Marathon Training: Week 1 - The First Step Towards the Championships

As summer comes to an end, I find myself wondering where the heck did my training lead me...?  I had a great plan to build up my mileage and utilize the fact that I didn't have to be anywhere at 8:00am.  I plotted out all the "workouts" that I thought I was going to do, and trickled a few races here and there.  And those races are what got the best of me this past summer.  I toed the line of a local 5k on the Forth of July and little did I know I would be hobbling back to the starting line after the first mile with a brand new DNF to add to my running resume.  My calf was being very unpatriotic and decided to quite on me after the first time of a "fun" 5k.  I thought, this was the most Un-American thing you could do on the 4th of July - QUIT? Seriously?!  Well, it was for the better, and I rested up and have been running fine since a mere 2 weeks off in July.  I really got to thinking about how in my entire college career I never once quit in a race.  Then out of all the post-college races I had, I never quit either.  Even after all those crapy felling marathon's, where I was completely off my mark I never decided.... "Hey, I'm just going to step off the course and rally up for another one".  I still think about how I should've quit at Chicago way back when, instead of posting another disappointing time and missing the Olympic Trials Standard.  But, where would that have gotten me?  I always believe that if you're healthy, then finish the damn race.  And I won't even talk about Boston...

So, after healing up and building my mileage to a respectable number, I've decided to get the blog back in action and start posting about the journey to the USA Marathon Championships this December.  The California International Marathon will host the championships, and we have a huge crew of Dukes Track Club runners heading out west to chase some impressive times.  One time that should stick out is the new 2020 USA Olympic Trials Standard.  The men's "B" Standard is 2:19:00 and the "A" Standard is 2:15:00.  Also, if you are top 6 at the Championships, that qualifies as an "A" Standard, so it's pretty neat.  All I know is that there will be another gaggle of dudes going for that standard.  The weather should be good, and the company will be championship class.  As for me, I have a feeling this will be a subtle introduction back to the roads and a journey of chasing that standard

Week of training:

Mon- 2.5 miles
Tue - 7 miles
Wed - 2.5 mile warm up, 4 mile tempo (5:42, 5:37, 5:36, 5:31) 4 min rest, 8x400m w/90sec rest (75, 74, 71, 72, 72, 75, 72, 72) 2 mile cool down
Thur - 11 miles
Fri - 11 miles
Sat - 9.5 miles
Sun - 18 miles

Total: 70 miles


    

Nothing to Lose, and Everything to Gain... California International Marathon

Boom! It has all paid off... 2:17:19 for 6th place at the California International Marathon was something I can't even fathom!!! I knew I had it in me, but I just had to do it on the right day, with the right circumstances, and those circumstances can barely be transcribed, but I'm going to try...

This epic weekend starts off on a now winterish Friday with a cold front moving in on Albuquerque. I knew this, because I planed on teaching all day and would leave for Sacramento at 5:30pm to arrive there at around 8:45pm. In the classroom at S.Y. Jackson Elementary, the day is going as planned. Students are learning, and I'm learning how to become a better teacher from them... Once the day is over, I leave for home to an already packed bag and head for Sacramento. The flight was extremely delayed, and I assumed I was going to miss my connecting flight out of LAX. But, that didn't happen as the wonderful people at Southwest held that flight and I made it out of LAX and into Sacramento at 8:45pm.

Kris had an entirely different ordeal, as he left Abq in the early afternoon, flew into Oakland, rented a car and would drive to Sacramento. This, astonishing as it is, would save him time, and it did, as he arrived at the airport to pick me up. We zipped out of there in the spunky compact sized rental car as Kris handles it as a formula 1 racing car. We're weaving in and out of semi-trucks to get to downtown Sacramento so that we can grab something to eat. But, once we park the car in downtown, we had the unfortunate, and fortunate experience of meeting what I will call a "troubled" women. She had so much disparity about her, and the very detailed and long story she expressed only lead Kris and I to help her in what little way we could. Not to get into the detail of what we did, but to express the amount of emotion that came from this experience was very eye-opening. Here I am, fortunate enough to travel across the country to chase a dream of qualifying for the Olympic Trials, and this destitute of a women is here asking for help in more ways than one. The outlook I had on what I was there to do seemed to matter little to the struggle this women and her family would be experiencing. I decided to keep this thought as the weekend progressed... So, after a quick dinner, we headed to our hotel on the outskirts of Sacramento, checked in, and relaxed for the rest of the evening.

