Reflection on 2017 and Looking Forward to 2018

2017 was an interesting year. I graduated from Illinois with my B.S. in Materials Science and Engineering, lived in California for three months to work at an industrial tech giant, and started graduate school in Electrical Engineering at Illinois. There was a lot of fun in the last year including a bunch of traveling. I really learned a lot in the last year, particularly in the last four months. The past four months also have been quite humbling; graduate school is no joke. There have been also a handful of times this past semester where I've told myself, "holy crap, I ran 26.2 miles in less than the running time of The Titanic." 

That's where the running and non-running related events start to intersect. Aside from finishing my undergrad, working at Intel as a summer intern, and embarking on my quest for a PhD, I managed to run a half marathon in the Spring and three full marathons in the second half of the year. Concluding my running on the final day of 2017 with an easy 4 miler, I finished the year with 1696.1 miles. That's 32.6 miles of running a week, which I think is quite remarkable considering a stress fracture scare in November and inactivity in December due to graduate school. For perspective, the distance between Austin, Texas and San Jose, California is 1691 miles.

I ran enough miles in 2017 to cover the distance from Austin, Texas to San Jose, California...

2017 marked my first ever marathon, and boy it was not easy. The San Francisco Marathon was probably not the best first marathon to run, but it sure was pretty. Running through the Embarcadero, Fisherman's Wharf, the Golden Gate Bridge, the Presidio, and Golden Gate Park was amazing. I did end up hobbling through the last 9-10 miles of the race through pretty debilitating cramps due to poor fluid intake and exhaustion through the hills. I won't forget that race, and I surely won't forget the pain. A fellow runner once told me that each half marathon or marathon you run is almost like a child that you nurture. I guess having my first kid was definitely the hardest. 

One day I'll run a marathon that will amount to exactly 26.2 miles 

With the onset of August, I started training up again for the Fall marathon season. I must say that I have a lot to improve on with my training. Like a lot. My marathon training within the past year was regrettably unstructured and unfocused. In retrospect, I guess the goal for the Fall was to just run at least one marathon and adjust to graduate school living. September came, and graduate school started. 6:30 AM weekday wakeups, 4-8 mile morning runs, a quick bagel and some gatorade, and then lab and class from 9 AM-6 PM everyday. The weekends weren't exactly a breeze either. In the peak of the training I would often start my 18+ mile runs at 6 AM which would force me to get up earlier than 5 AM on Sunday mornings. 

Finish at the 2017 San Francisco Marathon

Come mid-October, I ran the Springfield Marathon and saw close to a 9 minute PR amounting to a third-place finish on a pretty hilly course with strong winds. Twenty days later, I ran my third marathon at the Indianapolis Monumental Marathon that year and was delighted to run another PR of 3:14:49 with pretty good conditions. Looking back, I would definitely not recommend anybody to run back-to-back marathons with less than six weeks of turnover time... After running Indy, I took a lot of time off for recovery due to the sheer time crunch of school (three classes and full-time research assistant hours does take some time). I also had a pretty nasty injury scare on my right tibia after the final marathon. Luckily, x-ray results proved to be negative for a stress fracture. Within December, I was lucky to put up a double-digit mileage week due to finals and research, but I managed. Getting rejected from the 2018 Chicago Marathon was pretty depressing too, but it is what it is I've heard that the first semester of graduate school is just plain terrible, and now that I've completed it, I would have to agree. 

Hardware from 2017

Now that 2017 is pretty much over, I have set up some New Year's Resolutions for training that I would like to follow for 2018. Just like any other sort of New Year's Resolutions that you make after a year of bad habits, I'm sure I'll struggle to follow these wholeheartedly. Nonetheless, I hope these guidelines will help me become a better runner to reach new PRs for 2018.

