Week #4 update - much to think about...

Marathon nightmare

I do not remember many of my dreams. My wife, on the other, is a sleep talker and walker and carries on conversations in her sleep and even gets up to do things. It’s pretty freaky.

Anyway, last night I recalled two separate dreams – one of which was related to running (no, the other was not x-rated). I dreamt that I was stuck in traffic late to the start of the Chicago marathon. I was downright frantic and pissed. I busted my tail for 20 weeks and I wasn’t even able to start on time to chase the BQ.

In the dream, I arrived at the start line in the car right as the gun was going off. I had to throw off my warm-up suit, strap on my HRM (for some reason, this was important in the dream) and try to make up 1 minute of lost time. The stress alone ruined the experience. I was near tears as I scrambled to catch up to that 7:15 pace in the first mile…

So I woke up this morning to plan my route to the marathon on 10/22/06. I live 39 miles from the start. I didn’t even consider getting a hotel room, and now everything is booked up. Bummer.

OK, hotel is out… now, should I drive or train? The start is 1.1 miles from Chicago Union Station. Awesome… but wait, will a train get me there early enough? The earliest train to the city on Sundays right now is 6:20 departure arriving at 7:40. Race is an 8AM start. This is too late! Train could be late. I can’t cut it this close. I still need to develop a plan…

I guess this could be considered a good sign. The goal of 3:10 is beginning to consume me.

Monday and Tuesday run report

Monday: 8 miles w/10x100m strides

Est dist: 8 miles
Time: 1:00:31
Pace: 7:34 per mile
Avg HR: 152 (80%)

This was a solid run, folks. The 100m strides are essentially 23 second sprints, during which I attempt to run at 6-min pace. And I did 10 of these suckers – not to mention pretty steady sub-8 pace in between. After much input, I can only hope that I am doing these correctly.

Tuesday: 5 miles recovery

People, I felt it today… fatigue. The legs were soft. Not much to talk about here. I trotted through 5 miles in 44:10 – right on par for recovery pace.

Adjusting this week’s schedule

I decided that I need to rest tomorrow. My legs are burned out right now. I have not had a total rest day since Monday, July 3 (9 days ago). I haven’t run every single day, but I have done at least cross-training of some sort every day. My body sent me signals during the recovery run today. “Rest me, please” said Mr. Legs. OK, I promised, with much hesitation.

I will trade the planned rest day for Friday with tomorrow.

Conflicting advice – do all believe in Pfitzinger?

Lastly, I have been exchanging e-mail with my new team lead in the CARA program, Jim Laubsted, who runs the Wheaton, IL training group. Jim questioned my strategy to run 8:30’s for the first 75% of the runs – and then speed up to 8’s on the back end. He was concerned that I was running to slow to run 7:15's during the marathon. I said “but Jim, this is the Pfitzinger method!!"

Jim said that it is better to build confidence and run closer to your goal pace. Another site coordinator cautioned me: “Do not under-estimate the success potential of running even splits at a slow pace on your long runs.” I don’t know what to believe, at this point. Jim talked me into running 8’s on this coming Saturday’s long run of 15 miles. Hope this is the right decision.

Run onward, friends…!