Nothing defines the New York City Marathon course like its bridges. Come with us on a tour of four iconic spans from a runner鈥檚 point of view: Verrazzano,听Pulaski,听Queensboro, and听Willis Avenue.

Scott Fauble, 7th in the 2018 New York City Marathon, takes us inside the mind of a marathoner up and over the 59th Street Bridge from Queens to Manhattan.

-Ok, we鈥檙e, over half way, it鈥檚 getting tough now, find your rhythm, Scott.

We turn left and start climbing up the Queensboro Bridge. My legs have lost the pop that I鈥檇 felt earlier in the race. I look back and see only empty road. Our group of seven guys has dwindled down to three. It is just my teammate Scott Smith, Ryan Vail, and me left after coming through the half marathon mark in 1:06:06 and then making our way through Queens.

听-Shit, this is so steep. Keep your cadence up, stay on your toes, eyes up. Just tuck in behind these guys now.

I let Ryan take the lead of our group. He鈥檇 run New York before and I trust that he knows what he’s doing as we climb over the bridge. I definitely don’t trust myself to keep the pace honest. I鈥檇 had some tough miles after we鈥檇 left Brooklyn at 13 and can feel myself wanting to let the effort slip.

听-15 mile mark coming now. Get there feeling smooth, Scott. Lean into this hill, stay with Vail. You鈥檙e fine, weather this storm. 5:14. Ok, that鈥檚 fine. It was a tough mile. You鈥檒l get those seconds back.

The Queensboro bridge is covered, so you鈥檙e effectively running through a tunnel with the only light streaming in from the side. And, for the first time since we came off the first bridge of the course, there is no one on either side of the road. Nobody whatsoever. It is dead silent except for the sounds of our feet hitting the pavement and our breath. It is disorienting to go from the raucous, 14 mile party through Brooklyn and Queens to the almost apocalyptic silence and darkness of the bridge.

-Man, it鈥檚 so quiet. This is spooky. There鈥檚 no light in here. I feel really really alone right now. Take this chance to check in with your body now, Scott. What do you feel? Is anything wrong or can you snap out of this? Ok, nothing really feels bad. My breathing is fine, my legs are fine, just a rough patch. I can get through this.

This thing is getting really tough now. The bridge is steep and it feel like both Smith and Vail are pushing. I am at risk of getting gapped and we still have a long way to go. I’m feeling really lethargic, and we’ve lost sight of the group of other top Americans听up ahead. I’m really starting to struggle as I forced myself up the bridge.

-25K, go get your bottle. Get a drink, that will help. 1:18:40. Ok, I think that鈥檚 still 2:12 pace. You鈥檙e still having a good day. Have faith in yourself, don鈥檛 get caught up in this negative feeling.

We finally crest the incline; the light is streaming in from the side of the bridge, bright and warm. It hits us at an angle as we all grab our bottles and look down the road into Manhattan.

Up ahead is the next group on the road, they鈥檇 come back into view.

鈥淭hey鈥檙e definitely coming back now,鈥� Smith says. 鈥淲e鈥檙e gonna make up a lot of ground here,鈥� Vail adds. I remain silent, trying to focus on getting my body back into a positive space. Regaining visual contact with the guys ahead helped.

-Ok, got through that hill. I鈥檓 ok. My legs feel good again. Use this downhill to get your pace back鈥攍et those legs stretch out here, shake out your arms, stay relaxed, get your rhythm back. You鈥檙e in this thing.

We leave the elite fluids section at 25K and point ourselves down the hill, slowly drifting over to the left side of the road in order to run the . It is still eerily quiet but we know that the loudest part of the course is less than a half mile ahead. I can feel my morale, and the morale of the group, pick up as we lock our sights on Jared Ward and Chris Derrick, about 200 meters ahead.

-Don鈥檛 get too excited now, Scott. Stay in control. I know that you鈥檙e starting to feel it, but you still have 10 miles to go. Just let your legs go on this downhill, don鈥檛 force it. You鈥檙e having a great day, let it come to you.

Our pace quickens as we descend the second half of the bridge. We approach Manhattan with every step. There is a palpable energy between the three of us. We watch the group ahead navigate the left turn onto 1^st听Ave, and an enormous cheer erupts from the crowd, spurring us on even more.

-There鈥檚 the noise again, there are the crowds. Soak this in, Scott. This is super cool, you鈥檙e running the New York City Marathon. Enjoy it, use the energy, then get right back in your rhythm.

As we start to turn down the ramp that will lead us under the bridge and onto 1^st听Avenue I hear my friend’s voice seconds before it is swallowed up by the thousands of other voices who have come out to the 16-mile mark to cheer runners on.

鈥淟et鈥檚 go Faubs, Let鈥檚 go Scott, you guys are crushing!!鈥� Stephen barks at me from the right side of the road before he brings his camera back up to his face and starts snapping pictures. The road drops and coils around to the north. We exit the covered bridge and reenter the sunlight. It is almost overstimulating to go from this dark, quiet tunnel to the loudest corner on the course with the sun shining brightly in your face.

-Holy shit this is loud. Oh my god. This is crazy! Listen to this! Soak it in, but stay focused. Let鈥檚 do this, 10 miles to go, let鈥檚 crush this thing!

Scott Fauble is the co-author (with coach Ben Rosario) of , An All-Access Pass to a Top-10 Finish at NYC.

