How to Not Run a 10K on Three Hours of Sleep:


A few days before this race I settled on a "goal" of sub-54 minutes. Loose plan was to run the first ~4 miles at a nice "easy" (for me) ~9:15/mile pace, and then with the remaining energy I'd try to complete the rest of the race at a faster pace, say at 8:00-8:30/mile. I've managed to successfully run most of my post-age-30 races at a negative split, so ex-ante this was a reasonable plan. 48 hours before the race I did a 5 mile run where my first 3 miles were a ~9:30 pace, mile 4 was 8:00, and mile 5 was 7:40.


The race was on a Sunday. During the preceding Friday I got really hammered and only managed some awful restless sleep from 4AM-10AM. Took a short nap in the late afternoon, and Sat night I couldn't fall asleep until 3AM-ish. Race was at 730AM, so I only slept for about 3 hours Sat night.


Gun goes off and my times for the first 3 miles are 9:22, 9:07, and 9:15. Basically on track so far, and I'm feeling good at the halfway point. After mile 4 (9:02 pace) I decide to kick it up a notch. I pass a few hotties during mile 5, and combining that with the endorphins makes me crazy horny.


I'm starting to feel a bit of a wall as I'm running. I'm not quite sure how to describe this. I'm managing a faster pace (8:30 for mile 5), but I'm feeling more resistance as I'm moving. I've felt this previously, and it's happened when I'm fatigued and/or not well rested. All of these thoughts aren't great for the mental game and mental gymnastics that you have to do during the end of a race.


Mile 6 (and the final 0.2 mile) are a straightaway, and during that final push I start to also feel a rumble in my tummy. I do the first half of mile 6 at an 8:30 pace, and my mental math says that it's going to be very close if I want a sub-54 finish. I pick up the pace a slight tick, and this results in the tummy rumblings getting a bit more intense. Uh oh.


Right before the sign indicating the completion of mile 6, I know I need to ralph. I pull over to the side, hunch down and dry heave. Terrible feeling. After the dry heave I'm feeling woozy, yet in a nice calmness as a result of no longer feeling the stomach rumble. After about 10-15 seconds of this calmness, I involuntarily dry heave again. I manage to stand up straight, put my hands on my hips, and take a few deep breaths.


I walk for a bit, which feels a bit surreal since the finish line is only 0.2 miles in front of me. Manage to jog my way across the finish (final time was 56:12). Got nice and hydrated without any issues. Scarf down a banana and some fig bar thing. Found one of my running buddies and tell him what happened and we have a few laughs. Came home and fell asleep pretty quickly.


I didn't run as many miles as I would have liked during September (~70 miles), but now that the distractions of summer are over I can put more focus on fitness. Still shooting for a late-November half marathon. I'll likely post an updated graph and stats sometime soon when I get a few minutes to compile it all.


Weight is still 177-178 lbs. I want to lose 5 lbs this month. My OP said that I intended to get my weight down to 170 lbs, and I've plateau-ed at 178-ish lbs for what seems like a while. With some discipline, a 5 lb cut is very doable (but I don't expect it to be easy) - I can definitely do this.

One of my recent weaknesses has been candy. Fruity stuff, chocolate stuff, starburst, Reese's: I love it all. I've been counting calories since Oct 2, and here's how much in candy I've consumed:

Mon: 240 kcals
Tues: 0
Wed: 0
Thurs: 450
Fri: 450
Sat: 540
Sun: 450

For the previous week (Monday Oct 2 - Sunday Oct 8), I consumed 12,700 kcals for an average of 1814.2 kcals/day. Ran 21.5 miles during that same period.

So, as far as wanting to make October a "cut month", the first week was a terrific start, despite all of the candy (yay protein+fats for pretty much every other calorie source).

Monday Oct 9 - Sunday Oct 15:

Consumed 15,265 kcals for an average of 2180.7 kcals/day. Not a great follow-up to the success of the previous week. (And not off to a great start for this week either). Still have 1/2 of the month remaining, so there's ample time to make this a successful "cut month". Really just need to be disciplined, it's as simple as that.

Ran 22.0 miles during that week. Going to do a long run (10-11 miles) soon.

It's possible I'm over-estimating my calories consumed (which, in the context of trying to lose weight, isn't such a bad mistake, of course). The bathroom scale says I'm losing a few lbs (lots of water weight obv), and I feel I can more easily run faster for extended periods (could be the weather is better than August-September). I'll wait until the end of the month for a more "official" weigh-in just in case I'm committing any measurement errors.

