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December 25, 2005
Week No. 11
REASON NO. 16 FOR RUNNING A MARATHON
Marathons are not getting any shorter – and I’m not getting any younger!!!
This year I turned 45 years old. As anyone older than 40 can attest, as you age it becomes increasingly difficult to maintain the physical activity level that you used to have. Training for and running a marathon will (and has) force fed me a steady diet of exercise, that hopefully will help me delay the inevitable physical limitations that come with the onset of the “golden years�.
Training this week again was a struggle – with all the Christmas get-togethers and shopping, it made for a hectic week.
Tuesday was a 3-mile run around my house, followed by a 7 mile run in the Fog on Wednesday. Thursday got blown out by an out-of town party we attended, so I did an abbreviated run on Friday (about 2 miles with my wife).
I did my long run this week on Saturday, to miss the nasty weather predicted on Sunday, as well as avoiding running on Christmas Day (and the obvious family implications that would have). I met up with my brother and we ran from my house, south to Butte Creek, then followed Butte Creek north almost to Chico, then came back along the bike path and Jones Avenue. Total distance was 18.4 miles, and it was pretty painful. I felt good for the first 12 miles or so, after that it became increasing harder to maintain a decent pace, and to run smoothly. I only took one water bottle with me (my other one was borrowed by a family member), and about mile 13 it became painfully obvious that I did not take enough water or gu/powerbars for this long of a run. Luckily we went by the corner store in Durham, and I was able to buy a Gatorade to make the trip home – otherwise I really would have been in trouble. Bottom line, next long run (in two weeks) I will be dusting off my Camelback – it carries about 100 ounces, which should be more than enough for any distance I can run.
Total run time was 3 hours and 20 minutes – which works out to a pace of 10 minutes and 51 seconds per mile. If I can hold this pace for 26 miles, I will finish in about 4 hours and 42 minutes – which is just 48 minutes faster than the cut-off time to finish. If a runner is still on the course after 5.50 hours, they collect your bib number, and you do not get an official time for the race (which would be very, very frustrating, to put in this level of training and then not have an official time).
I am hoping to be able to hold a faster pace during the race, once I have completed my training program, and allowed all my muscles to recover during the taper period. Only time will tell if that is this strategy will actually work out for me on race day.
Posted by Dennis at December 25, 2005 07:39 PM