Next Up: The Willis Avenue Bridge

The post The Bridges of NYC: Queensboro, Mile 15 appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

The excerpt below from听Inside A Marathon听details Scott Fauble’s training from September 17 through 23, 2018. We had come off an easy week after the Great North Half Marathon (where Scott had finished fourth in 1:02:18) and were getting back into the swing of things before a big final push for home.

The first of two hard sessions this week did not go well, and you will read about how we each dealt with that fact below. Hopefully, you can gain some insight into how to shrug off a less-than-stellar day, as I have to say I think we did a pretty good job of that…at least this time. The weekend workout was much better and we were back on track with about one month of hard training to go.听鈥� Ben Rosario

Inside A Marathon: Boston Edition

Before we dig into the training, we’ve got big news: After the success of听Inside A Marathon, and after at the Boston Marathon in April, we decided to release a second edition of the book that includes a brand new chapter called BOSTON. The Boston chapter follows the same format as the rest of the book; I give my account of the race, followed by Scott giving his account.

We are both really proud of the 11 pages that re-live our experiences from that day and some of the major workouts that led up to it. We wanted to give readers a moment-by-moment look into the mind of a coach and an athlete during a race as special as that one turned out to be. You will hear and feel my disappointment when Scott falls off the pack at halfway and my elation when he goes back to the front. You will hear and feel Scott’s concern about a nagging hamstring injury that worried him 5k into the听race. And you will get an intimate view of exactly what he was thinking when he pushed the pace through the Newton Hills, whittling the lead pack from 18 down to eight.

You will also get a full-size color photo of Scott coming down the homestretch and pointing to the crowd as the clock hits 2:09 and the shot of him burying his face in his hands as he realizes exactly what he just accomplished. We cannot wait for readers to get a hold of this book. It’s everything we could have hoped for when we began this project back in the summer of 2018. You can order your copy听.

On to the training:

Got a Tattoo Today (September 17-23)

BEN

This was an in-between sort of week for us. We had the clear down week last week, but I didn鈥檛 want to just jump back in full throttle. We鈥檝e done that before, and it鈥檚 sort of negated the advantages the down week gives you. Instead of being refreshed, you just exhaust yourself. I wanted this week to serve as a bridge between last week, where we didn鈥檛 do much at all, and next week where we鈥檒l really be getting after it. So the plan was to run 109 miles with one mid-week marathon-pace workout that wasn鈥檛 terribly hard, and then a weekend long run that would involve a 54-minute fartlek to remind the body that we鈥檙e trying to prepare for major pace change in New York and very late into the race.

Unfortunately, we had a little hiccup on Wednesday. The session called for Scott to run 6 x 1.5 miles at 5:10 pace with a half-mile mile float recovery in 3:00 to 3:15. I like this workout, which I did a few times during my years on the Hansons team, because each repeat is short enough to really just work on mastering being as relaxed as possible at marathon effort. That way, when we run at that same pace with no recovery we can be controlled and efficient. Scott didn’t tell me, but he had been up during the night battling some nausea. Apparently he woke up, got some food down and felt better, and decided to give it a go. But after 7.5 miles, his stomach was not agreeing with him, and he had to call it. I was bummed but not too concerned. The workout, again, was meant to serve as a prerequisite for what鈥檚 to come, and I think he got enough in that we accomplished that.

He finally did vomit on Thursday, and that seemed to do the trick. After that we has fine. He had only missed the end of Wednesday鈥檚 workout and the afternoon run on Thursday. So all things considered鈥攏ot that bad. He was ready to go for Saturday鈥檚 long run which, though it wouldn鈥檛 have been the end of the world, I really didn鈥檛 want him to miss.

I picked Scott up at 6:30am on Saturday to go down to Sedona so he and Futsum could run on Road 525鈥攁 hilly gravel road at 4,000 feet where we can get after it a little bit more, pace-wise, than when we鈥檙e up in Flagstaff. The plan was to run 10 miles easy and then run fartlek style for the next 54 minutes, going 1-minute hard, 1-minute easy, 2-minutes hard, 1-minute easy, 3-minutes hard, 1-minute easy, 3-minutes hard, 1-minute easy, 2-minutes hard, 1-minute easy, 1-minute hard, 1-minute easy, on repeat. I wanted the 3-minute segments at marathon effort, the 2-minute segments at half marathon effort, and the 1-minute segments at 10k effort. With only one-minute jog recoveries in between everything, and on hilly terrain, I thought this would be a tough session. And then I wanted them to cool-down until we got to 22 on the day.

The only thing we screwed up is that there are a couple of forks in the road and we took the wrong one about six miles in, and then we took another wrong one during the fartlek. That second mistake was a bummer because it meant some of their fartlek was run on terrain that was too rocky and too drastically up and down if you wanted to really crush it. I turned them around and we got back on the right road, but I was fairly angry that I had screwed that up.

No matter, they did indeed get rolling toward the end of the fartlek. But we had one more blip. Faubs read the workout as 54 minutes of hard work, not 54 minutes total. Meaning he thought he still had a good 20-something minutes to go when I wanted him to stop. And I think he had really left something in the tank. You could see he was disappointed. I let him run all the way to 23 miles on the day. It was the first time this segment (and one of the only times ever) I can remember him expressing a little concern that we haven鈥檛 been pushing hard enough. He鈥檚 a guy that, probably since early 2016, I鈥檝e pushed as hard as anyone on the team so it鈥檚 a rare moment that he worries about not doing enough. If anything, he鈥檚 had to tell me a couple of times that a workout is too aggressive鈥攅ven for him.