That said, here are stats from Monday Oct 16 - Sunday Oct 22:
Calories consumed: 17,245 (average: 2489.2/day)
Ran 30.6 miles

Nice progress...did you decide which race you're gonna try and do?

Thanks! I'm on board for the Philly half on Saturday November 18.

The weather could be a total crap-shoot. Last year that race was during an awesome 60-degree day, but the following morning was 35 degrees with freezing rain and 30+ mph winds. I don't have any expectations to run a PR or anything - just gonna enjoy myself (and probably consume 5000-6000 calories afterwards, haha).

October was a pretty good month for me for running and weight loss - here's an up-to-date graph:



Blue line = weight in lbs [left axis]
Red line = miles ran during previous 7 days [right axis]
Green line = 0.5*(miles ran during previous 14 days) [right axis]

----
total October miles: 89.8 (N=18)
----

Final weigh-in (as of this morning) was 174.2 lbs. So, while I didn't lose the full 5 lbs that I wanted to this month, I'd still call this past month's "cut" a success. I'm going to keep counting calories through race-day. I like the mental focus that doing so has given me. Perhaps I can lose another ~2 lbs before the race.

Nov 2017 miles: 83.1 (N=16)
Dec 2017 miles: 84.9 (N=20)

Total 2016 miles: 737.5 (N=124)
Total 2017 miles: 793.6 (N=169)

Age (today): ~31.8

So I ran roughly the same number of miles in 2016 and 2017. But I had many more workouts in 2017 (and more "long runs" in 2016). I see this as a good evolution. I'd still like to conquer 26.2 miles sometime soon (probably fall 2018).

One explanation for the numerous long-runs in 2016 was that it was easier being a few pounds lighter that year than in 2017. I'm at ~175 lbs right now, which I feel good about, but when I start doing more "long runs" in 2018, I'd like to be closer to 170.

Weight from 2015-2017:



Finally it should warm up to about 35 degrees tomorrow. It's been too cold these past few weeks. Can't wait to run outside again!

Jan 2018 miles: 55.7 (N=13)
Feb 2018 miles so far: 71.0 (N=14)

Weight: 176.0 lbs

I'm on pace for a 100-mile month and feel pretty good about it. That might seem like a dangerous increase relative to January's miles, but in January I did a lot of swimming when it was too cold to run outside (I refuse to use a treadmill). 100 miles isn't a huge increase considering that November and December were both ~80-90 mile months for me.

All runs this month have been between 4-6 miles. Gonna resume longer runs in March (probably every 3 weeks).

My appetite has been out of control recently. I easily slammed ~4100 calories today. Previous two weeks I've averaged ~2300 kcals/day. Lots of unnecessary carbs. Gotta get that sh*t under control.

For the previous two weeks: not only has my appetite been out of control, but also the libido is way down, and my sleep schedule has been f*cked (why am I posting here at 4am...).

But yay I haven't injured myself exercising.

Once I fix the sleep schedule, I imagine both the diet and libido should get back to a better equilibrium. Might start tracking carbs again (instead of just kcals), as that has usually worked for me previously.

Did 8.5 miles today (10:07 pace). Easy pace for me, pretty happy with that. I felt like I had enough energy left in the tank to pound out an additional fast-ish 8:00-8:30 mile but obviously I restrained myself. I haven't done anything longer than 8 miles since January.

Final total for February was 101.5 miles. Diet and sleep schedule BS from my previous post seems to be under control now. Signed up for a 5 mile race on March 24 (hoping to do 8:00 miles for that race, we'll see), and I'm on for the Broad Street Run (10 mile race) in May. Probably going to do another half marathon in June - which particular race will be a game time decision depending on the weather (if it's hotter than 75 degrees at 7am I'm not going to run 13 miles as it'll be 90 by the time I finish) - not to worry, once May comes around there's a different half marathon practically every weekend from which to choose.

5-mile race was pretty cold (33 degrees) to start, but warmed up to 50-ish by the time I finished. Didn't make my goal of breaking an 8:00/mile pace, but I beat my time from when I ran the race in 2016 (41:40 vs 42:15), so I was happy about that.

On Sunday I ran 9.5 miles at a 10:15 (easy) pace.

