02 June 2008

And so it goes

...it's time to get movin'. I've enjoyed the leisure time, but I want to run. Truthfully, I've been thinking about my next marathon since roughly two hours after finishing in Madison. But I've saved the post until now, for the most part (I hinted at it in my "Notes on Madison" post). What's next? Where do I go from here? How do I get there?

Since Madison I've completely fallen off the wagon and then been run over by it in terms of nutrition and mileage. But I've enjoyed it. I have read about several runners who have taken time off. As much as they didn't like it, it seems to help them re-focus and get ready for their next endeavour. For runners there's always something coming up, right? I mean, look at your RBFs...they all have a schedule posted regarding upcoming events. So here's my schedule for the summer.

I want to go under 3 hours in Milwaukee in October.

I will achieve that goal using a specific training schedule that starts this week with long, slow, endurance base-building runs:
June 15: 24 mile run of the Green Circle Trail in Stevens Point (I'll be there for a seminar)
June 28: 31 mile run of the Ice Age Trail in the Northern Kettle Moraine State Forest.

The first week of July, I'll be on "vaca" in Ireland and England. I'll run a little over there, but mostly I'll just drink Guinness. :)

I have two other races that I'd like to perform well at over the summer:
July 21: Cheesehead Chase 5 Mile, where I'd like to break 31:00.
August 16: Full Moon Half Marathon, where I'd like to break 1:25.

Through the rest of August and September, I plan on pushing my training with long (22-25 mile) marathon pace runs. The mental confidence these runs provided in my last training period gave me a huge boost.

There you have it. My plans...with one disclaimer:

Life tends to throw wrenches into plans. Especially my plans, it seems. I tend to bite off more than I can chew on occasion. I will continue to keep running fun by not making it a part-time job or allowing it to comprimise other obligations (picking up Parsenn's poo, arbitrating contract negotiations between the Brewers and their young players, finishing tasks Ellie gives me before she asks me for the 7th time, solving our energy crisis).

Ellie's Marathon Update: Last week Ellie ran her first 20 miler of training, and still wore high heels to a wedding we attended that night. But that's not the impressive part. She also did the electric slide like a champ in said high heels. I've got her running one more 20 miler this weekend before tapering, so I'll be out on my bike or in my car acting as her crew. I've told her that the real "half-way point" in a marathon is 20 miles, NOT 13.1, so she's excited to get another run in of that distance before she does it for "really reals" (as Marcy would say).

7 comments:

Triseverance said...

Sound like a nice "relaxing" summer you have planned. I have actually been turning Lakefront over in my head....we shall see.

Best of luck to Ellie with her last big run of the trainin cycle.

Marcy said...

That is an impressive feat for the lady. I always look like I have saddle sore after running anything longer than 10 :-X That is def fo really reals hardcore! She's going to do excellent!

Aron said...

wow that sounds like an intense summer of running!

yay for ellie - my 20+ miler is at the end of the month!

Bill Carter said...

Hi Nic

Congrats again on your BQ and I am still so excited for you. It is sort of a deja vu with Reid's (Lifestrides) story from last year and I know doing Bostonwas an amazing experience for him.

The time off will do you a lot of good and I have a feeling you are going to crush the 3 hour barrier in October.

Best of luck.

Nitmos said...

I definitely recommend setting a new goal to go after while preparing for Boston. I lulled into a pattern of running to finish rather than setting specific goals and I think that has definitely hurt my race preparation (and intra-race motivation).

Grellan said...

Well done on the BQ. Gutsy performance. I love to feel stroung right up to the 25.5 mile mark. After that I'd crawl the rest. Enjoy your holiday.

Richard said...

Hi,

I stumbled across your blog following from Grellan's one. I completely agree with your approach to the long runs and the pace of them in terms of pushing the wall back in Marathons. I did a 3:59 last October in my first marathon having hit the wall badly at mile 18. Following specific training at 8 - 8:15 endurance runs at distances from 19 - 24 miles I pushed the wall back to 25 miles and came in at 3:35. I now know that if I combine this with a bit more tempo running (6 - 10 milers at 7:10 - 7:15) and intervals (injury prone knees)I'll get down under 3:20 -

Enjoy your holiday in Ireland - nice weather at this time of year for running.