I assured him that everything is designed so he鈥檒l be ready on the day and that the crazy hard sessions, which he thrives on, are coming. But I have to say that his concern did cause me to go home and really examine the schedule. My conclusion was mostly affirmation that we are absolutely going to be ready. But I do think what I have for next Sunday, and the following Wednesday, could and should be a touch harder. And I will most likely make them so. However, I would never want to give off the feeling that I鈥檓 not confident in the plan. So much of a coach/athlete relationship, at least the ones that have worked in my experience, relies on the coach鈥檚 100% belief in what he or she has written. So what I鈥檒l do instead is wait until after this coming Wednesday鈥檚 session and after it goes well, which I think it will, I will tell them that they looked awesome and that they鈥檙e ready to push the envelope even a little more than originally planned.

SCOTT

It was a strange week. On one hand, I experienced intermittent nausea that didn鈥檛 seem to be connected to any single event or cause听but forced me to drop out of a workout (I have a sneaking suspicion that the nausea was caused by the tattoo because it really hurt a lot and took almost two-and-a-half hours and I was super tense for the majority of that time. I think it鈥檚 very possible that my body was thrown off by that, but I am really hoping that鈥檚 not the case, because illness from a tattoo would be one of the most embarrassing reasons to skip a couple of runs).

On the other hand, I finished the week with a long run in Sedona where I was running 4:40 pace鈥攁nd feeling smooth doing it鈥攚ith two hours and over 18 miles on my legs. It鈥檚 strange to try to reconcile incongruent experiences like this, where one day it feels like you should maybe just sleep for the next 72 hours, and then a few days later you feel like you could take on the world.

I have plenty of experience with dropping out of workouts, which is not the best, because doing these workouts is how you get fit, and being fit and racing well is my job. The upside of having dropped out of a number of workouts, though, is that after you have to do it a few times, you kind of realize that no single workout really matters all that much. It鈥檚 all about consistency over an entire season and, even more than that, fitness is about consistency over a two-plus year period.

In fact, you could make the argument that dropping out of the occasional workout is actually a good thing.听If you and your coach are pushing the envelope in training, occasionally you are going to go over the line and push a little too far. Not being able to do the occasional workout just means that you are training really hard and overdid it.

Anecdotally, I have found that racing actually goes better when I have to drop out of the occasional session. I dropped out of one of my last workouts before I was fourth at the Olympic Trials in 2016. I dropped out of my last workout before making the World Championship Cross Country Team in 2017 and then also before I got 36th at those World Championships. I dropped out of one of my last workouts before I got second at the US 7-mile championships last year, and then had to stop a 14-mile steady-state before Frankfurt鈥攁t about the same point in that segment as where we are now. All of those races went better than the times when I didn鈥檛 have a workout that I pulled the plug on, like the 2017 Houston Half Marathon. Training for that race went pretty much perfectly鈥擨 was absolutely crushing workouts. But then in the race I was flat and tired and not very smooth and was finding it hard to mentally engage. I felt all the feelings that usually signal that it鈥檚 a good day to drop out of a workout, but that time it was race day.

I鈥檝e mentioned mindfulness a few times so far in this book, and I think it鈥檚 applicable to this chapter as well. Mindfulness is the practice of attending to, and experiencing, the present moment. After a little over a year of pretty steady and consistent mindfulness-based meditation, I have certainly gotten better at leaving the past in the past. At previous points in my career I might have come into Saturday either too conservatively, worried that I was about to dig myself a hole and make myself worse, or I would have approached Saturday鈥檚 workout feeling like I had something to prove. This week, though, I just let the workout come to me. I tried to find the right efforts and just focused on being smooth. I let it flow and it was a good day.

Excerpted and adapted from听听by Scott Fauble and Ben Rosario

The post 7 Weeks Out from New York City/ Scott Fauble’s Marathon Training appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

Scott Fauble, professional runner with the听听who placed seventh at Boston last April, is training for a goal half marathon in the fall. He was scheduled to run , on August 18, where he hoped to win鈥攂ut had to withdraw听right before departure. Here, Fauble and his coach, Ben Rosario, take us through the decision-making process of coach and athlete when pulling out of a race they wanted to run.听

BEN

Sometimes you have to make really tough decisions. We had to make one recently after Scott got the flu one week out from the Falmouth Road Race.

Let me backtrack for some context. Last year, Falmouth was Scott鈥檚 first race of the fall, a season that culminated with a seventh-place finish at the TCS New York City Marathon. He had a great day, finishing second in a sprint-to-the-finish with Ben Flanagan. He and Flanagan pulled away from a killer field that included four-time race winner Stephen Sambu, U.S. Olympian Leonard Korir, as well as Scott鈥檚 former teammate, Martin Hehir.

When we sat down after the Boston Marathon to plot out his fall racing schedule, it wasn鈥檛 even a question that Falmouth would be on there. He wanted to go back and get the win after being so close in 2018. In fact, Falmouth was the only race we picked that he had been to before. So, in a way, I think it was the one he鈥檚 been daydreaming about the most because he could really envision it.

Plus, the first race this season鈥斺�攇ave him a nice boost of both fitness and confidence. His first hard session after Beach to Beacon, 16 x 800 in 2:20 with one-minute rest at 6,500 feet elevation, was his toughest of the segment thus far, and he looked the best he鈥檚 looked since Boston in my opinion. If you would have asked me right then and there about Falmouth, I鈥檇 have said his chances to win were extremely good.