So, for the upcoming Broad Street Run (10 mile race) in 3 weeks, while I'd like to be able to beat my time from 2016 (1hr28min), I simply don't see it in the cards for me this year. That's fine. 1hr35min (9:30/mile) is probably more realistic as a "race time" as of right now. I've put in more/better training in 2018 (~22 miles/week) than I did in 2016, but, as I've said previously, I'm a few pounds heavier (~175 in 2018 vs ~165 in 2016) and I think that's a significant difference. Or maybe I'll surprise myself come race day and be a speedster. We'll see. In any event, it'll be a fun race whatever happens.

Did another "easy" 8.5 miles yesterday, and, again, felt like I had enough energy to do a faster mile at the end. Was still antsy after post-run shower. Might simply be that the weather's a lot nicer these days and it's easier to be in a good mood while exercising outside for 70+ minutes. Now it's time to "taper down" and not do any more "long" runs before the 10 mile race in 8 days. Just a few more ~4-5 mile workouts at an easy pace, and maybe one session of hills on, say, Tuesday or Wednesday.

Been doing a lot more pull-ups and bodyweight exercises recently, and my diet has been a lot better. After next week's race I'm hoping to get back to gradually increasing the length of my long runs, say by 1 additional mile every 2-3 weeks. I don't have a specific half-marathon or other race planned, so I'm going to do so mostly by feel+experience (rather than following a specific training plan.) In doing so, I'm expecting that my weekly mileage will rise to about ~25 miles/week by June (been holding steady at ~22-23 MPW since Feb). As the weather gets more humid we'll see if my motivation can avoid getting sapped.

Race report from Sunday (May 6)

Friday (May 4) - did an easy 4 miles without incident. From 530pm-150am I had one of those "happy hours that becomes an all-nighter". Probably had ~1200 calories of beers, though I made sure to drink a glass of water with every drink starting at approximately beer #3. One of my bros also has a bib for the race but mentions he's considering being a pussy and only running the first 5 miles. Ended the night at Sugarhouse, drunkenly hit-and-run the craps table AND stupid 1-2 NL for about $200.

Saturday (May 5) - No hangover (stay hydrated!), knew ahead of time that I was going to spend the day chillin', reading, watching TV, and maybe catching a nap. I did all of those, and it was great. Most important goal of the day was to stay hydrated (96 oz) and get to bed at a reasonable hour, and I did so.

Sunday (May 6) - woke up naturally (without alarm) at 615am, ate a banana and a tuna sandwich (330 kcals), drank 16 oz of zero calorie powerade. Took a 30 minute subway ride to the starting line. Note for next year: given the size of the crowds (40k+, something like the 6th largest race in USA#1), get there a lot earlier if you don't want to start in a slower corral.

Miles 1-2: did both miles at a 9:15 pace, which was a bit faster than I intended (9:30/mile was my target), so decided to deliberately reign it in a bit for the next few miles.

Miles 3-4: ~9:40 pace, so far so good. The weather is great for running (62 degrees, ~8mph wind, no rain), but I'm sweating more than I'm used to at this pace, and it occurs to me I'm not as hydrated as I'd like to be. I probably should have drank another ~16 oz water on the subway.

Mile 5: I pound two ~6 oz cups of gatorade, felt good.

Mile 6: still keeping a good ~9:30 pace. At the next aid station there's a dude hading out handfuls of Swedish fish, and I think "eh, why not" - the sugar puts a nice pep in my step.

Mile 7: I notice that my running apps (Strava, MapMyRun, Runtastic) have all crapped out. This usually happens when I run near City Hall and other tall buildings, though usually such "crapping out" amounts to the apps telling me I'm running a 3:30 mile or something ridiculous. I guess with so many people's phones pinging the same signals with the same apps, no surprise that the tech can't handle all that.

Mile 8 - well if I'm going to make this a "race", I should pick up the pace a bit. No apps to help me, so this is going to be all by "feel". By this point (1) the street is more narrow than the start, and (2) I'm passing more people than are passing me, so it's not the easiest conditions for accelerating. I notice a short blond girl is doing some weaving at a nice pace, so I follow her for a bit.

Mile 9 - oooof, I'm thinking that I probably accelerated a bit too much during the previous mile, and the extra water I've consumed is making me feel heavy. But f*ck that negative thinking, gotta power though.

Final mile - street is even more narrow; yea next year I'm definitely going to try to get there earlier and start with the 1:25-1:30 pacers. Music playlist is (by design) blasting some high-BPM tracks that are really hitting the spot. A few yards ahead of me I see someone in a derpy Eli Manning jersey, so of course I have to pass him. After that, I see someone wearing the shirt of a competitor of a firm where I used to work, so obviously I have to pass him too. It's way too crowded for me to sprint the final ~200m, but I still finish at a satisfyingly fast pace.

