The Eugene Diaries: Chapter 1
Finishing 2023 in a good place
“Do you think I’m making a mistake doing this plan?”
A friend of mine and I were discussing what I had on tap in training for the 2024 Eugene Marathon. After two cycles of the Pete Pfitzinger 18/701 plan and one more with the 12/702, I decided early on in 2023 that, in training for the 2024 Boston Marathon, I’d up my mileage and go with the Pfitz 18/85 plan. 18 weeks, peaking at 85 (or so) miles. 126 consecutive days of training with the marathon coming on day one 1273.
I built it into my Excel spreadsheet sometime last summer. I wanted to see how many weeks there’d be between the Des Moines Marathon and day one of training. The answer? Eight weeks.
Which turned into ten.
Perhaps you heard: I didn’t get into the 2024 Boston Marathon.
In the hours that followed the news, Riss and I made the decision to head to the west coast instead of the east coast. I’d be running the Eugene Marathon instead of the Boston Marathon. I quickly adjusted my spreadsheet; Moving everything down two weeks. Race day went from April 15th to April 28th. The start of training went from December 11th to December 25th. Otherwise, nothing else changed.
I’ll run more miles across more days than I ever had. I’ll train harder than I ever have before. Perhaps more importantly, I’ll rest harder than I ever have before.
Which is why I asked the question to my friend. Was this a mistake? Was I biting off more than I could chew. Over and over the last few months, I’d ask experienced runners — runners with 100+ mile weeks under their belts — if this was something I could do. Something I should do.
I’m not just upping mileage for shits and giggles. The desire I have to improve — the desire I have to find whatever my ceiling is; whatever my limits are — if often at the front of my mind.
Over and over, I find myself going down the rabbit hole of how to get better at running. The answer almost always comes back to two things:
Volume
Availability
The best way to get better at running is to run more. The best way to run more is to make sure you can actually run more. Can your body hold up?
There are many, many other things that help along the way: Strength training, diet, better sleep, cutting down (if not outright eliminating) alcohol, running slower, etc. In a way, you do all of those things to help out with your availablity, which then allows you to run more.
Thus, the decision to up the mileage was both an easy and difficult one.
Easy because I know it’ll help me improve. Difficult because I’m upping my peak weekly mileage by over 20%. Easy because I love the challenge of running more; I love chasing mileage. Difficult because there’s not a single rest day on tap until April 29th, the day after the Eugene Marathon.
This week in podcasting:
Had a lovely conversation for the final pod of 2023! Mindy Coolman joined me to discuss her running journey, including an incredible year with some memorable races. Her positivity was infectious and I really loved chatting with her.
I want to give a huge shoutout to those of you that supported the podcast in its first seven months of existence. I was recently asked if this was something I would continue doing as a hobby, whether or not sponsors supported it. My answer? Absolutely. I have had a chance to talk about running with so many people and so many different types of runners. OTQers or those that just missed out. Fellow BQers or those hoping to break five hours in the marathon. It’s been a blast and I can’t wait to keep it going in 2024 and beyond.
Speaking of podcasts, this summer I had a chance to welcome Cris Gutierrez onto the pod to talk about his running journey. He finished 2023 strong, running a 2:19 at CIM at the start of December! I joined him on his pod back in October and those episodes have now been released. Such a fun time capsule for yours truly, as we recorded this six days before I ran a 2:51 at the Des Moines Marathon. You can listen to our conversation here:
The log4:
December 25th: 5 miles
December 26th: 12.015 miles
December 27th: 10 miles
December 28th: 6 miles
December 29th: 9 miles with 4 at threshold pace
December 30th: 6 miles
December 31st: 17.01
Total: 65.02
Year to date: 2822.92
December 25th: I’ve come to really enjoy holiday runs. What I still haven’t come to enjoy are runs inside on the treadmill. Especially the first run of the training cycle! Given we woke up to a White Christmas and an icy trail, the decision was an easy one.
The only saving grace was it would be on the shorter side. Last week I wrote that I’ll be resting harder than ever before. Not only will that show itself when I’m not running, it will show itself when I am running. In particular, I’m going to keep my recovery runs as consistent as possible. The goal? ~9:00-per mile with my heart rate maxing out at 130 beats-per-minute. That said, I like it much lower, as I’ll aim for 122 on average with most of these runs, going lower when I’m inside on the treadmill.
That long preamble to say I had five miles at my recovery pace as training for the 2024 Eugene Marathon began! Averaged 9:14-per mile (I usually do any recovery treadmill at 6.5-mph and just go) with my HR at 117 on average. Pretty good start, especially considering there was quite a bit of food and drink enjoyed on Christmas Eve.
December 26th: Day two and we were already juggling runs. This was supposed to be a workout, but with the trail still wet and slick, I didn’t want to push the pace at all. Broke out the spikes and went out for 12 miles at my “easy6” pace. Honestly, I didn’t need them a whole lot, but it was nice to have peace of mind, especially when I crossed the various bridges on the West Papio Trail.
Much like Christmas Eve, many, many calories were taken in on Christmas Day (and night!), so I wasn’t sure exactly how my body would feel. Didn’t get out for the run until 11:00am, which I think was pretty clutch. Averaged 8:02-per mile and more importantly, the HR averaged 146.
