I've been hunkered down licking my wounds for about the last month since a terribly disappointing marathon performance on November 21st. I had a bad bout of nerves, which made it really hard to keep down the PB&J and quart of Gatorade that I forced down before the start of the race. I had to pull over and let it all out after only 6.5 miles (7:39 pace). I wish I could say that I got back in the race and at least jogged through the next 20 miles, but I felt so shaky and dispirited that I took the walk of shame off the course.
Since then I've been running only once or twice a week - mostly my weekly slow jog with buddy Paul. This week I've decided to get back in the saddle and get in shape for Boston in April. I didn't follow any program for the Philly marathon, and although I felt I was in as good shape as the previous year, the lack of a formal program contributed to my anxiety and pterodactyl-sized butterflies. This year I'm going to follow the Furman FIRST program to the letter. (That's the marathon program listed along the far right column of the blog.) As I successfully complete each workout, I will cross it off the list.
I also got out the bike trainer, which hasn't seen much use, and started doing 45-minute workouts on the non-running days. The FIRST program prescribes cross-training three times a week, which I ignored mostly the first time I did the program successfully in 2009.
I did the tempo run on Wednesday, and believe I made the times, although my Forerunner wasn't working and I had to use RunKeeper on the iPhone, which shut off two-thirds of the way through the run.
Today I'm back with the Forerunner, and did the Intervals run at the track. It consisted of three 1-mile intervals at 6:41, which I did successfully (link here). The third one was 6:25. Going to do the 13-miler on Sunday.
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There is a big trend right now to run less mileage while training for a marathon. Not quite sure about that. I will follow you on your training. I am trying to be a BQ to. I need to do 3:20.
Luc, the program I'm following, from Run Less, Run Faster by Pierce, Murr and Moss, is pretty low mileage. I used it in 2009 to qualify for Boston on my first marathon attempt (3:27 - I'm 47 years old), but did not train adequately this year. Good luck with your training - which marathon are you aiming for?
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