So, the next morning we went on a run and the theme of destitution arose once more. Kris and I ran along the American River Trail and ran by what is called "Tent City", due to the hundreds of homeless people living in tents along the river. One guy looked pretty cold and mentioned something about gloves. I didn't understand him, but Kris did, and decided to give him his favorite pair of gloves. That was an emotional detachment, that looked like it hurt. Well, the rest of the day was pretty mellow. We headed out to get bottles and drop them off, got our race numbers, had a nice lunch, picked up Solomon (another Dukes Track Club member and Kenyan) and went to dinner. Solomon and I went with my parents to Old Spaghetti Factory, and Kris went with his family somewhere else. After this, the real action starts...

Solomon and I got home and just relaxed and went to bed around 9:30. This is when Kris barges into the room with a panic stricken voice, stating that "We have a situation!". I thought that at this point, Maria was going into labor (his wife was due on the 12th of December and would most-likely be early), but Kris made it clear that there was a bat on the staircase. A freakin bat that wouldn't fly was laying on the staircase and Kris wanted to rehabilitate it back to health... I told him, "who cares, it's a freakin bat!". Solomon just laid there trying to sleep peacefully, and I knew this whole weekend was too good to be true with all the chaos going on in our room. Here's a little background history: Kris cannot relax before a big marathon! The past three marathon's I've been to with Kris have been an emotional roller-coster. The guy, simply can't chill out! It's the combination of tapering for a marathon, and Kris Houghton genetics. So why shouldn't he relax before CIM?!?! Well, he's frantically running around the room on his iphone trying to google: what to do if you find a bat, and I'm surprised it didn't tell him to pull his head out of his A$$ and leave the damn thing alone! They have rabies!!!! So, after an hour of running back and forth from the room to the staircase to his iphone, he finally made a bat bed, put the damn thing in it, and placed it in a cabinet in the hotel room until this bat lady showed up to take it to a conservation place or something... Just as long as everyone was in bed, and "trying" to rest for the morning ordeal, I would be a little more at ease.

Then, at around 2:50am Kris' phone rang, and Maria was on the other end explaining that her water broke and she'd be going into labor. Now, this was for real! Kris was able to get a flight out of Oakland at 7am and would be back in Albuquerque by 10am. He organized this in a matter of minutes, and told me sorry he wouldn't be able to race. He also told me to qualify for him, since he wouldn't even have the opportunity to... Those emotional words stayed in my heart as the morning went on.

Finally... it's 4:30am and my parents take Solomon and I to the host hotel so that we can get bused to the start. I get separated from Solomon and end up in the back of a random school bus sitting next to a nice girl who happens to work for Brooks and is attempting to qualify for the trials as well. The 45 minute bus ride goes by very quickly as we talk about running and Brooks as a company. Once we arrive at the start, the temperature seems colder and all the "elite" runners huddle in the Elite Tents. The thought of claustrophobia sets in, as a few dozen runners are packed into these tents. I leave immediately after I get my socks and shoes on for a short warm up. This lovely girl comes along, but I never see her after I sneak off into the brush to water the bushes from over hydration. I frantically get back to the tent and attempt to strip down so that I can get to the starting line. I notice how cold it is, and leave my gloves on, and I almost kept my watch on, but decided at the last minute that I would run back to my bag and ditch it. I'm thinking, I'm just going to race off of feeling and not worry about splits. So, with the luck of my entire 5th grade class and their signatures on my racing flats, I feel ready to go.

