Lessons from my race results

To run faster you'd have to train faster but cautiously so you don't get injured. I started getting faster in the summer of 2003 when I stopped doing long runs. There is nothing wrong with long runs as long as half of the runs simulate a real race with gel early on, with very short stops for water and running at race pace or faster. I haven't found a group that does it that. Susan's Runner's World schedule has marathon pace runs going up to 18 miles.

If you get too many long slow runs in and relatively few miles at tempo or 5k pace, your mind will think running at marathon pace is uncomfortable and you will slow down.

You could say my marathons are my long runs. In 2001, I ran 16 marathons and these long runs did not help with speed. I remembered being more tired from running 5 hours than running a marathon in under 4 hours. Susan will tell you that my legs are less beat up post-marathon now that they were back in 2001.

There is usually a 4 month gap between my last spring marathon and the next fall marathon. I run the fall marathon much faster than the spring one even though my last "long run" was 4 months previous. The speed/endurance came from a lot of fast short runs.

In the 2005 summer session I focused for hard 2 mile runs.
In 2006, I added 4 mile runs.
This year, I hope to train up to 6 to 10 miles by meeting up with a faster group after warming up with a slower group. My last 2 miles of a run are always the fastest. The mind will remember to tell your legs to run at that speed.

This is why when you are tapering you should focus on running at or faster marathon pace for a shorter duration with plenty of recovery. If you run at an easy pace during a taper, it will be much harder for your mind to tell you legs to go faster.

I struggled this spring to get my speed back because my mind got used to running 12 minute miles in 365 miles of ultra running. It's coming back but I am still slower than last fall.

After age 40, you'd have to think about cutting back on mileage, the number of intervals, longer recoveries and taking more days off to cross-train. The 5k to marathon charts underestimate the 5k times. Dropping some body fat will help reduce the load on the muscles, connective tissue and joints.

1997
Chicago 502

1998
Anchorage 502 - Team In Training
Chicago 451

1999
Disney 445
Boston 516 - entry from sponsor
Dublin 436 - Team In Training
Jax 426

2000
Disney 438
Austin 433
VirginiaBeach 426
Paris 436 - Team Diabetes
SanFran 448
CorningNY 447
MarineCorp 453
Jax 445

2001
Clearwater 501
Austin 502
NapaValley 522
VirginiaBeach 512
Rome 512 - Team Diabetes
Boston 502 - bandit
Cincinnati 527
SanDiego 524
Chicago 432
Tahoe 525
Columbus 433
Dublin 451 - Team Diabetes
Bethesda,MD 434
Richmond 444
Tampa 454
Jax 536

2002
Houston 516
Ogden,UT 440
Palos Verdes,CA 440
GreenBay,WI 516
Logan,UT 422
Chicago 445
MarineCorp 433
Jax 416

2003
Disney 429
HuntingtonBeach,CA 455
Ogden,UT 443
Logan,UT 400
Chicago 414 - expresso and beer
MarineCorp 404
NewYork 422
Jax 342

2004
Disney 331
Miami 352
Clearwater 408
New Jersey 328
Ogden,UT 343
Erie 359
Chicago 344
MarineCorp 413
JFK 50 Miler 1005

2005
New Jersey 422
Ottawa 411
Sacramento 344
Chicago 343
MarineCorp 355
JFK 50 Miler 910
Jax 340

2006
Disney 342
RockyRac 100 miler DNF @80miles 1635
Tampa 402
New Jersey 354
Ave of the Giants 412
Self-Transcendence 334
Logan,UT 337
Steamtown 328
Chicago 327
Philly 357 - Endurance 50 - 3 in 3 days.
NJ 409
New York 335
JFK 50 Miler 840 - beat Dave finally!
Vegas 419 - paced Jeri in for her PR
Jax 337
Luna50k 505

2007
Disney 358 - official time 3:59:59
RockyRac 100miler 2236
IronHorse100miler 1952 - my first win!
Atlanta 408
Sunrise 170 miler DNF @65miles 1524
BigSur 351
Old Dominion 100 miler 2243 - 5th place