My first day of training under the Pfitzinger 24/55 program. Goal race: Memphis St. Jude on December 6. Hit the treadmill due to temps in the 90s for 7.5 General Aerobic miles in about 69 minutes, then went outside for 10 100-meter strideouts. The strides felt better than previous strideouts I've done; whether that was better conditioning, better technique or pure coincidence, I have no idea. Still 166 days to go to Memphis, but a good starting point. I'm glad I built my base up to 33 mpw before I started this program.
I thought long and hard about putting off the start of the training program until August, going with Pfitz 18/55 instead. The reason is the summer heat; running outside in July is not going to do much to prepare me for a December marathon, and there is a real risk of heat-related problems. But I decided to go ahead and start now. I don't want to look back after Memphis and wish I'd done more to prepare. If I put in the work and still don't get the goal, so be it, but I'm gonna put in the work first. Plus the extra weeks give me more cushion in case of injury or illness.
Speaking of looking back, I think that looking back on my prior running lives is why I'm so committed now. I was pretty mediocre as a high school distance runner (undertrained) until back surgery at age 15 shut me down. Nine years later, I decided to lace back up and go for a 15K on my 25th birthday, which happened to be sponsored by my employer. I trained hard for three months, finished the 15K in 63:00 or so (if there had been chip times in 1985), and then shut it down for another 20 years. What if I had continued to train then? The calculators say a 63:00 15K correlates to about a 3-hour marathon, but I never gave a thought to continuing my training, much less to running a marathon.
But I just think that the ability to run semi-fast is still in there, somewhere, and I want to unearth it. So far, so good; running decent distances at decent paces is getting easier and easier. Can I string together 26 miles at 9:08 pace? Can I go lower and maybe get into BQ territory? That's what I want to find out.
My "failure" in my first marathon was due to poor tactics, poor hydration and inadequate training (30 miles per week tops, mistake #1). I started out with a 4:30 pace group, but ran off and left them after 3-plus miles (mistake #2) at the second aid station and didn't start drinking soon enough (mistake #3). Felt really good for 11 miles, then started to get really thirsty. Still finished the half in 2:12, which would have been good enough to get my goal if I had enough miles in the bank, but I didn't. And when I started cramping in mile 17, the goal shifted from breaking 4:30 to just finishing. The last nine miles were run-cramp-walk, run-cramp-walk. Never mind any time goal, I wasn't sure I could get there, but I was going to finish if at all possible, and I did.
So I'm correcting these issues. Doing Pfitz 24/55 will give me a much better preparation. I know a lot more about hydration and carb-loading now. And I'm working in my training runs on fighting my urge to start faster than I should. Will 55 mpw get me ready for a sub-four? We'll find out in 166 days. | 