But things don鈥檛 always go as planned. Two days after that workout, Scott let me know he wasn鈥檛 feeling well鈥攁t all, and that he wasn鈥檛 going to be able to do Monday鈥檚 scheduled cutdown long run. He had the flu, or at the very least a flu-like virus. This was exactly one week from Falmouth. I wasn鈥檛 too terribly worried yet, but certainly concerned.

The next day, when I asked, Scott texted: 鈥淪till pretty bad. Couldn鈥檛 even consider running today.鈥�

That wasn鈥檛 good. Now I was worried we鈥檇 have to pull out of Falmouth.

That same day a press release came out previewing the race鈥檚 elite field and it highlighted Sambu and Korir and listed Scott as someone who, 鈥渟hould be in the hunt.鈥� Are you serious? Someone who should be in the hunt? How about he was second at this very race last year, and beat the exact two athletes that were listed as the favorites. And in between then and now he鈥檚 finished seventh at both the New York and Boston Marathons, becoming the 11^th-fastest American marathoner of all-time with his 2:09:09 performance at the latter. Geez. This was going to make it even harder to pull out.

But as coaches we have to take the emotion out of it when making training and racing decisions. Even though I knew Scott wanted to go to Falmouth and try to win it, and even though I wanted that for him, that could not be the deciding factor. Rather, we needed to take the context of the past week, and the rest of the season, into account. With all that in mind, you would think the decision would be fairly easy鈥攚e should pull out of Falmouth and get back to 100% health with the USATF 20k Championships less than three weeks away.

But Scott being Scott, he was determined to get rid of that darn flu and get back to training. He ran Tuesday and felt okay. Wednesday he ran eight miles in the morning and four more in the afternoon, plus some form drills and strides. We decided that we should operate under the assumption that he was going to race on Sunday. His flight was scheduled to leave the next morning at 10:30am from Flagstaff. We鈥檇 do a four-mile tempo beforehand and, assuming all was well, he鈥檇 be on a plane to Massachusetts.

We met on Lake Mary Road to warm up at 7:00am on Thursday in order to get the workout in before the flight. He had packed all of his luggage and the plan was to hit the workout, cool down, drive over to Ben and Steph Bruce鈥檚 house for a quick shower (they live close to the airport) and then take off. I did not want anything crazy, just enough to make sure he was ready to go. The instructions were for a four-mile tempo run where he鈥檇 start at 5:10 and work his way down to 5:00. He followed the plan almost to a T with splits of 5:10, 5:04, 5:02, 5:02.

Afterward, I asked the question I had to ask: 鈥淗ow鈥檇 ya feel.鈥�

Hands on his knees, he said, 鈥淚 felt flat.鈥�

I responded right away: 鈥淲e鈥檙e not going.鈥�

It almost surprised me as it came out of my mouth. I had really bought into the idea, as I鈥檇 asked him to, that he was going to be fine. But when I saw how he looked, and heard how he felt, after a workout that really shouldn鈥檛 have been that hard, the decision was obvious.

As I told him, I had no doubt he鈥檇 find a way to have a decent race鈥攂ut at what cost? He鈥檇 have to travel all that way, and back, which is tiring enough. Plus, he鈥檇 have to go completely to the well coming off a sickness and who knows how that was going to leave him feeling on the back end. With the New Haven 20k coming up so soon (15 days after Falmouth), it wasn鈥檛 the smart thing to do.

I could sense a little bit of relief on his part afterward. He knew it was the right call. His mood even seemed much improved when I saw him again later that morning at our strength and conditioning session鈥攖he same time the flight he was supposed to be on was making its way to the East Coast. And just like that it was on to the next challenge. On Labor Day morning, he鈥檒l try to win the USATF 20k Championships, which would be his first National title after a slew of close calls. On we go.

SCOTT

听I came off Beach to Beacon with a renewed sense of confidence. I鈥檇 just run 28:59, been the top American, and placed well at a prestigious race. And I鈥檇 done it, really without much specific work.

I turned my attention to Falmouth with really high expectations. It鈥檚 a course that suits me a little bit more, I had the benefit of Beach to Beacon in my legs, and would be able to add a few more really good workouts to the puzzle in the two weeks until Falmouth. Mostly, though, I had been second the year before and felt like I could do that again鈥攎aybe even a bit better.

My confidence only grew on the Friday, 9 days out, when I nailed a really tough workout. We did 16 X 800 in 2:20 and for the first time this season I got to the last 25% of the session and felt like I could wind it up and hammer the last few reps instead of just trying to get to the end. I was exhausted when I finished but I was also brimming with confidence鈥攖hat mental toughness and ability to look forward to the hardest part of a session that had helped me to my best performances was back.

Two days later, all that was gone.

On Sunday afternoon, 1 week from race day, I started to feel chilled and achy and lethargic. Although feeling tired and heavy and not wanting to get out of bed is a defining characteristic of my life (read: justification for being generally lazy for many hours of the day), this was different. I took a nap and woke up feeling worse. 鈥淚鈥檒l feel better tomorrow,鈥� I told myself, not really believing that I would ever feel normal again.

The next day I woke up to the wrath of 1000 demons. It felt like my joints had been filled with sand, my insides were simultaneously suffering from heat stroke and enduring an arctic storm, my appetite disappeared, and I knew that I was destined to spend the next 10鈥�16 hours in a semi-conscious state on my couch.

