How many miles?
Another week in the books. This week I felt very metal (\m/!), with 66.6 miles in the bank. I didn't plan it at all, honest! It just happened! If the snow on Monday night doesn't get any worse, I'll also cross the 1500 mile barrier for the year on Wednesday too! The scary part is that I only crossed the 1000 mile marker in mid-September, but a couple of 200 mile months really makes the miles add up in a hurry!
So I've spent more than a few log entries babbling about how I was all about more runs this time around, after the last two races were abject failures of stamina after mile 18 or so. Being a total geek, I decided to do some data mining of the logs and ask: How many more is more? So I figured out how many miles from the first week of training (21 weeks before the marathon)I had run up until the week of my first 20 mile run(which is usually 8 weeks before). The answers were not surprising.
So for Disney 2004, and for Toronto 2007, I ran the same distances (which I didn't expect, I thought I had run more in 2007: 506 miles. In 2007, I put up a big PR in the 10K, running 41:20.
This fall, up til last Sunday, I've run about 651 miles, about a 15% improvement. Last week, about the same week in training as the 10K, I ran an 8K in 32:04. That works out to a 40:30 10K, if you use various running calculators that exist online. That's a real nice payoff for the extra miles.
Which brings me to the real question that I've been obsessing over. It isn't, "Am I fast enough?", I think it's really: "Do I have the STAMINA to last 26.2 at 7:26 pace." Because I got a late start on training, it's about the only thing that keeps me up at night. But, because I'm putting in all of this extra work, I'm worrying about it less and less, but it's still there. That 10K in a few weeks will be a good last test before the Marathon. If I can put together a near 40 minute 10K, I'll do my damndest to forget all of those worries.
I got our Alumni Newsletter (The Girls team four-peated as State Champions, by the way!) for my High School XC team last week, and on the back of one of the pages was a quote added by the assistant coach:
"There's no such thing as bad weather, just soft people." -- Bill Bowerman
Something for all of us Northerners to remember as the temperature stays low and the snow starts to stick around. I think that's going to be one the mantras for the next 6 weeks!
So I've spent more than a few log entries babbling about how I was all about more runs this time around, after the last two races were abject failures of stamina after mile 18 or so. Being a total geek, I decided to do some data mining of the logs and ask: How many more is more? So I figured out how many miles from the first week of training (21 weeks before the marathon)I had run up until the week of my first 20 mile run(which is usually 8 weeks before). The answers were not surprising.
So for Disney 2004, and for Toronto 2007, I ran the same distances (which I didn't expect, I thought I had run more in 2007: 506 miles. In 2007, I put up a big PR in the 10K, running 41:20.
This fall, up til last Sunday, I've run about 651 miles, about a 15% improvement. Last week, about the same week in training as the 10K, I ran an 8K in 32:04. That works out to a 40:30 10K, if you use various running calculators that exist online. That's a real nice payoff for the extra miles.
Which brings me to the real question that I've been obsessing over. It isn't, "Am I fast enough?", I think it's really: "Do I have the STAMINA to last 26.2 at 7:26 pace." Because I got a late start on training, it's about the only thing that keeps me up at night. But, because I'm putting in all of this extra work, I'm worrying about it less and less, but it's still there. That 10K in a few weeks will be a good last test before the Marathon. If I can put together a near 40 minute 10K, I'll do my damndest to forget all of those worries.
I got our Alumni Newsletter (The Girls team four-peated as State Champions, by the way!) for my High School XC team last week, and on the back of one of the pages was a quote added by the assistant coach:
"There's no such thing as bad weather, just soft people." -- Bill Bowerman
Something for all of us Northerners to remember as the temperature stays low and the snow starts to stick around. I think that's going to be one the mantras for the next 6 weeks!