Quite amazingly, there are only four weeks until the marathon. These things always sneak up on me. My friend Tom is trying to get me to sleep in a smoking room at the Ramada Inn in northern Kentucky. I'm resisting that option. Despite my grand plans, I haven't been structured about my training at all. Coming down with the flu didn't help. Here's my evaluation of where I'm at:
1. Miles per week: I'm peaking at about 43. That's not a lot of miles. In previous marathons, I'd get up to 60 miles per week. Right now, I'm just working too much for that. Running six days a week isn't happening, and my regular runs are 6.2 miles.
2. Speed: Here, I'm doing alright. Early in the winter, I was doing really well, regularly doing my daily runs right at the 7-minute pace. Since then, I've actually regressed, for a variety of reasons, and now my runs are closer to 7:15.
3. Long runs: So far, so good. I've done three 20 mile runs, including a 20.2-miler on Saturday in 2:29. I also ran a couple 18s. I'll probably do two more 20s the next two weekends.
4. Races: Again, not so great. I've only run two half marathons. The Manhattan Half went quite well; the Bronx, not so much. I wish I'd done a few more to get used to suffering.
5. Speedwork: Nope. I don't know what it is, but I just can't get myself to do speedwork. This is troubling, because I won't get better at this point doing the same training I've done for years. My body has reached where it can go with that. I can see that with the consistency of my run times. They're all pretty much the same. I'm not happy with myself over my inability to get into speedwork. It's why I need to join a running club.
Overall, I'm OK with my training. I've come to grips with the face that the 2:59 Project will have to wait for the fall. I'm just not there yet. But I'm there to run a sub 3:10 marathon, I think. We'll see how the last few weeks of training go.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
4 comments:
Dude, your self analysis is impressive. I really respect it. It's tough to do it all, I know hard it all can be.
Good luck with the race. I bet you'll exceed your expectations.
RT
Robert,
Thanks. I've found an important part of training is being honest w yourself. I know my training hasn't been outstanding. It's certainly good enough to run a nice race, tho. We'll see how Cincy treats me.
BM
It's all good. You'll be fine. But you should run trails not roads.
I just gathered that you are running the Flying Pig? Good race. Have you run it before?
Make sure you stay close to the front. They really should have corrals but the beginning is a big mass of people. Don' get near the back you'll be surrounded by walkers and jogging strollers.
The hills are around mile 8. Not bad hills at all, although I'm a trail runner and not a marathoner, I ran up them last year.
Make sure to have some Skyline Chili after the race and Graeter's ice cream!
Hi thanks for sharing this
Post a Comment