Training recap
I re-read most of my posts since July and could almost track my mood along the way. I remember almost all the bumps and bruises that came during the training. I remember the despair when the shins protested and I wasn't sure I'd be able to run at all. I remember the despair... the dryness... the disinterest... the euphoria... the billowing momentum. All the various undulations of my mood. Almost always, at the very bottom of the trough, there was some inspiration I found--whether it was remembering the very depth of agony in 2005 or something from another blogger post, or something entirely different--that picked me up.
Thanks.
But the real reason I was reading the blog archives was to see how much I really trained for this thing. I posted each and every run I did online, without fail. The recap:
July: 7 miles (2 days)
August: 28.1 miles (5 days)
September: 32.65 (6 days)
October: 32.02 (7 days)
November: 20 (4 days)
December: 37.6 (6 days)
January: 3 (1 day)
Actually looking at it is a bit embarrasing.
That's 31 days of actual running spread over 7 months. A cumulative 160.37 miles.
By all rights I shouldn't be walking right now. I shouldn't have finished the marathon.
I was talking back in August about busting off a 20 mile week... I barely had 30 mile MONTHS.
I was talking at the start of my training of having 40 mile weeks leading into the marathon... I didn't run 40 miles in any month of training, and only ran 20 miles in a single week.
The month of October featured 6 runs of 3 or 3.4 miles and 1 run of 13.5 miles. the month of November featured a single run of 11 miles and 3 runs of 3 miles, and I considered that a good month.
December featured 3 runs of 3 miles, 1 4 miler, 1 6 miler, and the 30k (which is NOT 18 miles).
That's it.
Most of my runs were 3 to 6 miles, and I didn't have that many runs.
Now I wonder what might have happened if I really focused and actually stuck to a running program of 2 or 3 runs a week of 6 to 9 miles.
Well, let me qualify that.
That's "wonder" in an academic sense, not an experimental sense.
I'm retired from marathoning.
I'm a little perplexed, but retired.
posted by El Oso Furioso at
12:26 AM
3 Comments:
Joe, out of curiosity, what color would you call the background on your blog today?
Your story about not training reminds me of someone at work who ran the half but basically did about the same amount of training (but half the amounts). The guy is in excellent shape, as it sounds like you are too.
He came in just about a minute behind me, and is almost 12 years younger than me. He was teasing me that his goal was to beat me next year. I assured him that wasn't much of a goal - to beat a slow, old woman - and suggested picking one of the 8-minute pace guys.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Round (the shape I'm in) is certainly an excellent shape. There are so many math facts that come with a perfect circle.
The background looks like an olive brownish color on my monitor. According to the source code it's #333.
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