Eyes on Napa

 

I. Am. Capable. I. CAN. Do. This!

 

Napa Valley Marathon training started this week. This is my goal marathon for 2015. 26.2 miles straight down the Silverado Trail. Some rolling hills but 271 feet of total elevation drop. The only marathon I am signed up for. This is where I plan to run my Boston qualifying time in 18 weeks. My qualifying time is 3:55. I don't want to chance being a squeaker. I want to run 3:50.

 

 

 

The plan that I went with this time is a beefed up Hal Higdon Intermediate II plan. Last time I tried this, I made it mile heavy to begin with and it just didn't go well. This time, for the first time, I feel like I'm going into a training program with some decent base miles. The other times I did training programs I pretty much went from nothing to - Hello Week 1! I got 31 solid miles in last week and had double digit weeks for the 3 weeks before that...so, here's how I modified the plan...

Instead of starting with Week 1 of the plan, I'm starting in Week 4. I then put three more weeks of high mileage runs into the middle of the program so instead of three 20 mile runs, I will have long runs of 20, 22, 24, 26, and 20 miles. I am sticking with the tenet of a pace run coupled with a long run the next day so in Week 13 I'll be running my own Goofy. I will probably switch around some of my other days depending on my work schedule but the weekly miles will stay the same.

 

 

I am trying to schedule some type of fitness assessment where I can get my VO2 max tested as I'm playing around with the idea of trying to do 80/20 training, meaning doing 80% of my runs easy and 20% at a higher intensity. I think if I do the 80/20 thing with this plan, it means that every run is an easy run except for the one that I will be doing at goal marathon pace - which for me will be 8:45 miles.

 

8:45 pace. It sounds so easy... until you have to string 26.2 of them together.

 

I am also going to work on my fueling. Looking back, I think that that was probably why I blew up in Louisville. In both of my last two marathons I never had an issue with my cardio. I felt like I was running a conversational pace the whole time. At Monumental last year, it was my leg issue that made me stop and try to drop out. It still makes me sick to think that I walked 3 miles and finished in 4:20. At Derby this year I simply ran out of gas at mile 20. My plan had been to eat a gel every hour - which I did - but my legs just wouldn't go anymore after mile 20. I normally don't eat or drink when I run for anything under 10 miles. I will be practicing with more eats this time around.

Next is my mental game. Once my legs started failing I went into total nuclear meltdown mode in Louisville. I am really working on my brain this time, reading up on sports psychology and even signed up for a lecture.

Having said all this, I think my body is bipolar. After having some great runs the last two weeks, yesterday I had the most horrific 3 mile run I've ever had. I wanted to stop after half a mile. It was hot. It was windy. I was running my rolling county roads. My legs were tight and felt like they were a 100 pounds a piece. I seriously wanted to stop and walk but plodded through. I have no idea how fast or slow I was going but if I'm doing this 80/20 thing, my perceived exertion was a 10. Today I retreated to the hamster track and did 6 miles. Still felt tight but easy overall. I'm hoping things feel good for the rest of the week.