20 June 2010

Relatively speaking ~ Newton’s Third Law of Motion…


As I mentioned before, I had not planned to run a Marathon so early in my running career. However, after the opportunity to deploy to Afghanistan for a year had been presented, it just seemed silly not to use this year to train for my debut Marathon. My grand scheme had been to use the whole year to train; maybe I could even surprise myself and debut with a BQ. Ha, as the title suggest though, things don’t always work out as planned. The opposite reaction here was simply that I didn’t run a lot for my first 4 or 5 months.  I averaged maybe 20-25 miles a week. I wanted to use the Fall, Winter, and Spring to safely move my mileage up above 50 mpw (preferably 60). I wish I had some grand reason (read: excuse) that kept me from my goal, but no, I just didn’t do it. On the positive side, I did manage to keep my fitness going. I spent a little more time than usual building my strength, which will ultimately help me be a better runner and healthier person in general.

There are several big positives about training over here:

I am able to do a year’s worth of training at altitude.
I am able to train relatively free of other interruptions.
I can train at my own speed and do my workouts to my ability without the pressure to over train.
There are no late night parties to keep me up all night.
I am limited to what I can eat and how much of it.
Lastly, I make my own schedule so I am really only responsible to myself; there is no one to blame if I flake on a workout.

On the other hand:

I don’t get many opportunities to race and test my fitness.
Let’s be real Time Trials suck.
I don’t get to come home to my family everyday and I do miss them terribly.
I don’t get the camaraderie of a running group to push through the hard workouts.
Social interactions are almost non-existent. And "There are no late night parties to keep me up all night."


I am not able to eat good food. I am at the mercy of whatever the Dining Facility serves. They don’t have “Large Mocha Lattes with Skim Milk and no Whip Cream” for post Long Run re-fueling
Lastly, I make my own schedule so I am really only responsible to myself; there is no one to blame if I flake on a workout.

All in all, though, I can’t/won’t complain (too much). I do get to live and train like an Elite Road Racer; although at a way slower paces. I do have a good group of co-workers that run and I can talk with about training. One of the Officer’s in my shop is running the Seattle Marathon and another officer is running the HM there. Another runner in the shop is running the Malibu Marathon. In addition, there are a host of other people who run just for fitness or fun. I could have it much worse.

Well I guess we will be able to see how this works all works out on 19 September, at RnR Philly. By then I should only have been back from Afghanistan a few days. I am looking forward to a great race if I’m able to be recovered from the time change and flights.

Workouts this week:

Monday, 21 June
15-16 miles moderate run w/ progression run. Then 8-10 x 1 min @ 3k effort w/1 min jog rests
Tuesday, 22 June
Rest (or 2-3 recovery miles)
Wednesday, June 16
6 miles moderate with ladder of progressions
Thursday, June 17
Rest (or 2-3 recovery miles)
Friday, June 18
5 miles easy with strides
Saturday, June 19
3 miles easy
Sunday, June 20
13 miles moderate run with uphill striders and then sprints. Full Recovery 30-45 min @ Marathon Effort


"Once you're beat mentally, you might was well not even go to the starting line."
~Todd Williams

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