So, yesterday it seemed like such a good idea. I was all giddy with the possibilities, and I went with it. You know how this story goes, don’t you? Morning regrets. Walks of shame. Maybe a typical Thursday for @michaelfmuller, but I continue to grasp at gossamer threads of dignity. Why, then, did I go ahead and sign up for another marathon? Didn’t I do my marathon for the year? Yes, but having trained for one in the first half of the year means I still have time for another round of training. I feel so ashamed. What to do other than begin the training plan again.
“So what, exactly, is the plan Sanuk D?” you may be thinking to yourself. Good question. The first time I did a marathon I used a plan laid out by the venerable Hal Higdon. Venerable because he is old, not because he is an Archdeacon. I am not an Archdeacon, but I do like to take the Sabbath off from running. So I stuck close to the plan except I ran a long run on Saturday instead of Sunday. It was very good because I had never run a marathon, and I had no idea what to do and here was this thing that said “here, do this!” So I did that and it worked out, mostly because I had some confidence in the plan.
So, the next couple of marathons I sort of did the Higdon plan, meaning that I did the long runs and sort of did the runs during the week. This approach was not quite as successful. In fact, the marathons — especially the second one — sucked. Running marathons is not really healthy, I don’t think. I mean, it’s healthier than not exercising, but it does do damage to the body. The point of the experience ought to be something other than health. Like fun. For me, runs around the 16 mile length are fun. Lots of +20 mile runs are not fun. Weeks that have a lot of < 5 mile runs bum me out too. I get moody.
So, this last time I did a modified modified Higdon plan. I ran 30 – 35 miles most work weeks and spread that out fairly evenly across the days. 6 weeks or so out, I ramped that up to around 35-40 miles for a few weeks. On Saturdays, I ran increasingly longer runs working up to a 20 miler 3 weeks out. My longest week was somewhere around 55 miles. After that, I ran an 18 miler and a 16 miler and went back down to about 25-30 miles during the week. The week before the marathon I ran about 20 miles total. That’s all approximate.
So basically, the idea of building up mileage and then tapering seems to work, except that I have a relatively slow metabolism. I need to give myself plenty of time to ramp up and not taper off too far. Plus, this is supposed to be fun, right? Ok, it’s a bad way to have fun but still. I want to run enough for what is good for me mentally and what will allow me to have some fun when I go out. I have heard that the Hanson Brothers have a plan that is essentially longer runs during the week and a shorter long run. Whatever. Running around like a loon sounds good to me as long as the total miles per week add up. Given how the most recent race turned out, I’m willing to give this a shot again.