I registered for the Maine Marathon (Oct. 5) today. I've twelve more weeks to finish getting in shape for my first marathon. I'm pretty confident I can handle the distance – maybe a little less confident that I can do the distance in under 3:15 (which is 7:26 minute miles, and a Boston qualifying time for my age group). But I have a lot of faith in training, and I've seen changes in my shorter distance race times that I would have considered impossible, all just due to miles, systematic training routines (long run, speed work, tempo run, rest run and off days) and … pizza and beer (more on that in a minute).
More than forty miles this week
This week marked a big milestone – first week of training since I really got serious about running last November (in order to prepare for the Half at the Hamptons in February) that I ran more than forty miles. Seems like a psychological barrier gone. How do you make time for this kind of training? You start getting up really early every day and run before anyone else is even awake. How do you keep your body from breaking down with fewer rest days? (I ran five days this week instead of four, and will work it up to six, with some of those days being easy/rest runs.) So far, it seems like easy runs in between training run days are actually helping to keep my muscles loose and limber and they don't seem to be impeding my recovery between hard runs.
Pizza and beer theory
This morning's long run wasn't a long, long one – but at 16 mega-hilly miles, it was long enough to test my pizza theory again. By mile ten last week I was feeling tapped, and by the time I finished all 18 I had totally run into the wall. This week after ten miles of near constant hill climbing, I felt really strong. Strong enough to be pushing for tempo on the flats and declines. And I still felt strong at the end – well enough to run the last couple miles at my tempo pace. The main difference between this week's run and last week's? More hills, a little cooler, and I ate four huge slices of pepperoni and sausage pizza and drank a few Sam Adams beers last night, then went to bed early and got eight hours of sleep. I have never had an energy problem during a long run after that exact diet regimen the night before. Pasta? Lean chicken and vegetables? All things I like, but they just don't seem to carry me through a long run like a big greasy pizza. Is that weird? Not that it matters. Weird or scientifically valid (or both), I'm convinced and that's going to be my race eve meal…
Also registered for the Yankee Homecoming 10-Miler in Newburyport July 29. Should be fun!