1. Easier Running

In contrast to my very structured half marathon training, my marathon training is admittedly sloppy in terms of organization and focus. More or less, my current training relies on 5-6 days of running with one distance day on the weekend with the other remaining days mainly at sub-marathon goal pace. I know this is pretty bad, but I really didn't have the guts to fix it within this past half year, particularly with grad school as my main priority. An article from Runner's World took data from Strava to show that most Boston Marathon qualifiers made concerted efforts to run their easy days slower than their marathon goal pace. It's pretty common knowledge that running at a "conversational pace" helps recovery and provides the necessary focus for harder effort days. I have been terrible at following this mantra, and I really need to adapt this mantra for 2018.

2. Speed

It seems counterintuitive to do 800 meter repeats on a track that take less than 180 seconds when you're training for a 26.2 mile race that takes over 3 hours. Specificity for speed helps to improve V02 max for racing which will no doubt improve finish times. I've heard that speedwork is a necessity for runners who feel like they're reaching a plateau, and although I feel like I'm nowhere near my peak yet, I know that speedwork is necessary. I introduced small bits of track work in previous half marathon training cycles, but I was hesitant to put in speed and interval workouts for marathon training due to injury concerns and just due to a lack of time. For 2018, I feel that 800 meter repeats are a must, as well as even 1200 and 1600 meter repeats as well. I will for sure try to run at VO2 max effort at least once a week. Speedwork will be incorporated with longer tempo runs as long as lactate threshold running as well. Introducing these different workouts into my regimen will be key to improving my marathon finish times. As flat as the Champaign-Urbana is, I will try to be creative to add hill workouts and other training methods to improve strength.

3. More Efficient Volume

In 2017, I had the luxury in to put up 50 mile weeks in training. At one point I even hit a 60 mile week! I quite honestly don't have that time anymore. This point is really more so a point in me conceding to the difficulties of being a graduate student while trying to push further for higher volume training. I would love to run 60 mile weeks every week. If I really had that time, I would push for at least 2000 miles for the entirety of 2018. In all honesty, I'm not even going to try to improve on the total mileage that I reached within the past year. I want to see where I can go on a weekly volume between 28-42 miles. This means really easy running on off days for full recovery, really hard effort on track workouts, tempo runs, and lactate threshold runs, and honest efforts to fully simulate the marathon on long runs on the weekend. This might be the most difficult change for 2018. At the end of the day it's all mindset. I know lower volume will help reduce injury risks, and learning to run more efficiently on less mileage will benefit me in the future when I can afford to push out 50-65 miles a week. So many successful non-professional marathoners have stressful jobs, busy family lives, and generally just a lack of free time. Early mornings are a must from now on, but only time will tell.

General Outlook for 2018

I have no clue how 2018 will be for me in terms of running. In fact, I have no idea how it will be for me in terms of life in general. If I could tell you my predicted 2018 mileage and what my finish times will be for races next year, there would be no fun in running. Injuries happen. Priorities happen. Life happens. That's why I think the marathon is truly beautiful. You pour in months of training just for a chance to run your best. You run in subzero windchills before the sun is up. You wander around the block aimlessly searching for GPS on your Garmin. You give up sleeping in. You give up delicious sweets. You give up late nights at the bars with your friends. Even if it doesn't go your way, it's always worth it. As much as runners care about numbers, it really is about the journey and not the final destination. Training is addicting.

With that being said, I am currently registered for the Christie Clinic Illinois Marathon this April. I was rejected from the Chicago Marathon this October, so I am still looking for a Fall marathon. I will attempt a smaller marathon (Peoria Barrel Marathon?) or run the Monumental Indianapolis Marathon again. I will most likely run a half marathon with 5Ks and 10Ks spread throughout the summer as well. From my half marathon times, I know that a Boston qualifier is within my reach, I just don't know if it's obtainable soon with my lifestyle and schedule. For the Spring, I would like to PR in the marathon, even if that means just running seconds faster than my personal best. If training goes well this summer and in early September, I believe that a sub 3:10 marathon is possible. It would be fantastic to reach these goals, but at the same time, life is unpredictable. 

That's just a tidbit of my thoughts for 2017. Hopefully 2018 will bring great training and fast marathon times!