I nestled myself into the crevasses in the couch, pulled the hood on my sweatshirt up over my head, and purchased the director鈥檚 cut of The Townon Amazon Prime. At some point my girlfriend came home with a rainbow of hydration products and soups as if she was the patron saint of virus fighting. I began forcing down liquids between impromptu and unplanned naps while my girlfriend watched reality TV shows where the characters fight in different places; a boat, the south, Beverly Hills, etc.. The idea of running Falmouth quickly began to feel like a pipe dream as my pathetic body was sprawled out on the couch, motionless except for adjusting the blanket I was swaddled in to accommodate my rapidly changing body temperature.

When evening rolled around, I dug as deep as I鈥檝e ever dug in a race and pried myself off the couch. Ignoring every fiber in my being, I forced my heavy legs up the stairs. My brain urged me to lie back down as I passed my bed but I fought through my instincts and got myself into the shower. As the warm water hit my discombobulated body, I got nauseous for the first time. I started dry heaving in the shower and eventually threw-up some stomach acid. After vomiting, I started to feel better鈥攁lthough if I had gotten any worse I would have ceased to exist, so maybe I was just feeling good about making it through another few hours without having to go to the morgue. 听My appetite returned and I was able to consume some chicken noodle soup and a handful of Saltines.

I improved each of the next couple days, and started to feel like I would be able to race. I talked to Ben about it and we decided that we would wait until the very last minute to decide if I鈥檇 still be going to Falmouth. I鈥檇 already made up my mind though鈥擨 was going to race. On Thursday morning I was scheduled to fly out of Flagstaff at 10:30, so we met at 7 for a workout鈥攂asically to see if I was well enough to race, even though I鈥檇 already decided that I was ready to go.

We had a 4-mile tempo on the schedule. I set off down the road: 5:10 for the first mile and I felt like I was forcing it. The second mile started with a long downhill and I pressed down it and then relaxed up a hill that led to the two-mile mark: 5:04 and not feeling any better.

鈥淥k, my legs will come around now, just flow.鈥� I thought. They didn鈥檛. 5:02 for the next mile and I was feeling like I was really pressing. I tried to be really smooth over the final mile of the tempo, but I found the pace slipping and I was only able to close it out with a 5:02.

鈥淗ow鈥檇 you feel?鈥� Ben asked.

鈥淚 don鈥檛 know鈥�. flat鈥�. heavy I guess,鈥� I responded.

鈥淚 was really hoping to hear that you felt good. I think if you aren鈥檛 feeling good we shouldn鈥檛 race, what do you think about that.鈥�

鈥淚鈥檇 really like to race.鈥�

鈥淚 know you would, but I think you鈥檇 be able to go to a really deep dark place to get the job done and I think that would really put you in a hole.鈥�

鈥淥k, I trust you.鈥�

And that was that. We pulled the plug on Falmouth and then went for a cool down where we talked about Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee. I wasn鈥檛 pissed at Ben, I didn鈥檛 sulk, I didn鈥檛 protest anymore. I probably could have fought Ben and gotten him to let me go race, but I didn鈥檛. I don鈥檛 really see the point of fighting with someone who has A) the benefit of perspective and B) my best interest at heart.

A coach鈥檚 job isn鈥檛 to blow smoke up your ass, their job is to guide their athletes. And part of that is sometimes telling them things that they don鈥檛 want to hear like, 鈥淚 don鈥檛 think you should race this weekend.鈥� The athlete鈥檚 job is to buy in 100%鈥攖hat is almost always talked about in terms of training, but it applies to these decisions as well.

As much as I wanted to race, as deeply as I believed that I would be able to compete up front, at some point you have to let up on the reigns and let the coach be a coach. Ben made the call knowing I was going to be disappointed, that probably wasn鈥檛 easy for him. I appreciate that he respects me enough to believe that I can handle bad news, and in turn I have to respect his opinion鈥攏o matter how much I wanted to get on that plane to Boston.

The post When and Why to Pull out of a Race appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

Scott Fauble, professional runner with the 听who placed seventh at Boston last April, is training for a goal half marathon in the fall. He ran the in Cape Elizabeth, Maine, on August 3 as a tune-up race, early in the training cycle. Here, Fauble and his coach, Ben Rosario, take us through the training since Boston, how they fit a tune-up race into the training schedule, how Scott felt going into the race, and, mile-by-mile, how the race went.听

BEN

This past weekend was a bit unusual for us. Scott was racing the Beach to Beacon 10K in Maine, one of the country鈥檚 most prestigious road races. Scott鈥檚 run plenty of big races in his career, so that wasn鈥檛 the unusual part. What was out of the ordinary was that I think if we were both being honest we weren鈥檛 100% sure we were ready.

Scott ran the best marathon of his life鈥攖he best race of his life鈥攊n April at the Boston Marathon where he finished seventh place in 2:09:09. But as so many runners can relate to, sometimes our best performances are followed by a bit of a hangover. You come off of this huge high and it鈥檚 as if there鈥檚 nowhere to go but down, at least for a little while.

The good thing was we prepared for that. Scott went to Portland after the race to hang out with his girlfriend for a couple of months. He was able to relax and have some fun and try to enjoy the aftermath of his big run. And I think we got that part right. He needed that. So if we are talking about dealing with the emotional and physical toll a big marathon can take on you, we certainly addressed the former. Unfortunately, the latter was somewhat out of our control. A nagging hamstring issue didn’t allow us to put in the exact training we would have liked in July鈥攚e had to be more conservative than we鈥檇 been in the past. I believe this will pay off in the long run, but wasn鈥檛 exactly doing us many favors heading into Beach to Beacon.