I am finally on the starting area and I still don't see Solomon or anyone else that I recognized. I thought there'd be a slew of guys that I knew, like: Paul Wellman, Nate Pennington, Mario Macias, Ryan Bak, Mario Mendoza... but I didn't see any of them at the start, only at the tent area. There was just too many people in this race, and I knew at that moment it was going to be a gagglefest of runners trying to hit the Olympic Trials Standard. A lot of dreams where going to get crushed, and a couple were going to come true. Well, the National anthem was sung and a quick count down was started right before the barrage of runners took to the streets! And the mayhem began!

In the first mile I could finally see everyone settle into a rhythm. There was two distinct packs forming and I was cruising behind the guys in the chase pack (2nd pack). The lead group of about 15 runners had Ryan Bak leading the group and Mario Macias in the mix of African runners. In this first mile with a slight downhill I decided to keep my composure and stick behind this chase pack of bobbling idiots. We come by the first mile and I hear an array of GPS/Watches clicking and beeping off all around me. One runner (who happens to be a Hansons runner) is directly to my left and is signaling to me as a police officer directing traffic, that he wants to move across my line of running to be next to his "teammate". He couldn't wait in this wonderfully long marathon race that he anxiously jumps across my path to get next to his teammate. I'm thinking that there's too much anxiety going on around these idiots and I have to get out of here. "5:14... perfect!" is called out by one runner. Another asks what pace they want to run, and a conversation of "Well, 5:18 pace, just what everyone here wants to run..." is going on right in front of me. Again, I can't stand this and immediately move to the right and leave the group of digglefucks, never to see a single one of these runners again until I finish. But, I didn't know that at the time...

I see the original leader Ryan Bak relinquish the lead and ease up behind the lead group. I figure I could catch him so that I wouldn't be alone, and neither would he. We could work together in-a-sense. So it takes me a little less than a mile and I run up beside him. At this point I feel like the old school marathoners from the 70's, especially since Ryan's wearing the nostalgic Oregon Track Club singlet, and I've got the Dukes Track Club singlet on, and we are about to have an unnecessary conversation.

He looks over with a questioning tone and says "Jesse?".

I acknowledge quickly with a "Hey Ryan.".

And now a quick question of, "What are you looking to run?" is asked.

And I reply, sounding like a tool, "Something FAST...!".

He nods his head, and I continue my with another quirky response of, "Lets do this!".

We are now stride for stride, watching the lead pack gain ground on us, over, and down, and up hills. With each mile marker being past, I can hear Ryan's Garmin beeping. I never bother to ask him what pace we are on, but it was a curious thought. At each designated elite aid station, we grab our bottles and take in the desired fuel. Miles start to come up quickly and the lead group is still putting ground on us, but only at the cost of a few African runners fading off for us to overcome. The crowds are cheering us on and the pace feels great. The lead pack is now shedding guys from their pace and the winner of this marathon is being determined right in front of us.

Ryan and I turn a bend and head up a slight hill that leads us to the half way spilt and a clock ticking away. I see 1:07:10 as we approach, and we ran pass the mat in 1:07:16. This meant nothing to me. I felt pretty good and under control at this point, and that split could have said anything. I guess at halfway, the time doesn't matter, and the effort is all that matters. It was a complete arbitrary number. I just knew I had to keep the same effort for the next half of the race. Well, after coming up on mile 14, I started to feel really good. The leaders where coming back to us, and I had these thoughts of grander... maybe I could pick all these guys off and win this thing... this performance could change my life! Well... I started pressing harder and harder at this point. A few Africans fell off and I started feeling better! Ryan must have kept his cool, because he was now a few meters behind me. I tried to keep pressing, then at around mile 18, I couldn't push the pace anymore. I was overcome by Ryan and couldn't respond to the continued pace I had started. I started to fade a little, but not much...

Mile 20 came up pretty quick after that mess, and I just kept cool and looked forward to my last aid station at mile 21.5. I may have been slowing down, but I had no idea by how much. Mile 21.5 came and I saw my bottle, but failed to grab it tight, so it slipped out of my hands. I could hear the aid station crew regurgitate what just happen by saying, "oh, he dropped his bottle.". Yes, I dropped a bottle of precious fuel, oh no, the world is going to end... not exactly! I just kept going, and kept my cool, grabbing whatever was offered at the water stations. Things would be fine. The next couple miles were painful as I hoped I didn't just screw up this race by sprinting my brains out from mile 14-17. Oh well, time would only tell.

