Completing the 3-mile a day challenge of 2010 was awesome.
The goal for 2011 is the biggest half marathon in the world this spring and
Never mind. The damn race is already sold out. The previous record was 62 hours. Today it sold out in 28. Missed it.
Guess I need another marathon. But anyways run a marathon, and run it in under 4 hours (I would squeal if I could break 3:50).
My first marathon I just focused on the long runs. I lived by the moto If you can run 20, you can run 26.
This time I want to use Jeff Gaudette's theory of marathon training: For success at the marathon distance, you need to training specifically for the physiological demands of the race. In the marathon, this means three things:
Turining those goals into a training plan focuses on:
- Increasing your fitness so that you can decrease your marathon pace and make it more comfortable
- Teaching your body how to burn fat as a fuel source as opposed to carbohydrates
- Simulating the fatigue you'll experience the last 10k without getting hurt or becoming too tired in training
Long and slow 22 milers will breakdown the muscles and will completely exhaust you, which will lead to a significant delay in recovery. In addition, running for longer than 3 hours and 30 minutes can significantly increase the chance of injury and doesn't produce significant physiological adaptations...by running on both weekend days, this allows you to carry the fatigue of Saturday's run into Sunday, which will simulate the latter stages of the marathon without having to run 20 miles.
- Faster paced tempo runs that are often broken into shorter, but faster intervals [this seems like two short/fast runs during the week 5-6 miles]
- To simulate the fatigue at the end of the race, this FitnessClass breaks up the long runs over the weekend into two moderately fast paced runs
This sounds like it focuses on the wall I ran into around mile 21 in Queens/Harlem. Sounds like what I need to do for success.