Therein lies the point of this article, however. When you have a big race scheduled for the end of your season鈥攍ike Boston was for Scott last spring鈥攜ou have to plan and execute training and racing with that particular race in mind, always. This fall, for Scott, that big race happens to be a half marathon, but the same principle applies whatever your goal race. Any races you do in the build-up toward that big one can be fun, you can get nervous about them, you can try to set a personal best鈥攂ut they have to be run in the context of a larger puzzle. If we had pushed the envelope to get ready for Beach to Beacon we may have jeopardized the race that we鈥檝e circled as most important this fall.

In the above case, the risk was being injured. Early in Scott鈥檚 Boston segment, when he was completely healthy, we had to make sure we did not compromise any workouts we needed for the marathon in order to be slightly more prepared for the USATF Cross Country Championships or the Gasparilla Half Marathon. Then we had to make sure he recovered from those races so as not to put himself in a hole with the biggest and most important marathon specific workouts still to come.

Putting together training is a puzzle: We have to first figure out the pieces and then we have to put them together in the correct order. It is not an easy thing, but just remember to keep your eyes on the prize.

听SCOTT

This past weekend I ran the Beach to Beacon 10k in Cape Elizabeth, Maine. I was sixth place in 28:59, which is a fine performance鈥攂ut I鈥檒l tell you about later. Before we get to the race, I have to tell you about the lead up to it.

It鈥檚 been three and a half months since I ran 2:09:09 at the Boston Marathon. In that period, training has embodied mediocrity, for a lot of reasons. The biggest of which was a pesky hamstring injury that flared up about three weeks before Boston. We were able to get it under control in time for the race, but I definitely re-aggravated it during the marathon and, as it turns out, tendonitis doesn鈥檛 really just go away with time off. Tendons have to be loaded and worked and rehabilitated. And unless drinking Bloody Mary鈥檚 and eating burritos is a form of hamstring rehab, I was not rehabbing in the weeks after Boston.

We finally got the hamstring under control enough to start workouts at the very end of May鈥攂ut even then, things were moving really slowly. I鈥檇 spent my break in Portland, Oregon and by the time I got back to Flagstaff I had lost my altitude adaptations. For the first month back at 7,000 feet I was struggling to run marathon pace for even 2 minutes at a time.

In a 3-mile tempo as recently as the middle of June, I was only able to average 5:05s (for reference, in one of my last big workouts in Flagstaff before Boston, I averaged 4:59 pace for 12 miles in a 2 X 6 mile workout). They were ugly 5:05s at that. What I鈥檓 saying is, things were not clicking. It felt more like we were trudging through mud鈥攚orking really hard to see very minimal forward progress. It was the first time in the last three years that felt like that, and it was really frustrating.

All I wanted was to have a day where things clicked and I was able to surprise myself. I just wanted a day where I could come out of a workout and know that I was ready to crush this quickly-approaching race. That day never really came. I had a few sessions where it seemed like I was right on the cusp of that kind of day鈥攂ut it never quite happened.

The Buildup

My last few workouts before Beach To Beacon were:

July 17: 20 X 400m @ 70, 8 X 100m strides. Had to deal with a lot of wind on this one so the splits were all over the map. This is usually a gimme, and it was really hard this time. I really had to push to get even close to the splits.

July 20: 3-mile tempo @ 4:50 pace + 6 X 1 minute hills. This workout actually went really well. I averaged 4:48s and felt strong on the hills at the end.

July 25: 8 X 1K @ 3:02, 1 X 1500m FAST. Felt flat from the start. I hit the pace for the Ks but I had to take extra rest between intervals and I had to really push to hit it. I couldn鈥檛 rip the 1500 and only managed a 4:21鈥攂efore the session I thought I could get closer to 4:10.

July 28: 10 miles @ 5:10鈥�5:15, 8 X 30 seconds hard with 45 seconds rest. Only made it 8 miles because I was really struggling to run 5:15 (the slower end of marathon effort).

It was a stretch to hit where I really wanted to be, where I was really expecting to be excellent. But instead I was only mediocre. I was trying to force it and the fitness just wasn鈥檛 coming.

The Context

I tell this story for a few reasons. First of all because it鈥檚 the actual story that happened and I feel like telling the truth is cool. But I also mention all this because, while this time around might have been a little more exaggerated than other seasons, this is kind of how training goes when you鈥檙e getting ready for a race that isn鈥檛 going to be the main focal point of the season. We鈥檙e kind of in the place in the season where your legs don鈥檛 feel good and you have to start stacking workouts on each other in order to get ready for your big race down the road. The key races of the season are still later in the year. Which means that we kind of have to just train through these early season races.

This is particularly true when you鈥檙e preparing for a marathon. A marathon is so hard, and such a specific physical challenge, that you really have to train for the challenges of a marathon, which are so different than the challenges of a race like a 10k or even a half marathon. The full marathon is just a different beast and if you want to be ready for it, you can鈥檛 ever really take your focus away from it. That means that if you run other races in your build-up鈥攚hich I really think you should do because racing is really fun鈥攖hen you have to accept that you probably shouldn鈥檛 taper for them and you鈥檙e probably not going to do the ideal workouts to prep for them and your legs probably aren鈥檛 going to feel sharp and poppy like you may want them to.