By the time I got to mile 23, this buster comes up on me and tells me to come with him. I attempt to move my legs, but I can't match his stride for more than 400 meters. He takes off on me, and I think to myself that if this guy just flew by me, then the whole train of guys are coming soon! It turns out that he was on the relay team, but I didn't know that at the time. Now, some guy on the street is looking at his watch and tells us we still have a shot at qualifying for the trials. I am in denial at this point, there is no way we are going to hit a sub 2:19. I also think, I might run an okay PR. About two miles or so go by, and I start to hear more foot steps. I look at the street signs and still see 30 something street, as the finish is closer to 9th or 8th street, so this only means I am going to get passed by more guys. Well, once those footsteps come next to me, a familiar voice with a Kenyan accent tells me, "hello, lets go.".

It's Solomon! Now, I have to go with him. I can't let him down. I also think, I still have a shot at a PR. His momentum and stride is very smooth, so I muster myself together to stay with him. My muscles are pumping nothing but battery acid at this point, and are as heavy as bricks. But, I still must stay with Solomon. The finish line is near, as we pass the capitol building on out left and mile marker 26 appears! 400 meters is all that's left! Solomon's speed is increasing, and the steeple chaser in him is coming out. I try to go with him and think to myself that I have plenty of pain to push out of this body to finish as strong as I can. With about 100 meters to go, a clock is on the corner of the street with the lucky digits of 2:17:00 clicking away...! My heart and lungs suddenly open up and take in that emotional feeling that I've already accomplished everything I wanted. And with this flood of emotion overcoming inside of me, I start to sprint harder than I've every felt; maybe not faster than every, but gut wrenching and teeth grinning fast! I lose control of my senses and start fist pumping and screaming inside! Arms are waving and the last reaction I have is of victory as I am looking to the heavens and just thanking God from my heart with my hands held high!

One

Two

Three

Victory!

And it didn't stop there... I saw my parents, and my mom screaming her brains out with joy. My dad was practically speechless while a volunteer place a medal over me and I was trying to catch my breath. I could feel all the emotion pouring down on me that I couldn't even breathe. A slight bit of hyperventilating was occurring as I was so freakin excited. I also had a stupid grin on my face for hitting the time, but I didn't care. I went over to my mom to give her a hug as tears of joy were about to stream down my face. Needless to say, she was very happy, as well as my father. I was so glad they were there to share this with me. I love them with all my heart, and thank God I have such wonderful parents to support me throughout all those years of training and being there for me when it counted. They are my motivation, inspiration, and keep me determined to do the best I can! Like the rest of the Armijo's in my family, we always do things at the last minute and up against the clock, as this was literally the last chance to qualify for the trials!

To everyone else that has supported me through this crazy ordeal:

THANK YOU! I LOVE YOU ALL!

And baby Alma Rose Houghton was born on this same day during this race! Congratulations Kris and Maria!

Results:

http://www.flashresults.com/2012_Meets/CIM/searchind/Results.htm

End of the Line

Less than a week till marathon day in Sacramento, and what have I done? Well, considering last week was Thanksgiving week, meaning loads of turkey and stuffing being shoveled into my month at my own will, I haven't been doing much. Although, I did start my: taper, peaking, mileage decrease, laziness or whatever phase it's called when you gear down towards a marathon preparation. Also, in the spirit of Thanksgiving, and heading back to my parents house in Laguna Niguel, I decided to run my favorite Turkey Trot race in Dana Point. The 10k at the Dana Point Turkey Trot is always stacked with fast guys that can carry you to a sweet road PR, which is what I was intending 10 days out from my marathon. Instead of another marathon workout, I was going to get 10,000m worth of speed to get me ready for C.I.M..