December 27th: Went back and forth Wednesday morning on if I should get my workout in or juggle one more time and push it to Friday. I decided on the latter and I’m happy I did. Ten more miles and I played it safe by wearing the spikes again. Went 8:04-per mile with the HR averaging 145. Felt a little tougher than the day before, but I chalked that up to little snow and ice, thus the spikes running on continuous pavement for 80+ minutes.
December 28th: After an indoor recovery run on Monday, it was nice getting to do one outside on Thursday, and I couldn’t have been happier with how it went. Six miles, 9:04-per mile, with my HR averaging 123. When I think of runs I’d like to replicate throughout this cycle, this is one I’ll be thinking of. What I lose in true days off I’ll make up for in not putting too much on my body. A fun one!
December 29th: Friday’s was a bit tougher: Nine miles total with the middle miles at lactate threshold7 pace. Given it came the day after Friendsmas, my body was going to feel a bit sluggish. While I wouldn’t need my spikes, going up and down snowy/icy Pacific St. would add into the challenge of faster miles. As would a snowy/icy bridge about four miles away out, which meant I’d have to cross it a couple times in short succession.
In general, my LT pace is ~6:00-per mile. In practice on Friday, I went out thinking I’d be happy if I could run one of the four below that threshold.
I did it twice.
I was certainly working a lot harder than normal throughout the first three miles. I felt heavy. Tired. I wanted to get mad at the weather early in the week, knowing my diet on Thursday was more to blame for how I was feeling. And I still had my hard miles to go! As I finished the third mile and picked up the pace, I was hoping I would have what it took to run a sub-6:10 or so. I wasn’t going to be shooting for the stars. And yet… as I picked up the pace, I felt good! By the time I finished it in 5:58, I knew I could do it again, at least one more time.
The turnaround slowed me down a tick and I finished the second LT mile, and fifth overall, in 6:07. Not too bad, but not what I wanted, especially going into the toughest remaining mile. I’d finish the third LT mile/sixth overall with a large uphill, as I went east up Pacific. On top of that, the aforementioned snow and ice. By the time I got there, I was running on fumes. I averaged 6:10 or so throughout much but the increase in elevation, plus getting caught behind someone on the bridge, slowed me considerably. My watch beeped at me.
6:29.
“Oof,” I muttered, as I prepared for my final fast mile of the day. There was no way I could finish like this. I pushed and pushed, my average pace consistently showing a “5” instead of a “6” to start. I picked it up as much as I could the last quarter mile and was rewarded with that beep.
5:57.
Two more miles on the end and I was done. 7:04-per — LT miles averaging 6:07.8 — with an average HR of 156. I can’t imagine I have too many more parties in the cards between now and April 28th; certainly not one the day before a workout like this. I’m proud of how I responded to the adversity of this one.
December 30th: Six more recovery miles as Saturday morning finished up and after a sluggish8 start, I finished in a good space. 9:06-per with an average HR of 126.
December 31st: Finished off 2023 with the first Long Run of the Eugene Cycle: 17 miles. Got out Sunday morning around 8:30 and it was a bit chilly, but more importantly for me, a bit windy. It was coming out of the north, which was going to make the turnaround interesting. Went out a bit slower than I planned on finishing, trying to ease into the pace a bit, and finished the first mile at 8:02. By the time I hit the second mile in 7:49, I felt really good and it just carried me right on through. My HR never spiked, even with elevation change here and there, and outside of the last mile — when I finished in 7:16 — my HR only averaged 150+ on one mile.
Finished averaging 7:41-per mile with the HR at 145 on average. Incredible way to finish up week 1/18.
“Do you think I’m making a mistake doing this plan?” I don’t know what I would have done had I been told, “actually yeah, I do. This is too much.” I don’t think I am, but I trust the person I asked. He’s no slouch to running this type of mileage (and then some).
His concerns were less about volume and more about the Nebraska-of-it-all. We can’t control the weather here. “Personally I think the mileage increase is gonna do you a lot of good,” he told me.
I think he’s right.
And so, here we are. One week into another 18-week plan.
I don’t think I’ve ever felt more prepared.
18 weeks, peaking at 70 miles.
Six weeks shorter, still peaking at 70 miles.
Most will be 125 with race day on 126, but Boston is on a Monday, and I’d still do my usual Monday — Sunday training weeks.
I’m changing up the format a bit on the log. Rather than “day 1, day 2,” etc., I’m going with the actual date of the run. The Boston Diaries will return again — about a year from now, in fact — but this will make everything easier to keep track of.
A reminder: When I get my final mileage, I go off what shows up on my Strava afterwards. I usually wait a few extra seconds to stop the watch, hence the extra hundredth of a mile on some runs. You’ll occasionally see a “.99” too.
As I mentioned above, recovery is done around 9:00-per, aiming for a 122 average HR. I like to average 145-150 on my easy runs, which a lot of the time means I’m hanging out between 7:45-8:00-per mile. Here’s hoping that number drops a bit over the course of 2024!
LT pace is theoretically one I could hold for an hour.
For whatever reason, bagels before a run, even 2.5 hours earlier, have me feeling much fuller than I’d like. Didn’t have my usual start to the day — a banana — and kinda paid for it. Oh well.