What’s next?

Charleston Marathon

January 15, 2011

A drove of DoppelLaufers will be meeting face to face for the first time when we invade Charleston next month for the Riverfront Race Festival. We will be running virtual non-virtual, non-virtual virtual, live, real, in-person (I’m at a loss for words for a change, but I think you get the idea) marathons and half marathons to kick off the winter season of virtual racing. The race will be followed, I’m sure, by the consumption of massive quantities of medicinal hops to help soothe our aching muscles.

I’m a little worried about how cold the weather will be for this race, but Mother Nature has graciously provided near record lows for Florida this week to help me acclimate. How thoughtful of her.

Wait a minute – I need to crank up this space heater a little.

Ahhhh.

Where was I?

Oh yeah - training. I modified another Hal Higdon Marathon program to set up a training schedule over the next few weeks. Here it is:

I also analyzed my last few months of training to try to figure out why I hit the wall at the Space Coast Marathon.

This is what I’m thinking:

• Overconfidence – shooting for 4 hours for my first marathon and starting out too fast.
• Inexperience – especially relating to eating and drinking during the race.
• Inadequate speed work and hill training – my training was pretty light on these workouts, mostly because of a bout with ITBS half way through and the fear of a recurrence that lasted for several weeks.

Fortunately, the sadistic leaders of WVR have scheduled a reprise of the notoriously difficult Victoria Park meets Deland Hills route next weekend. From my quasi-paranoid, self-centered, delusional world perspective, I know they did this solely to address the deficiency in MY training. So I will offer apologies in advance to the innocent neophytes who will be unwittingly subjected to this tortuous ordeal for the first time.

Good luck.  You may need it. ;-}

The Hills are Alive

The hills were tough, but I survived! More than that, I thrived. I even bolted up the last few, mostly because I was exhausted and ready to get them over with them as soon as possible. It helped a lot that I had a running partner from WVR who ran at my exact pace. She matched me stride for stride. I don’t think we were ever farther apart than 50 yards for the entire two hours and forty minutes.

We even ran an extra mile because we underestimated the length of the route. The total run was 15.4 miles at an average pace of 10:26.

I haven’t been that sore after a run in a long time but an ice bath followed by a hot shower made me feel much better.

Now the grazing has commenced. I was down 5 pounds from this run and hit a new low for my weight. The fridge will be empty by sunset.

You mean 14 miles isn’t hard enough?

The sadistic leaders of WVR have designed a long run route incorporating the infamous Deland Hills. I’ll be doing 14 miles Sunday with 4 miles of pretty intense inclines right in the middle.

If you don’t hear from me by Monday – send help!

Calling my Shot

I just registered for the Children of the Nations Run for Africa 5k in Winter Springs, FL on July 24. I haven’t run a 5k since 2006 but my training has been going very well lately and I think I have a good feel for what I am capable of, especially after my performance on the beach at the Daytona 4 Miler two weeks ago.

I have incorporated hill training and fartleks into my weekly training for the past few weeks and as a result have set several new PR’s and have seen more and more of my mile splits dipping under the 8 min/mile mark.

So I’m calling my shot. I have a goal in mind and I am publicly declaring it here and now.

I finished the Daytona 4 Miler in 33:38 with an average pace of 8:25.

My goal for the 5k is 24 minutes. That’s an average pace of 7:45.

Wish me luck. I have eight more days to train.