Huzzah!
It's time to start training for a fall marathon. This time however, I've got a few things going for me that I didn't have in the past.
1. Expert coaching from Coach Smith
2. A more favorable climate (debatable)
3. A more interesting race venue
4. Somewhat better knowledge of fueling and pacing
1. In my poorly organized and self-second-guessing self-coached period, I actually had my best luck in the marathon. My plan mostly involved running a butt-ton of miles and tacking on sub marathon pace stuff at the end. It made me stronger, but not prepared to race for over two hours. I was time-trialing at 2:19 pace and melting down at the two hour mark every time. I almost got it at the Trials, when I only fell apart to the tune of 6:00 miles after 23. This was probably because I only had a month to train and screw it up, since I was the last guy in the entire race to qualify . (see blog post from Dec. 10-11) Having structure, and having that structure based on intelligence will no doubt help me keep it together until the end. This actually has me really excited for the marathon for the first time since my first one.
2. Right now, it's super hot in the Cities, but it's way worse in Kansas, and I don't even want to think about the humidity in NC. I feel like July/Aug/Sep will be much more tolerable up here.
3. I'm not going back to Chicago. I like Chicago plenty, but I'm getting sick of that boring course. I don't think I need a ton of crowd support while racing, but I'd appreciate something more than a bunch of parking lots and warehouses for the last ten miles. Bleh. I still haven't chosen (been chosen) which race I'll do, but it'll be Twin Cities or Toronto, whichever I can into or don't have to pay to get to. 2:20 probably won't get me place tickets, so let's be realistic and expect that I'll be running Twin Cities on Oct. 7.
4. I'll never do another race without elite aid stations. The trials was great. forcing myself to suck down the right concentration of runner-swill every few miles was one of the big differences in holding off the bonk. In all my other races, I carried stuff and screwed something up each time.
- Boston 2010 - left my gel in my drop bag. finished at about 8:20 pace
- Chicago 2010 - dropped one of my gels and drank the nasty Powerade and got sick
- Chicago 2011 - used Endurolytes, which disintegrated in my pocket. Hit the wall harder than I ever imagined was possible.
If there's a bottle out there on a table with my goop taped to the side, the chances of me botching something are much more limited.
Out of stuff, signing off -
