Next Race: Rock & Roll Marathon, Washington, DC

When I was in my early 20's, I had terrible training habits.  And eating and dating habits too, but that's for another post.  The margin for error in all of these areas is much larger for a 20-something than for a high 30-something.  I ran 5 marathons in about a two year period, including two marathons in one month, and I don't think I ever ran more than 20 miles in a single training week during that period.  Not every race was a cakewalk -- the Boise Great Potato was a particularly painful race in which I did everything wrong -- but after a week or two of being unable to walk, I was back to my bad habits.

In my "adult" life, I have tried to train for a few marathons, and each time I have come away with an "overuse injury."  Even when I trained for the 2012 Ironman, it was the running miles that eventually caused my pes tendinitis.  I've also had to abandon marathon training because of work travel.  Such is life for a middle-aged weekend warrior.

But with each experience, I have further fine-tuned my training program.  And while I still have a variety of nagging pains that constantly threaten to become larger overuse injuries, I have put in significantly more miles for a longer period than ever before in my life.

Here are the two basic rules that seem to work for me:

1. Longest single run should be no longer than the next two longest runs of the week.  This is a simple rule to follow on paper, but it gets difficult when I have to miss a mid-distance run because of work or family obligations. 

2. Weekly mileage should not increase by about 15% per week or 25% per two-week period.  I typically top out at about 30 miles/week.  Every single marathon training plan I've ever seen recommends far higher mileage than that.  But for those of us who are not built like gazelles, 30 miles is already pushing it.

Of course, there must be exceptions sometimes, but each exception increases the risk of injury substantially.  I also openly acknowledge that I'm undertraining for marathons.  (My longest run this time was only 19 miles.)  But I would rather undertrain a little and allow race-day adrenaline to give me the final boost, than overtrain and sustain an injury.

With a little luck, I should be ready to run the Rock & Roll Marathon on March 15th.  The course is sort of a lazy figure-8.  I've run most of the top (purple) loop in previous National Half-Marathons, as well as half of the red section.  But the Anacostia portion at the end of the Marathon will be new to me.

My 3 goals for this marathon are as follow (and in this order):

1. Don't get injured.
2. Seriously, don't get injured.
3. Run a PR (sub-3:25)

I've toyed with the idea of qualifying for Boston (sub-3:10), but the course is just too hilly and I haven't been training at a fast enough pace.  While it is conceivable that I could really push it, the injury risk is somewhere close to 100%.  And the worst possible outcome is an injury in the first real race of the season. If this race goes well, I may reconsider later this year or next year (when my target increases to sub-3:15).

In my infinite wisdom, I also scheduled a 10-miler three weeks after the Marathon.  I've had to dump most of my hills and speed work because most of my training has been on the treadmill.  But I am hopeful that the baseload of endurance work will translate into stronger running and triathlon performances this year, even if the individual miles won't be as fast.