In preparation for this race, for example, doing a pretty hard, pretty long marathon-pace workout wouldn鈥檛 be my first choice for a workout 6 days out from a race鈥攁nd not finishing it definitely wouldn鈥檛 be my preference. I would rather do something shorter and faster, something more similar to the challenges of the actual race. That being said, I know that this race isn鈥檛 what this season is about and if I am going to rip a half marathon later in the fall I just kind of have to accept that we can鈥檛 get super tuned-up and perfectly prepared for every race. You can鈥檛 be in perfect shape for every distance all year round鈥攖hat鈥檚 just the way it goes.

One way that I square the knowledge that my preparation hasn鈥檛 been perfect with the confidence that I will run well on race day is by thinking about the race as if it were a really hard workout. If Ben had scheduled a really hard tempo for six days after a long marathon-pace workout, I would believe that it was going to go well and that I would be ready for it.

Ready or Not

So with that mindset in tow we entered race week. I was nervous鈥攚ay more nervous than I usually am before a race. I was worried that my fitness, or more specifically my potential lack of fitness, would be exposed at this historic Beach to Beacon race. It鈥檚 a race that hosts genuine world beaters and often requires performances in the 27:40s or better to win. My 10k PR, which I ran on the track, is only 28:00. So while I was hopeful that I would be able to get into the lead pack and compete for the win, I was also nervous that I was going to get my doors blown off.

As expected, the field looked really solid. It was headlined by a number of very good Kenyan runners who had world-class credentials, along with a few very good Europeans and a solid American field. When I discussed the race with Ben we agreed that there was a chance that the leaders were just simply going to run faster than what I was ready to do, and in that case I was going to try to feel out the right pace and just race the other guys in that range.

The nervousness persisted through the week and all the way to the start line. As I stood there between a sub 8:00 steeple chaser and a few guys who had broken 61:00 in the half marathon, adrenaline surged through my body and my heart fluttered in my chest. After what felt like an eternity, the horn finally sounded and off we went.

After only about 600 meters鈥攚here it felt like we were pushing pretty hard鈥攇roups started to form. The front group had the two Kenyans, a very talented Belgian guy, and an Aussie. There was a British guy鈥擟allum Hawkins, 10^that last year鈥檚 London with a 2:08鈥攁 few second back of the leaders, and then a big group of Americans a few second back of Hawkins. I slotted into the second group as we started up the first incline to the mile mark.

The lead group passed the first mile mark in 4:20, and we came through 10 seconds back. I felt like we were pushing really hard. I was uncomfortable and wanted to ease off the pace, but knew that I had to stay with the group. That feeling of pressing really hard continued for the next two miles.

After we got through the 5K in about 14:30, we started down a big hill and I was able to regroup a little bit. Noah Droddy, a fellow American who I have raced a number of times and have become friends with, went to the front of our group and was doing almost all of the leading. The lead group had broken up and the top three were out of sight, but the Aussie who had gone out hard had fallen off and was about 30 seconds up the road. Hawkins was only about five or six seconds ahead.

Noah was driving our group hard and it felt like I was on the ropes. I had to really focus on staying with him and occasionally I would accidentally let a small gap open up. I kept telling myself, 鈥淛ust get to five miles. Your legs will be there鈥� and, 鈥淔uck this, I鈥檓 not getting dropped here.鈥�

When we got to five miles, I decided to try to make a move. There was a tiny gap opening up behind me and I wanted to attack while some of the other guys were on the back foot. Hawkins was still about four seconds ahead and I pressed up a little hill to try to get up to him. Noah and Andrew Bumbalough covered my acceleration.

I kept pressing as we went downhill鈥攚e weren鈥檛 closing the gap to Hawkins and we were running out of real estate. As we climbed one of the last little hills on the course I made another move. I knew the last 600 meters had two quick right hand turns, one really steep little pop-up hill, and a really narrow path before a downhill finish. I felt like it was going to be really difficult to pass once we made the first right hand turn, so I hammered up that last little hill and then into the first turn.

I knew I had a little gap on Bumbalough and Droddy and I turned all my attention onto holding that gap. My legs were burning as I made the final turn and climbed the short steep little incline. 鈥淜eep pressing, you can go deeper, go get Callum!鈥� I kept telling myself.

I was trying to sprint down the hill to the finish but Hawkins was moving really well and I wasn鈥檛 closing even a step on him. Finally I saw the finish line, 60 meters away. Just a few more seconds of agony and I was across it in sixth place in 28:59. Hawkins finished two seconds ahead of me and Bumbalough two seconds back.

I didn鈥檛 run quite as fast as I thought I might be able to, but it was a good first race of the season and a great step forward. We鈥檙e going for it again in two weeks at Falmouth.

—

Scott Fauble and Ben Rosario are the authors of , An All-Access Pass to a Top-10 Finish at NYC.

The post Inside a Tune-Up Race appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

This particular excerpt from Inside a Marathon is one that I definitely believe runners of all ages and abilities can relate to. First of all, the title of the chapter is, “Still a Little Blah.” And who can’t relate to that? It’s early in the segment. There are still 15 weeks to the race so it doesn’t seem close yet. It’s tough to have the adrenaline you’ll have later in the season. It’s also summer and it’s hot, which isn’t too fun either.

I just think Scott does a great job explaining how all fall marathoners feel at the end of July. From my end, as a coach, even though I can understand all of the above, you can tell I am feeling a little antsy as well, which I think is a common trait for coaches at this stage in a segment as well鈥攅ven though we try not to show it.

was a project that Scott Fauble and I began working on in the summer of 2018, with about 20 weeks to go before the TCS New York City Marathon. The vision for the book was that Scott and I would each write a recap of the week from our own point of view; good, bad or otherwise, and that we would not look at one another’s entries until after the race.

