Goodbye 3.1....Hello 3.2!
Well – another year has passed and I turned 32 over the weekend! I used last week as a very large down week due to me getting the stomach bug early in the week, but was lucky enough to get two runs in. Thursday was 3.1, the last run as a 31 year old. Friday was 3.2, the first run as a 32 year old. Trending faster as I’m getting older? Sure!
This year, especially this fall, has been kind of a crap shoot. Marathon training for Whistle stop had a big halt due to home and work stress that led to me actually being smart and just shutting it down completely.
Since then I’ve been building a base as much as I can to get started on a spring marathon but not without even more issues coming up. We’ve had house issues, we’ve had stomach bugs, we’ve had just about everything under the sun, but guess what? We are persevering!
As some people may know, the Boston Qualifying times have been dropped 5 minutes faster per age group. This really upset me initially but thinking through the change has got me motivated to try and push myself even harder to accomplish a sub 3:00 marathon. I’m going to need to be hyper focused during training, but I’ve come up with a schedule through the next couple months to really build my base up so when the hard work comes, its just really speed work added in and not ramping up mileage as well.
What do I plan on doing? KISS – keep it simple stupid! I need to let my body adjust to the training that I’m going to be putting forth and will be sticking at a max distance for 3 weeks total and then upping it by 5 miles all the while not even looking at speedwork. Similar to the following:
W1, W2, W3, W4 – 40 miles, 45 miles, 45 miles, Down week
W5, W6, W7, W8 – 45 miles, 50 miles, 50 miles, Down week
W9, W10, W11, W12 – 50 miles, 55 miles, 55 miles, Rest week
Week 12 will lead into a pretty close to complete rest week, but soon after real marathon training will begin. I think a few of the Dubuque Running Club members are leaning towards the Illinois Marathon in late April as its a great course, usually good weather and pretty close for travel.
On a side note, I got accepted into Honey Stinger hive for the 3rd year in a row! I’ve recently picked up their gel flasks and the bulk Gold and its been working really well to dilute it down to drink easier on longer runs.
Expect to see more posts from here again as I am wagering war with the marathon! Excited to start this training again and really pushing myself to the limits!
Goodbye 3.1….Hello 3.2! was originally published on RadRunnerDad
