Sunday, April 21, 2013
Hello again. A lot of water has gone over the bridge.
I'm going to start twice-daily posts, to create a record of my current adventure. It is sure to be a tale of terrifying danger, unfathomable decision-making and harrowing escapes from the depths of despair to the alpine vistas of euphoria. That's the best-case scenario. Anything else gets much, much more interesting.
I'll start with a little background, recounting my ruminations last Sunday afternoon, when this story begins.
Last fall I had a pretty good summer of training, and an excellent fall, leading to some decent racing, including a BQ 3:34 marathon in early October in Chicago. I've pretty much taken off since then, running maybe once or twice a week and gaining about 7 pounds (my normal weight, as opposed to racing weight which is about 10 pounds less, or 148). My health is excellent, can't even remember the last time I was sick, and I take no medications, vitamins or supplements. The only pharmaceutical I've taken in years is ibuprofen last fall, but again, nothing since about October. Diet includes no red meat and rarely chicken or pork. If it comes from the sea, though, I'll eat it every time. No HFCS, no processed grain, negligible bread. Minimal alcohol. Sleep - excellent, my forte. Stress - way too much at work. Oh well, work is better than no work, and home is less stressful than homeless.
So that's where I am last Sunday, thinking about getting in some marathons, considering starting training for the busy fall racing season, just kind of ruminating on running. Then I remembered that, sometime back in January or February I actually entered some marathons, nice and early to get the early registration discounts, because this 50 state marathon crap can get kinda spendy if you enter the races and make airline reservations at the last minute. Ask me about Louisiana sometime. Hooo-eeey. Good thing they had a casino where I could win back the cost of the hotel. Another story, another time.
Thinking quickly, I checked my email, and sure enough found registrations and reservations for four marathons! And they're all in the same month! Actually, they're all within a 16 day period, 2 one weekend and 2 more two weekends after! And the second two are trail marathons! Yay!
No problem, all I need to do is devise a training schedule for doing four marathons in two weeks. So, how much time do I have? Let's see, There's Kenosha, Wisconsin ("The Cheesiest Marathon") on the 5th and Pittsburgh on the 6th, then Chattanooga (trail) on the 18th and Alabama (trail) on the 19th. May. Oh Crap.
Alright, take some deep breaths and relax. I can do this. All I need is a plan. I've got 13 days to train, including today. I was planning on doing a small 5k for a small local library, but couldn't find the dang race and ran about 1.5 miles meandering aimlessly about Dunbarton. I'll call that my base and rest the remainder of the day.
OK, phase 1 of training complete! That leaves me with 12 training days. Well, 11. I like to rest completely the day before a marathon (except for 2-3 miles walking). And the last two of those 11 days are easy rest days, so that leaves 9 days for quality training. More than enough. I'll need 3 long runs, 3 tempo runs, 2 days speedwork (relatively speaking, that is) and 1 easy day. Man, this is a lot easier than I thought it would be!
There is a little catch. I have to finish each of the first two marathons in under four hours. My flight between marathons leaves Chicago's Midway airport at 1:30 (the marathon in Kenosha starts at 7 and it is about 1.5 hours between the marathon and the airport). That's tight. Once I get to Pittsburgh, though, I'm meeting up with a high school track teammate who I haven't seen in 37 years. He's running his first marathon, after having gone vegan and taken up running again (he was a gymnast/pole vaulter in HS, and a good one too). I told him I'd be honored to run with him in his first marathon, and his goal is to run under four hours. His training has been solid this winter, 22 mile runs and other such marathon training goodness. I'm confident he'll get that 4 hours, and I'd like to be able to be there with him.
So day 1 is complete. I have a nice solid training base in, I still feel healthy, no signs of overuse injuries, my visualization exercises have been going well - all trends are up! I also have a new heart monitor that will ensure my training and racing success.
I'll post again tonight (it's Friday now) with scans from my training log, an outline of my magic (almost) two-week multi-marathon training programme, and shocking revelations from my secret spring racing season.
I think today's training can readily extrapolate to marathon success. Nothing can possibly go wrong.
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