Breaking the Wall

Sasha, you're training looks like it is going well! When you have a minute, I would like your input on a couple of things. I mentioned earlier that I have not done a lot of weekly mileage for the past 5 years because of pregnancies and what not. I am now sustaining around 50 miles a week and will probably hit 60 a couple of times before TOU, but I think that is as high as I dare go for this marathon. I would like to do another marathon next spring, and work up to 60-70 miles a week, but I gotta be honest, I am really nervous about going more than that for fear of injury. Any thoughts on this?

Also, I am researching the best races to do to get me to that OTQ time. I think I would love to do Grandma's, Boston, and Hartford (to avoid racing on Sunday as much as possible). Have you done Hartford? It looks pretty fast. My thought is to do either Grandma's or Boston in the spring of 2010 and Hartford in the fall of 2010. Then do the other out of Grandma's or Boston in the Spring of 2011 and I'm not sure after that. Do you think it matters whether I do Grandma's or Boston in the spring of 2010? My hope is that after running Grandma's, Hartford, and Boston, I will have my OTQ time and I can just race a marathon once or twice more before the Olympic Trials and maybe win some prize money in the meantime.

Nan:

For the mileage. If you ease off on the pace, the high mileage is very tolerable. 8:00 pace is just fine for aerobic development. Also, do what you can to boost your recovery. Early to bed, naps, healthy diet. In your situation I would choose an hour of sleep over an hour at the gym. Sleep is a critical part of the training regimen. Running is when the check is earned, eating is when it is printed and signed, but sleep is when it is cashed.

I have not run Hartford, but it looks fast on paper. I have run St. Jude. It looks fast on paper, but it is full of micro-rollers, some people just roll through them, some do not. I think Rocket City is faster than St. Jude. I have run that one. Not very well, because I did it a week after another marathon, but I was able to hit the first half in 1:13 in spite of not feeling that great, and even kept the pace to 18 (then blew up and jogged in in 2:37 in time to make my flight home - set a PR of 3:02 from the start of the race to being dressed and driving).

Do not have an experience-based opinion of Boston or Grandma, never run those. From observations, though - Grandma can be fast, but it is easy to have bad luck with weather. Boston is a slow course, it is easy to have bad luck with weather, and unless you already have an OTQ you will not get either a comp or a hotel. They can be pretty snobby - I am aware of them denying elite entry status to a 2:27 female marathoner from Poland (She went to SLC instead, ran 2:30, and collected $25K for the win plus extra for the course record). I imagine they would be nicer to Americans, but only if you have some form of status. A smaller race like St. Jude, Richmond, or Rocket City will give you a comp and a hotel if you are a sub-3:00 woman.

With the marathons I would take this approach. Race them fairly often. Go out at OTQ pace to failure. After you've run two consecutive miles off pace while honestly trying, ease off, jog in, re-evaluate, then try again when you think you have a realistic shot. Unless of course there is cash on the line, and you are willing to wait longer to try again - in that case fight for the cash. Hopefully you will not have to do it too many times.

I think you simply reached the limit of your aerobic/anaerobic systems ability to produce oxygen. The nonlinear relationship of heart rate vs pace indicates this.

In reference to yesterday's entry of course.