not crucial to nail 6:45 every single mile.

6:20 HOW FUN TO RUN AGAIN!!! OOPS! Will this come back and bite me in the ass?
6:53
7:11 * kept it really easy to not screw with the knee
6:49
6:13* Boom! (long drop after long hill)

6:32
7:00
7:04* Less conservative.
6:31
6:28*

6:21
6:50
6:46* Feeling good!
6:38
6:30*

6:27
6:54
6:55* No energy in the legs
6:44
6:44* the hill climb was ROUGH, rallied on the last 1/4 mile.

2:13:57 total time.

I guess I'll hold off on cancelling my trip to Boston and I will return to the pool for many more pool workouts to keep the knee happy.