TITLE: Two Kinds of Marathon Weekend
AUTHOR: Eugene Wallingford
DATE: September 12, 2010 12:49 PM
DESC: 
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BODY:
I feel so much better right now than I did two weeks ago
at this time.

Then, I had just finished a big weekend of running, with
more than a marathon's worth of mileage in little over a
day.  On Sunday morning, I ran my first 20-miler of the
season.  The day before, I ran in an 8-mile race.  I had
never raced at a distance other than 5K, half-marathon,
and marathon.

That weekend was unusual, of course.  I usually rest on
the day before my long runs, but a race that was
originally scheduled for last May was postponed due to
flooded trails to that Saturday.  So I decided to skip
my 8-mile speed workout on Friday, rest that day, run
the race on Saturday, and then do my scheduled 20-miler
as planned.

The race went much better than I planned.  I averaged
8:00 miles.  That used to be my marathon goal pace, back
in 2005-2006, but after health problems over the last
few years, I now consider it more of a marathon fantasy
pace.  I now have a much friendlier goal pace, 8:30,
though that is still a challenge.

I set up the Sunday 20-miler as two loops from my house,
the first 11 miles and the second nine.  That way, if I
were to run into trouble, I could always cut the run off
at half and call it a day.  I ran slowly, deliberately,
and all seemed fine until 15 miles.  At that point I
started to dehydrate, and the last five miles were as
hard a struggle as I've ever had on a training run.

The rest of the day was unpleasant: sore and feeling
poorly as my body tried to shake the effects of the
dehydration.  I wanted to write, but didn't have the
energy.

Fast forward to this week.  I actually ran more miles
during the work week than in any previous week of the
training cycle, thirty.  But I did only one speed
work-out, on Wednesday: 9 miles with 7x800m repeats
and 400m recoveries.  I decided to take it as easy as
my body wanted for Friday's nine miles, and a stiff
headwind that affected 40% of the run made it easy to
take it easy.  On Saturday, I rested.

For this morning's run, I resurrected a 20-mile route
from my previous neighborhood, an
<A HREF="http://www.cs.uni.edu/~wallingf/blog/archives/monthly/2009-03.html#e2009-03-22T14_30_13.htm">
   old friend</A>
who I knew would give me a good mental ride.  Last
evening, I made a plan to drink at specific points in
the run, much as I will in the marathon, in hopes of
resisting my weakness for running long without taking
nutrition.

The morning started at 50 degrees, sunny with a light
wind.  The temperature rose steadily as I ran, but the
morning remained beautiful.  My old friend served me
well, taking me through new scenery and giving me a
new view on some familiar scenery.  I warmed up
slowly and soon found a steady pace I was able to
maintain as the miles fell behind.  The last five
miles take me out to an urban lake for a couple of
hilly laps and back near my house.

I broke 3:10 for the twenty miles, just under a 9:30
per mile pace.  That's a good long run speed to
prepare for a 8:30/mile marathon.  Better still, I
feel good -- tired but strong, physically and mentally.
Whatever dent the first 20-miler made in my confidence,
this run has begun to rebuild it.  With five weeks until
race day, I again believe that it is possible for me to
be ready to make a credible effort.

So, my first 50-mile week of this training period is in
the books.  I'll probably run one more 50-mile week, and
one more 20+ mile training run.  I hope that my work so
far has prepared me to sustain mileage comfortably and
to begin picking up my pace on the longer runs.

But for the rest of today, I will rest, take a good meal
with my wife and daughters, and enjoy the feeling of a
single good run.
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