So at it’s simplest you could call it a detailed training log, but we both believe it reads a lot more like a journal. We share everything and hold nothing back. There are highs and lows, as in any training segment. There is a fair bit of humor (mostly from Scott). And there is one heck of a climax in the form of the race itself. Now that it’s all behind us, and we’ve produced the book that we wanted to, we’ve been blown away by the of the fans. People seem to have truly enjoyed it; serious runners and non-serious alike. That’s pretty darn cool because it shows that the story holds up.

鈥擝en Rosario

鈥淪till a little blah鈥� (July 23 鈥� July 29)

BEN

We鈥檙e starting to really get some nice training in now. My goal was for the workload to be so gradual that the fitness would sort of sneak up on us. And I think we鈥檙e getting there. This past week Scott had a three-mile tempo plus four 60-second hills on Wednesday, a little leg speed session (10 x 20 seconds fast, 1-minute easy) on Friday and a 22-mile long run Sunday morning where miles 14鈥�21 were fartlek style. That section was 1-minute hard, 1-minute easy, 2-minutes hard, 2-minutes easy, 3-minutes hard, 3-minutes easy. The idea being that we need to continue to work on pace change for New York City, and particularly pace change late into runs.

As far as how he looked, it was still a little blah. He told me he felt a little flat at the beginning of the tempo on Wednesday. I told him to let it flow and run somewhere between 4:50 and 5:00 pace. The very last thing I told Faubs before he started was that I had given those same instructions to Scott Smith last week and he had pushed a little too hard trying to be closer to 4:50. The result was a good workout, but not the effort we were really looking for.

For Faubs, I wanted the pace to come to him, not for him to force it himself. I think he took that to heart as his splits ended up being 5:00/4:56/4:54. When we got over to the hill he still looked a bit flat to me on the first two repeats. He finally snapped out of it and committed to a faster pace on the last two. I liked that. It was a conscious decision to stop worrying about how he was feeling and just go. And, funny that this is how it works, he actually looked a lot smoother when he let it rip a bit.

We had a brief conversation after the session, but my big thing was that he just needed to get used to feeling sort of semi-tired all the time again. In other words, he needed to embrace marathon training like he did last fall. This spring we did less mileage and a lot of speedier workouts, so he was used to having some pop in his legs at the start of a workout. It鈥檚 not going to be like that during marathon training. In fact, he may often feel better toward the end of a workout then at the beginning. And that鈥檚 what we want!

We moved training around a bit on the weekend so Faubs and Brauny could run with the GMO Athletes that are in town from Japan. They really wanted to run A1 with us. So that鈥檚 where Faubs ran his 22-miler with the fartlek. He let the group go a bit around 13 miles up a big hill so he could gather himself for his fartlek. I suppose I would have rather seen him get a little competitive up that hill and sort of take on that, 鈥淣ot only am I going to hammer this hill with these guys but then I鈥檓 going to run my fartlek afterward,鈥� mindset. But, at the same time, he was probably smart to back off just a bit.

And therein lies the challenge (one of them, anyway) for a coach. We want the athlete to be smart, but we also occasionally want to see them take chances. After all, that鈥檚 what we want in a race. The challenge is, when do we want them to take those chances and how much do we want to influence that risk-taking. I think there鈥檚 something to be said for letting the athlete take those risks themselves. After all, on race day we can鈥檛 do it for them. The result for the day was a good one though鈥�22 miles in 2:23:16 (6:30 per mile average) on a very challenging course at 7,000 feet.

SCOTT

For the last few years, all of my seasons have kind of started the same way. They鈥檝e gone:

1) Scott is getting back into it, workouts aren鈥檛 going that great.

2) Scott is back into training, workouts still aren鈥檛 going that great.

3) Scott rips two or three workouts, Scott is in shape.

4) Scott goes to a race, it goes well.

As it stands now, I am somewhere in between step two and step three. Which is to say that it certainly seems like I should be in good shape, or at least flirting with good shape. The mileage has been good, and I鈥檝e had some solid workouts in the last few weeks. They鈥檝e even been the type of workouts that usually lead to the transition from step two to step three. But, it seems like there鈥檚 a disconnect between what is and what should be. I should have had a couple of days by now, or even just one day, where everything clicks and I can shift into a big gear and really do something impressive, but that hasn鈥檛 happened. I was hoping that Wednesday would be that day. It was a workout that generally comes pretty easily to me. When I got out on Lake Mary Road, however, I felt like I was forcing it. I was tense and I really had to fight to try to hit the pace.

This predicament isn鈥檛 really something I鈥檝e experienced in previous seasons, because generally I鈥檓 pretty good at being patient and letting the fitness come organically, and also because I haven鈥檛 cut it this close before. I鈥檝e always had at least one day that confirms that I鈥檓 ready to rip by the time we get this close to a race. Falmouth is coming up fast, it鈥檚 less than three weeks away, and I鈥檓 being completely serious when I say that I have no idea how I am going to be able to string seven sub 4:40 miles together given my current fitness.

All I鈥檝e experienced this summer are the corollaries of being in really good shape. I鈥檝e got the heavy legs and low energy and nights where I fall asleep on the couch at 8:15. All of which are tolerable and easy to justify to yourself when you know that you are going to do some really cool shit on race day.

Excerpted and adapted from 听by Scott Fauble and Ben Rosario

The post 15 Weeks Out From New York City/ Scott Fauble鈥檚 Marathon Training appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.