Well, after a couple days of easy running, and a quick flight home, I would be ready to go on Thursday morning. It had rained the night before and was clearing up in the beach city of Dana Point. I decided not to wear a watch and just go with the flow. After getting out pretty comfortable, I stayed with the top pack until I got dropped at around 4 miles. I stayed in 4th relatively comfortable, but couldn't make up any ground on 3rd place. And to my amazement I came through the finish in 29:19 for 4th place! I usually get 5th at this race, and usually run in the 30:00's on this course, but things turned out pretty good on this day. I also credit the notation that this course was slightly different than the previous years, and could have been 100m short... Nevertheless, I am sure I would've still been well under 30 minutes on the roads.

The following days, I took easy since I was extremely sore, and finished up the week with my last "long run" of 15 miles back in Albuquerque. I don't really know how I'm suppose to feel at this point. I remember the last few marathons vaguely, and can't recall how this taper feels. I know my mileage is extremely low, and I feel pretty rested, but very eager to race the full 26.2 miles! It's only Monday, and I want the end of the week to come. And I know I have a lot of other things on my mind besides the marathon, which I hope is a good thing. Let's go down the list: I have a rigorous class presentation on Tuesday along with a few projects that I just completed before this blog posting, one last week of teaching my full assumption (which I can't believe is already over, since these kids were a blast!), and my late flight on Friday after a full day of teaching. I guess it isn't that bad, now that I have it written down...

Well, here's to a great marathon build up which all started in March when I was just coming back from an injury. I had planned to run the New York City Marathon, and changed my plans countless times which concluded in me to still run a marathon before the Trials. God only knows if this was a good choice. I feel that it is! Good luck to everyone else out there gearing up for a winter marathon!

Hypothermic Shock, And A Few Weeks To Go

Well, another week in the books, or actually my running journal... Yes, I actually have a hand written running journal that I've kept up to date since college. I actually have every workout I've done since my junior year of high school. I may have to document them onto this blog someday, but until then, you get to read my thoughts instead of quickly referencing them in my trusted running journal. Besides, my workouts and mileage was about half as much as I am doing now, and very unimpressive.

So, this week started off pretty well with some decent mileage and early morning runs. I was a bit sore and tired from last weeks Sunday long run workout, so I postponed any real workouts until Thursday, which turned out to be a bad decision. I was planning on hitting one more high mileage week, but towards the end of the week I brought it down a bit. There was a lot of other things going on this week such as: a field trip to the ballon museum, a Thanksgiving luncheon, and another field trip to Kris' job at the Court of Appeals, and I had to house sit up in the Foothills. So, I was mentally burned out in an attempt to not lose any kids on these field trips... And I am proud to say, I have not lost a student yet, and we've had a lot of field trips this year (4 total). So, back to running... Thursday's workout went fairly well. I did 4x2 mile tempo repeats on the river. When I woke up at 5:20am, I did my normal routine of checking the weather and saw that the thermometer read 26 degrees! I didn't take much note to it and layered up, NOT according to the weather, but to limited clothing so that I would not be weighed down. This would be a huge mistake. I got out the door at around 5:35am and headed to the river to start my repeats. It was cold, but nothing too bad as I jogged very easy. Once I started my first rep in the dark, I hit a comfortable time of 5:23 and 5:13.

I don't know if you've ever done workouts in this temperature, but when you start breathing in that cold of air, while running, it doesn't make for the most pleasant feeling in your chest. I kept debating if I should cut the workout short and do the rest later, but as an overbearing and self conscience runner, I decided to just finish it. The next two sets where hit in (5:21, 5:23) and (5:19, 5:15). At this point I lost all feeling in my hands and had only one more set to complete. The pain in my hands was unbearable, but the next set would put me 2 miles closer to my house, and only leave me with a 2 mile cool down. I ran an unimpressive (5:21, 5:23) and once I finished I thought I had frostbite in my hands. I ripped off my watch from my left wrist, which inevitably was cutting blood circulation to my left hand and tried to hold the watch as I hobbled home in pain. I was actually fearing for my hands not to be lost to any type of frostbite. I knew it couldn't have been that serious, but when you are in that situation, you only think of the worst. I managed to get to my front door and pounded for someone to let me in, as I could not grip the door handle to open it. Scotty was still home and saved my life! I rushed to the stove, and Scott turned on the kettle to boil water for tea, and I stood in front of the heat, hoping to gain some kind of sensation back in my hands. At this point, my stomach was lurching up towards my throat and I felt as if someone had just done a jump kick into my stomach! Well, to make a short story long, I stood there for about 15 minutes, got some tea and laid down crying like a little girl, not really, but I might as well have. I finally composed myself, took a hot shower and felt the cold burn in my hands as they attempted to get blood back into them, and got ready for my 5th graders and their last field trip of the week.