Chip time: 1hr:31min:08s - definitely exceeded my expectations (thought I'd get between 1:33-1:35), which feels great. (Average pace: 9:07). Of course I can't help but think I could easily trim ~5 minutes from this time next year if I'm ~10 lbs lighter, and possibly another ~2 minutes if I'm at ~30 MPW. Hamstrings are still sore today, and I'm probably going to swim tomorrow instead of resuming any running just yet. Likely will try an "easy" paced 4 miles on Wednesday.

Did 12.0 miles Tuesday in the rain, it was great.

I've never done this previously (nor I have thought I ever needed/required gels for my mileage), but, given the success of the sugar rush from the race, for this 12-miler I brought along 200 calories of Sour Patch Kids. Told myself ahead of time that I wasn't going to pop any until I was at least 6 miles in.

Holy sh*t, once I popped that candy, I felt like a Vicodin addict who just discovered Demerol. I'm definitely going to do this again for my next long run. That soury sugar was a f*cking rush of energy.

Looked back at my Strava/MapMyRun/Runtastic splits, and, as planned, I averaged my nice "easy" pace of 10:05-10:10 for the first 6 miles. I thought I was doing a nice easy pace for the return trip, but somehow I averaged ~9:15 for miles 7-12. Possibly an error on the apps, but that's why I run three of them simultaneously, sometimes one of them just craps out, but all 3 here gave similar readings. Didn't feel unusually sore or anything today. Other than the fact that I'm having trouble sleeping & posting this at 140AM, things are going well.

I'm going to try to post more often ITT. Maybe not daily, but at least often enough that it's actually a log again. Here's everything I ran since my previous 12-miler post.

5/22/2018 12.00 miles
5/23/2018 (rest)
5/24/2018 5.00
5/25/2018 4.30
5/26/2018 (rest)
5/27/2018 (sick, respiratory issues)
5/28/2018 (blah)
5/29/2018 6.00
5/30/2018 5.00
5/31/2018 5.00
6/1/2018 (rest)
6/2/2018 5.60

I did 100.3 miles for May, so I'm averaging ~25 MPW, even with that recent 3-day period where I did jack sh*t. That's good; I wrote that I wanted to get to 25 MPW after the 10 mile race (up from ~22 MPW for April). I'll probably throw together another graph at the end of this month because graphs look nice.

6/3/2018 - 8.4 miles (9:50 pace)

What's the mileage goal for this month? Are you following a program?

How important do you think the kind of stride length, stride number, HRV, and other (to me) seemingly random information* is that loco seems to be tracking?

*There's no guarantee I remembered any of that **** correct, but hopefully you get my point

Tentatively shooting for ~105 miles during June.

I previously got reasonably far into following this plan, but I got burned out, though I find that the basic structure of the plan still suits me well (at least moreso than a bunch of other online charts), so I'm loosely following that structure week to week.

The TLDR is that every 7 day cycle is {3 days running, rest day, 2 days running, rest day}. Almost all runs are done at an easy pace, with a "long run" every 2 weeks, and the start of every week features speed work (either intervals or a deliberate "do this at your 5K/10K pace").

Per that schedule, my next "long run" should be 15 miles, but I think that's a bit too aggressive for me right now (though I could probably pull it off given optimal weather conditions and optimal sleep). So I'll probably make my next long run closer to 13 miles.

Haven't done much examining of heart rate or anything else, though I did follow loco's thread closely when he was providing more frequent updates. Right now I'm content to simply put in the miles and let any progress develop naturally from that.

June 5 - 5.5 miles
June 6 - 4.5 miles

June 7 - 4.3 miles

June 9 - 5.0 miles
June 10 - 8.1 miles (9:30 pace for miles 1-2, 8:42 pace for miles 3-8)
June 11 - swam 750 yards (super slow)

F*ck this heat...

6/12/2018 7.40 miles
6/13/2018 3.90

6/15/2018 5.00
6/16/2018 4.90

6/19/2018 4.70

June 21 - 4.0 miles
June 22 - 14.0 miles, f*ck yea

Pretty consistent ~9:45 pace during the 14-miler. I’m satisfied. Got lucky that the temperature dropped to 71 degrees today; it could be months before it’s this cool outside again.

Good work on the 14 miler bro. That's a no joke distance.

Thanks man. Yesterday was a solid recovery day; didn't feel unusually sore or tired. Feels like I've been in a great groove/rhythm recently.

June 24 - 3.9 miles