Marathon 2010: Week 2

Okay so here we go again. I am back at it, training for another one of these, despite trashing my body last year and having a bum hip this year. You see one of the best and worst things about me is that I am a fairly driven person. I set my mind to something and I get a little obsessed with completing that task. OCD at its finest I guess.

So despite my body falling apart, despite being sleep deprived, despite being under the most stress I have ever been in my life - IT'S ON BITCHES!

This year, I will make the 4:30 cut. And to do it, I enlisted my friend Randy. Randy has run about 10-15 marathons, including Boston. Twice. Randy rules. He has made up a training plan for me this year to get me to the finish line in one piece. Mostly we are looking at tempo runs and speed work, as well as way more miles than last year, including 3 20+ mile runs, instead of 1. I will NOT bonk this year. I will not. I will rule this.

Making things more complicated though is this hip injury. I thought it was a groin injury at first, but the pain travels between my groin and the inner part of my knee. I think I have some seriously tight hips and need to focus on stretching every freaking night. Plus I am taking vitamin B12 supplements as well, as my Mom tells me that this very thing happened to her and her Dr told her about B12. Cleared it up for her, as she was B12 deficient. I'll let you know. I've been on it for 1 week. Moderate improvement.

Anyway, I git a Garmin gps this year, so I can better track my pace. I love this thing, especially for my long runs to keep up the pace.

I do sprint intervals now too, currently consisting of 3 mil total with a 1600, 1200, 800, 800, 400, 200 ladder with 1 minute walk in between, with warmup and cooldown. Really tough but I am starting to love it. And, for the first time during training, I am dropping weight and body fat. Maybe I am on to something this year. Exercise more, eat less. Lose weight. Hmmm.

So this week besides the usual, I had another 10 mile long run over on the Waterville Towpath. I am out there at 8:30 on Sat morning but it is already hot as hell. This is going to suck. I ran 5 miles without stopping, but then started doing a 10 on, 1 powerwalk (13 min mile) so as to hydrate and do a survey of if my body is holding up. Everything is cool. I am even running an effing 9 minute mile at mile 7! what the shit! Well that was fleeting as about mile 8 the heat kicked up a notch and I ran out of water. Holy shit was that awful. Lesson learned. Two water bottles dummy. Finally found a water fountain with 0.9 miles to go. Slugged it down. Headed for home doing a 10:30 in the heat. Cool.

Anyway, I finished my run, feeling damn fine once I got in the shade. I was proud of myself for pushing through the heat. And my body felt fine to boot.

So for this week:
M: 3 mile tempo
Tu: linebacker personal trainer
W: 6 mile
Thurs: 3.5 miles intervals
Fri: 3 mile
Sat: 10 miles
Sun: REST

Total on the week: 25.5 miles
Total for the season now, since May: >275 miles. Yes that's right. Almost 300 miles already. Last year, I topped 300 at some point in late Sept. I will be better prepared this time.