As Promised

So against my better judgment (in light of the massive pile of fail set down on this blog for everyone on the ‘tubes to enjoy), I’ve decided to begin training for another marathon attempt… again (as promised in my last post). This time, however, I’ve decided that I’m actually gonna do things right. You know, things like “proper training”, “proper nutrition”, ‘”proper rest”, and most importantly, “having some idea what the fuck I’m doing”.

You see, (and I know this is going to sound somewhat ridiculous) the last time I’d seriously been in “training” for a marathon, the day-to-day workouts that I was doing basically consisted of me just making shit up. This was bad for several reasons. First, I had no clue what kinds of physiological adaptations made for a successful marathon runner, and as a result, had no idea what kinds of training to do. Indeed, since I didn’t really know what I was doing, I ended up just trying to adapt the kinds of training I’d been doing in cross country. Additionally, at the time I decided that I was going to attempt the race, there was only a month of available training time left. Since I was just coming off of the track season, I was still pretty (track) fit, but knew that I would not have the time to adequately build up to any great deal of mileage in the four weeks that I had remaining. Given this set of circumstances, together with my own staggering level of ignorance, I decided that the best thing to do would be to try to build up my lactate threshold, reasoning that if I could run 5:50 to 6:00 miles comfortably for 8 to 10 miles, then I should be reasonably comfortable running 6:30 to 7:00 miles for 26.2 miles. That’s how you end up with a training week that looks like this:

Monday: 8 mile tempo
Tuesday: 8 mile tempo
Wednesday: 8 mile tempo
Thursday: 8 mile tempo
Friday: 8 mile tempo
Saturday: 10 miles (long run)

Pure genius. In fact, on the morning of race day itself, the farthest I had ever run, in my entire life, was 13 miles, which I had done exactly once before. I’m pretty sure that the only reasons I actually finished the race were 1) I was too ignorant to realize that what I was attempting was absurd and 2) by the time the profound stupidity of what I was attempting hit home (around mile 18), I was just too damn stubborn to quit.

So this time around, I finally got wise and decided to actually get a real training plan. I asked Ryan Ogliore for some sage advice, as I recalled that he had spoken highly of one particular training plan that he had found in some book, and which had apparently produced very favorable results when he had implemented it. Ryan was kind enough to direct me to Advanced Marathoning by Pete Pfitzinger.

So far, I’ve been quite impressed with Advanced Marathoning. Pfitzinger is apparently a sports physiology researcher, so the majority of the book is actually an explanation of what the marathon is all about on the level of biochemistry; it also introduces training elements like lactate threshold and V0_2 max workouts in terms of the physiological attributes that they are designed to improve, which is nice in that it provides concrete motivation and explanation for the kinds of workouts that the book recommends.

The book itself actually provides six distinct training schedules, which are classified according to total completion time (12 or 18 weeks) and level of weekly mileage/difficulty (30 – 50, 55-70, and over 70). Given my previous experience in the marathon (i.e., actually getting a pretty good time given that I had no real training), the fact that I’m somewhat injury-prone, and the fact that I don’t have a limitless quantity of time to allocate to running, I’ve decided to go with the 18 week, 55 – 70 mile plan. The nice thing about this schedule is that, by redistributing the mileage appropriately amongst the weekly workouts, you can actually get some really solid longer and harder runs in while still keeping the overall weekly mileage reasonable, which equates to less time that needs to be invested (relatively speaking), and a decreased risk of injury.

So I’ve got (what seems to me at least) to be a reasonable plan for training. What’s the actual goal? Last time (again, having no serious training), I ran a 3:11:08, having run 6:30s up until around mile 18 with a precipitous decline thereafter. Now 3:10 is the Boston qualifying time for my class, so pretty much any improvement will get me a qualifying time; however, training for and racing a marathon requires a rather substantial investment in effort, and it seems kind of weak sauce to go through all this trouble for a 1:08 PR (again, over a time that was obtained with no real training or preparation). So as long as I’m going to do this, it seems as though I should make it worth my while and go for the sub-3:00. Based on these considerations, I’ve decided that I’m aiming for a time somewhere between 2:50 and 2:55; I’m planning on being fairly conservative in my approach to this race, just to make sure that I do, in fact, qualify, so in actuality, it will likely be closer to 2:55. Just for the record, those paces come out to approximately 6:30 and 6:40, respectively, which is actually about what I was running for the first 18 miles or so on my last attempt (again, with no real training or preparation). So this seems like something that should be fairly doable with the proper training and preparation.

OK, so I’ve got a definite goal and what seems to be a reasonable plan for achieving it, so it seems the only thing left to do is put some work in. It’s go time!

Week 1: 10/12/09 - 10/18/09 (17 weeks remain)

Monday: Off day.
Tuesday: 9 mile run with 4 mile lactate threshold uptempo. So this Pfitzinger guy isn’t playing – the first day’s workout calls for a 9 mile run that includes a four mile tempo. Now I’ve been putting in base mileage over the summer in expectation of having to do some serious work once the real training started, but this was the first serious hard running I’ve done in almost a year. Fortunately, it seems like whatever I’ve been doing has worked out pretty well. Ran two miles from my apartment down to the east end of Town Lake, stretched out, then did a four-mile tempo loop clockwise around the lake, crossing over the I-35 bridge. I feel like it went pretty well; I don’t have a working watch right now, but I estimate that I was running somewhere around 6:00, or possibly slightly faster (5:50). More importantly, it was consistent throughout the workout – the point of these is not so much pure speed as in getting used to maintaining a consistent, quick pace so that your body can become accustomed to producing energy and flushing waste products out of your muscles while you’re moving at speed. That having been said, I definitely did started feeling it around the 2 mile mark. Cooldown and moderate jog back to my place, plus a short side loop to get a total of 9. Feeling pretty good about the first day of training.

Wednesday: 11 miles, medium-long. Good god this sucked. Woke up this morning feeling the lingering effects of yesterday’s workout: serious dead legs. Then I had to go run 11 in 90 degree heat and high humidity (we’ve been having some wildly oscillating weather recently – 60 and overcast one day, then 90 and blazing sun the next). Needless to say, this was not my finest hour; I started the workout feeling dead, and things pretty much went downhill from there. Gutted it out, but it was not pleasant, and I can’t say my performance was really and that great.

Thursday: 5 miles, recovery day. So I remember looking at the schedule at the start of the week and thinking why is the third day a recovery day? Now I understand. Ran an easy 5 miles today. Hopefully this will loosen my legs up a little bit; the previous two days’ workouts have left them pretty sore and stiff.

Friday: 9 miles, general aerobic. Feeling a lot better today after yesterday’s recovery. Still not 100%, but maintained good cruising speed without an unreasonable amount of effort.

Saturday: 5 miles, recovery day. Another recovery day. I assume this is in here because tomorrow is the first serious long day so far.

Sunday: 15.5 miles, medium-long. So today was the first real hurdle in terms of mileage. Went for a 15 mile run through downtown, past the capital, and around the university. Overall, I was pretty pleased; didn’t really start to feel fatigue until around mile 12, and maintained a good, consistent pace throughout. Comparing where I am now in my training with where I was the last time I attempted a marathon makes me think that I might actually be able to pull this off :-).

Total weekly mileage: 54.5