Marathon XVII

When approaching my 17th marathon, I took what I had learned in the past 10 years,  modified it to fit my needs and trained wisely.

On one hand, coming off of a difficult first half of the year - with injuries before and after the extraordinarily difficult Red Rock Canyon Marathon and decent comeback showings at the Storm King 10K and Franklin Lakes half-marathon - I was hesitant to push too hard and cause another setback.

On the other hand, at age 43, with 10 years of distance running behind me, I know that my window for a PR is rapidly closing and the time might be nigh to go for it, especially because Gloria expressed interest in running the Rock and Roll Marathon in San Antonio, Texas, which has a mostly flat course.

So I hedged my bet. I played it safe by forgoing a Hal Higdon Advanced training program - which calls for speed work and hill sprints - in favor of the Intermediate 2 program, which focuses squarely on mileage and occasional pace runs, but modifying it to make it a little more challenging. Instead of occasional mid-length pace runs, I tried to do as many runs as possible - short and long - at or near my 7:01 PR pace.  In addition, I added mileage to two of the three peak weeks, maxing out my longest run at 22 miles, instead of 20; with a total of 54 miles for the week, instead of 50.

It worked perfectly. For the past two months, my short runs (three to five miles) averaged at a 7:01 pace, My mid-length runs (six to 11 miles) averaged out at a 7:10, and my long runs (13 to 22 miles) averaged at a 7:17. 

This put me in the position to at least attempt to run a PR race (3:04:41). But it also kept me in check, knowing that I could back off during the race if it did not seem within my reach.  This newfound ability to readjust my goals sensibly mid-race would help me achieve a quality result (like in Maine and Myrtle Beach), rather than going for broke and crashing into the wall (like in Utah and New Hampshire).

By the time Gloria and I packed up the car and began the 1,800-mile drive on Thursday from Parsippany to San Antonio, I was brimming with confidence.