As of Saturday I had completed 50% of the training for my upcoming marathon. 9 weeks down, 9 to go. More truthfully I actually have 7 weeks of real training left, 6 really if I really want to try and nail the Horsetooth Half 2 weeks prior. About a week and a half ago, I hit a wall in my training. It happened right around the same time as it did when I tried to prepare for Chicago last year. I backed off, took an extra rest day and missed some miles that week, and came back to have my best Q1 in about 3 weeks after that. It was very encouraging. I've done 32+ miles in the last 2 days, and am well on my way to the 70 mile week that is my peak mileage. Making sure that I am running at the right "easy pace" is really important for me at this point. Part of the reason I hit the wall again I think is because I get to doing too many workouts too fast and don't leave myself enough gas in the tank to run the "fast" workouts when the time comes.
3:15:59. I have to be realistic. I've gone into both of my previous marathons thinking about a sub 3:10, and the truth is that right now I am not ready to be able to run one that fast. My fitness level when I started this program was behind where it was for the previous 2. I still have no doubts that I can run a really nice sub 3:10, or maybe even a sub 3:00 at some point, but the base that I started this training program at was not nearly good enough. I was only about 25-30 mpw before I jumped into this due to injury. It's true what they say, that to really run a good marathon, it's a lot more than just 18 weeks. There is a lot of time beforehand, building base, doing the things that set you up aerobically, so you are stronger, in better shape to handle the taxing Quality workouts. My MP for Phoenix and Ft. Collins last year was 7:00 per mile. On Wednesday last week, I had a workout that had me run @ 6:55 for 20 minutes and I was cooked after that. I still have a ways to go with the training program, but I don't see myself being able to run 7:00 miles for 20 something miles at this point. What I do see is me being able to run them for about 17 on the downhills and then me crashing and burning like I did last year, and the results being exactly the same. I didn't marathon for a year after that happened last year, and I am not going to let it happen again. RNRAZ was such a positive experience for me, but mostly because I had no clue what to expect, I was ignorant to what a marathon was at that time. Ft. Collins was a much worse experience for me, and left me sour. As long as I stay realistic, there is no reason that I can't come out of Colorado healthy, happy, and having run a time that I will be satisfied with, hopefully leading me to a better race at the Denver Marathon in October, and hopefully Boston and NY the following year if things fall the right way.
Another kind of stupid thing I did at the beginning of all this was change shoes. I had been a Nike Structure Triax guy for the first 2 marys, but moved into a set of Asics DS Trainers and a set of Nike Zoom Elite 4s. I am very happy with both shoes. I got lucky, lol. Also I upgraded to the Garmin 405 when my 205 broke. Pros: The 405 acquires signal very quickly, and is much smaller. Plus I can actually wear the heartrate monitor it came with. Cons: It's too quick in how it adjusts your real time pace. The 205 processed info much slower, so if you were under trees and bridges and such, the pace didn't jump around so much. The 405 will almost instantly show you running a minute or two slower than you actually are, till you get into the clear. It's a little annoying, that and I really don't like the touch face on it. I am still music free on every workout this cycle. Even the 2.5 hour one on Sunday was no problem without it.
February closed here in Ft Collins with near record high temps, and we are still pushing the 60's and 70's almost every day. It's been a mild snow winter, but the wind has been so rough on us. It's blowing again here today, but it was 61 degrees at 6:55 this morning when I came to work. I actually have run in shorts for the last week or so.
I'll try and be better about keeping this up, but these are busy times.
Cheers