After that ordeal on Thursday, I took the next few days easy and got ready for Sunday's long run workout. The long run would be an out and back run of 10 miles easy, turn around and complete 2x2 miles at tempo pace, then whatever left over to finish up a total run of 20 miles. I ran from my house heading north with a nice tailwind. Once I turned around to start my workout, I had that lovely tailwind turn into a headwind. I hit those 2 mile repeats in (5:13, 5:13) 2 minutes rest, then (5:18, 5:19). It wasn't that bad, but I sure felt like I was working hard into that wind. I think it was only going about 6-10 mph, but I could sure feel it! So, all and all, another great week. I'm looking forward to my peaking phase and running a great time at CIM!

Mon - pm. 10 miles easy

Tue - am. 10 miles easy

Wed - am 10 miles easy / pm. 10 miles easy

Thur - am. 4x2 miles at tempo (5:23, 5:13), (5:21, 5:23), (5:19, 5:15), (5:21, 5:23) total:12.5 miles / pm. 6 miles easy

Fri - pm. 14 miles med/easy

Sat - am. 12 miles easy + 2x hill strides / pm. 8 miles med

Sun - am. 20 miles in 2:10:28 w/2x2 miles at tempo (5:13, 5:13), (5:18, 5:19)

Total: 112.5 miles

California International Marathon

The California International Marathon is coming quick, and I am still registered to race this 26.2 mile race. It was first started in 1983 as a marathon course for those looking to qualify for the USA Olympic Trials, hum... sounds a little familiar. Well, this is seriously the last chance to qualify, and I am sure a slew of guys and gals will be attempting to make their mark at this years event. The race is on December 4th, 2011 and as I sit here in my 5th grade classroom while my students work quietly, I am pondering how this race will transpire.

I have debated over and over again what the best method of approach would be to qualify and run a PR at CIM. At this point those lousy running formula calculators all give me a false sense of achievement. I know I can run a quick marathon time in the neighborhood of 2:17-2:19, based on my training and race performance at the half marathon. However, the full marathon is a completely different story than running a fast half and plugging that number into a calculator and BOOM a sweet time is not as easy as that. In order to achieve what I plan on doing, I could either attempt to run an even pace and hit the first half in around 69:20 and come back with about the same time to run a qualifier... Since I've been able to run a half all out in 65:26 by myself under this marathon training, running a smart half in the marathon at 69:20 could prove to be the best outcome. Although, every other time I've done this, it hasn't been good. I tend to fall apart and run about 3-5 minutes slower in the second half. So, that would be one way to race it and hope that I am much more stronger than I've been in the past.

Another approach that fits my personality better, would be to just GO FOR IT! I could go out with the leaders, or at around 67:30-68:30 pace for the first half and just hang on for dear life! I will be expecting the painful wall and lack of energy in my muscles, which is almost inevitable no matter what happens in the marathon, and just fight through it as I've been doing in all my training and racing! I've always looked at the marathon as a giant beast and I've failed at it because I've attempted to think about it too much and logically "pace" the race according to certain calculations that actually don't pertain to my abilities. This race is the last chance to make the trials for 2012 and I am not going to passively race it. I am going to do it. I'm going for it and if I fail, or even end up walking in the end, then so be it.

"Do or do not, there is no try."

-Yoda