Brian Lyons
Age: 28
Race: Marathon
Goal: sub 2:19 (Olympic Trials Qualifier)
Blog 1: 1997 Is In Full Effect
Blog 2: Ups and Downs
Blog 3: Snowman Says Start Drinking Water Now
Brian is a dad. He has two awesome kids, Lillian and Lucas, and a super patient wife, Margaret. He also has a great job as race director of the GO! St. Louis Marathon. He is pretty much a full-fledged grown-up. The rest of us hold on to the hope that we are somehow not grown-ups yet just because we don't change diapers. Anyway, despite all his responsibilities Brian is a super-fast runner. The only thing he is arguably better at is wedding reception dancing. Read his log...we think you are going to see big things from him in San Antonio. He missed going to the last Olympic Trials by 34 seconds so he's on a mission to make it in 2012!
Snowman Says Start Drinking Water Now
11.10.09 (1 week out)
Last Friday was 10 days out from the Marathon . Weather.com, the most widely accepted seer of the future can look into its crystal ball and give us a pretty good prediction of the weather…within 10 days. Weather.com says it will be warm…not hot, but warm. Carter “Snowman” Snow said on Friday to start drinking water now. I've taken his advice and I'm at an all-time hydration high – which is a good thing, I just can't sit through a meeting at work without having to get up…
Last week was the beginning of my taper into the marathon and boy did I feel less than fantastic. I went from 116 miles the previous week (and feeling great) to 73 miles two weeks out (and feeling not so great). Every run was sub par and mile repeats on Wednesday were manageable, but uncomfortable. Fortunately Adam was having a good one and drug me along for all 6 repeats. Our splits went something like 4:52 , 4:52 , 4:48 , 4:47 , 4:49 , and 4:47 . I hit the times I wanted, but as I mentioned, it wasn't easy. This should, however, make marathon pace seem easy. After a rough easy run on Thursday, 20s pick-ups on Friday and another easy run on Saturday, I finally felt a little fresh on Sunday Hallelujah!
This week…it's Monday, I had one of the best appointments at St. Louis Injury and Rehab. Jen stretched me out and worked on a few nagging spots, followed by some adjustments by Dr. Cragg and, eureka I feel great. The team at SLIR has been awesome at keeping me running through this training segment. Only two minor hiccups along the way, but thanks to them I've only missed 7 days since we began in July.
Tonight I'm running for 30 minutes and am going to do some light drills, strides and stretching to stay sharp…I'm looking forward to this week of running and putting the final pieces in place for Sunday morning.
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Ups and Downs
10.22.09 (3.5 weeks out)
We will be rock ‘n’ rolling in San Antonio on November 15, so that means if my math is correct we are three and a half weeks out as I write this. Since my first blog my training has been up and down, my beard looks good, and we put on a really fun race in downtown St. Louis – the GO! St. Louis Halloween 10k. Here are the ups and downs from the past couple of weeks.
October 4th – 12 miles at marathon pace: an UP
We did the workout at Forest Park, twice around the 6 mile loop. I didn’t exactly take care of myself before this workout like I should have. I just didn’t get the amount of sleep I wanted, eat correctly or drink enough water over the weekend. Not bad, just could have handled it better. The workout ended up pretty good – I went 12 miles in 63:10, so right at my goal marathon pace. I did this solo, so pretty pleased.
October 6th – 10th: a DOWN
The week after the workout I had some calf/hamstring issues that didn’t resolve until the following week. So, I had a little setback with basically 5 days of no running.
October 14th – 12 x 800m: an UP
I was able to run with no problems Oct 11(30min), Oct 12(45min), Oct 13(60min) so I felt confident I could handle the workout with no problems. I ended up having a good one. The pace felt pretty easy and we had a good group (Ryan, Adam, Carter) on the track to work with. I think the slowest was 2:24 and the fastest was 2:21. I felt that the workout was very controlled and smooth.
October 18 – GO! St. Louis Halloween 10k: an UP
I had a lot of fun with our group at GO! St. Louis while working on this. The weather was perfect and I think the runners had a fun time. It was great to see the guys and gals I train with run well and the fun runners in costume. Congrats to Ryan and Julie on their wins and Carter and David on the PRs. Some of the costumes were great. If you were there, you couldn’t miss the guy riding the praying mantis - my personal favorite.
October 21 – 4 x 3 miles: an UP
I measured out a 1.5 loop in the neighborhood next to DuBourg HS for my warm up with each half mile split marked. I had to go early, which also means solo because I didn’t want to miss Lilian’s first dance performance at 7pm. Ben made it out halfway into my first interval so I had the benefit of a personal coach to cheer me on. The workout went well. My splits were: 15:30, 15:30, 15:31, and 15:29. Another good workout and I felt pretty comfortable throughout.
Overall, the segment has been good. I’ve hit every workout with the exception of one missed due to injury and have had no major flops. I’ve only missed one workout and one long run, plus 3 or four mileage days…nobody likes those days anyway.
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1997 Is In Full Effect (see youtube video reference below):
10.1.09 (7 weeks out)
In 1997 I was in my junior year of cross country at Purdy High, running four miles a day as hard as I could. Not a bad training plan from a coach that insisted on wearing a see-through mesh shirt during out afternoon practices. Yes, you could see his nipples. In 1997 I’m pretty sure I didn’t know how many miles were in a marathon, let alone think that I would be running one. I have found out that marathon training is a grind. I’m to the point where I don’t even know what week we’re on, I just know the workouts of the week…last night was 24x400 and Sunday will be one of the big tests of fitness – 12 miles at marathon pace. I’m at 113 miles for the last seven days and feel pretty good. Workouts have been going well and I’ve been able to increase my weekly mileage steadily without compromising workouts or my body.
Here are three things that get me through marathon training:
1. A Beard – Fall is the beginning of beard weather. I don’t go Moses with it, but I keep enough growth in the chance we have family photos I can shave it into a mustache. Here’s a little video that I think Hanson’s athlete Mike Morgan had on his blog at one time. One of Lilian’s favorite Youtube videos…1997 is in Full Effect!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=na37dOc_XSQ
2. Someone to run with – I’m not a loner. I’ve got to have someone to train with, even if it has to be a half miler, primarily on recovery days. I typically run with the Snowman on those days and try to keep the tempo up just enough so 5 miles in he’ll complain about the pace.
3. A doctor who knows what he’s doing – Dr. Bill Cragg, Clinical Director of St. Louis Injury and Rehabilitation is my guy. He’s fixed me more than once and is a master of the magic tape. I owe him a great deal for keeping me on the roads. He’s an endurance athlete as well so he knows the woes of the long distance runner.
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