Marathon Two Weeks Away

This morning I ran my 8.5 mi route in 1:37:56 (97:56), which is my best time at that distance since, I think, 1991. The run felt very solid. My back hurt only marginally, and my knees became a bit stiff but recovered nicely.

The marathon is only two weeks away. So, it seems like a good time to take stock of how my training has progressed so far, and what still needs to be done in the few short days I have left.

I've run a lot of miles in preparation for this race (639 since the middle of last year) and I have learned quite a bit about pace, form, etc, so from that standpoint I feel prepared. Perhaps not "well" prepared, but prepared. As I noted back when I first made this blog, I can go 26.2 miles, but the issue is whether I can do it in 6 hours.

The plan is still to complete the run in 6 hours, but at this point 6.25 hours seems more accurate. The plan was to run a 5 mph pace the first 15 miles (3 hours), then run a 3.8 mph pace the remaining 11.2 miles. When I made that goal I could not run 3.3 miles without walking at least twice. Now, I can run 10 miles in just under 2 hours (which is a bit better than a 5 mph pace), but the next five miles takes me 1:15 or more, and my pace continues to slow quite a bit in the later miles. I've run two long routes in the past 30 days and busted my time on both occasions. On Mar 24 I ran a 24.5 miler in just under 6:43:00, which is a 7 hour pace. The first 10 miles went well, but I slowed around 11 mi and again at 16 mi and never caught up. On Apr 14 I ran a 21.5 miler (on that same trail) and finished in just over 5:36, which is somewhere around a 6:40:00 pace. An improvement, but not quite there yet.

That having been said, there is still hope that I can finish in my goal time. Both runs were on a crushed limestone trail (a much slower surface than the roads we'll be running on for the marathon) and both times I wore a fully loaded Camelbak with a 110 oz water reservoir (total weight around 20 lbs). I won't be wearing the Camelbak during the race, which will be a big help. Also, my form has improved fairly dramatically, as evidenced by the fact that my general running times have improved substantially as of late. l will also do a better job of being ready from a nutrition standpoint, as I did no nutritional prep for either run (no carbo loading, etc). Finally, I have made a solid effort to improve my sleep, so hopefully I will be well healed at the start of the race.

I made a number of goals back when I started. And, as noted above, I could not run my 3.3 mi circuit without stopping twice. Anway, several goals I passed must faster than I anticipated and had to set new goals, some took a long time, and on a few others I never quite made it.

My biggest goal, I think, was to complete 5 miles in under an hour. It took quite a while, but I'm now in the 53 - 54 minute range, which is on track.

I also wanted to complete 5 miles without having to walk. When I could run the entire 3.3 mi circuit, I pushed my goal to 5 mi. It took a long time, but now I can run 10 miles before having to enter a walking split.

Next, I set an intermediate goal of routinely completing my 8.5 mil circuit in 1:50:00 (110 min) or less. I finally broke that barrier in February, then reset the goal to 1:35:00 (95 min). I didn't reach that new goal, but am close (just under 98 minutes).

I wanted to finish my 3.3 min circuit in under 35 minutes, but then modified that goal to 30 minutes. I got close to the 35 minute goal a couple of times (one in Feb and one in Mar), but I finally broke it in Apr at 33:31. I won't be running another 3.3 until after the marathon, so I will not beat 30 min.

If there is any one thing I could change, it would be my weight. I'll need to be much lighter before I can make substantial improvements in my time. I've lost a lot of weight, but the loss came much slower than I planned or wanted. So, I'll be at least 10 pounds heavier than my goal weight on race day. I don't plan to lose any more weight before race day, but we shall see.

The other "fall flat" dissappointment was that I wanted to have completed at least 450 miles THIS YEAR before race day. That won't happen. So far in 2007 I've gone almost 317, and will have crossed the 350 mi mark before race day. Total distance, including last year's prep, has crossed 639, and at the conclusion of the marathon I should be somewhere around 700 mi. Not quite the distances I wanted, but it will have to do.

Overall, I'm very pleased with my progress. Marathons require a lot of training, and I've been at this for months. I wasn't in the best shape when I started and we had a few "fits and starts" because of my workload (especially in November and December). But, I've trained hard, and am pleased with my progress.

The last two weeks of training will focus on completing 10 miles in as far under 2 hours as possible without burning myself out. I have one "two-a-day" scheduled, but won't run two days in a row for recovery purposes. I'll get in just over 30 miles this week, but next week will taper substantially, with runs on Monday and Wednesday, and a very light timing walk on Thursday. I then rest until the Marathon.