Portland…Ready?

Marathon Training – Portland here I come!

Well, it’s been a while since I last posted anything here and that was a pain in the butt!  HA!!! I’m so funny!

Anywho,  I thought I should bring everyone up to date on what’s been going on. (both of you)

I signed up for the Portland Marathon on July 23^rd but didn’t get started training for a while since I had just come off my 1^st Ironman at the end of June (27^th to be exact) and was struggling thru the “after ironman blues” syndrome.   (It’s real!)

I’ve been running here at work off and on, usually M-W-F-Sat, with an average of 15 to 25 miles per week.  Nothing earth shattering, just plugging along.

So finally about 3 weeks ago I decided I had better get serious about this or all that money I paid for the marathon may as well have been thrown out the window.

So here I am, entering my 4^th week of training but I’m only four and half weeks away from the marathon and I’m supposed to be doing Portland to qualify for Boston.  Right.

Qualify for Boston: Let’s see, I’m 55, so that puts me at 3 hours and 45 minutes in order to qualify which is an 8:34 pace.  Uh oh…seems to me I have a LONG WAY TO GO!  Sigh…

BUT I’ve got to at least try.

My last attempt (you can read it here) was back in the spring of 2009 and I missed it by 3 minutes and 8 seconds.  Yes, that close.  Well, you’d have to read the whole story to find out why.

So if you asked me right now if I think I can do it I’d have to answer honestly and say no.  But I’m not going to stop training.  I will continue as though I “think I can”, cause who knows, maybe I can?

But honestly…I doubt it.

Why?

Well, two years ago I was getting ready to do my 1^st ultra marathon and was putting in some pretty healthy mileage and by the time I switched back to getting ready for the Windermere marathon I had a really good base and just needed to add some speed to round things out, which I did by going to the track on Wednesdays.  Things were progressing well and I felt pretty good about my chances.

This time around, things are a little different.

Although I have a fair amount of base as Steve (my training buddy) & I trained through the winter and did the ultra again in March and then the Ironman in June, I was concentrating more on the bike than I was the run during the last 3 months of training leading up to IM.

After IM my wife and I traveled to Florida where my training consisted of Dunkin Donuts and body surfing, which believe it or not, is not a bad way to recover!

That was in June, and here we are in September and according to my Garmin, I’m not too far off the 8:34 pace I need, but I’m concerned that I’m far enough off that Portland may be a little too soon.  But what’s a guy to do?  I’ve paid the money, now I’ve got to train the best I can and hope for the best!

So three weekends ago I did an eight miler, and it felt okay, pace was around an 8:45, so that was okay.

Two weekends ago I bumped it up to 11 (I know..WAY too big of a jump, but 10/10/2010 is just around the corner!) and took it kind of easy and wound up with a pace of 8:49 pace.  Hmm, not too bad.  I felt good the whole time, plus I was listening to the best motivational speaker (in my opinion) for running, Dick Beardsley, “Staying the Course”!  If you haven’t heard Dick or listened to this particular podcast you’re missing something special.  It will have you laughing AND crying!  What a story!

Where was I?  Oh, yes, so LAST weekend I bumped it up again and did a 15 miler.  Yikes..this one was tough.  When I first started out I noticed my legs felt heavy.  Fatigue from last week?  Hmmm, maybe.  Or, perhaps it was the fact that I jack-hammered my sidewalk on Saturday and my legs AND back were complaining!  Whatever the case, I got through the 1^st 13 at an 8:50 pace but the last two miles were stinkers!  My stats for the whole 15 were 2:16:13, 9:05 pace.  Ugh..that’s NOT going to cut it!

BUT…I know, I know…I’m not supposed to be running race pace right now, but if I had to, I KNOW I wouldn’t be able to!

So, this weekend, I’m not sure what I should do.  The plan I’m ‘sort of kind of’ following calls for a 22 mile run with the 1^st 18 @ an easy endurance pace (I can do that!) and the last 4 miles at goal marathon pace. (I don’t think I can do THAT!)

One thing I know, I love running.  Just plan love it!  And to be specific, I love long runs.  I love going out to my favorite area and getting lost for 2 and 3 hours at a time.  I love that early morning feeling, the sun slowly coming up, light beginning to spread out through the trees, and no traffic.  Just farm land, deer, wild turkeys and horses.  Wow… I’d PAY to be able to do it, and here I am getting to do it for free!  WOOHOO!  LOVE IT!

I’ll report back via twitter http://twitter.com/TriMoot on what I wind up doing this weekend.

TriMoot