Marathon Training / Week Seven : Routine

Running Recap:

• Tuesday / 4 Miles / Intervals
• Wednesday / 7 Miles / Pace 
• Thursday / 4 Miles / Trails 
• Saturday / 9 Miles / Easy 

We all know the song that plays on Bill Murray's alarm clock at 6:00 AM in the movie Groundhog Day.  Sing it with me..."Then put your little hand in mine, there ain't no hill or mountain we can't climb, babe...I got you babe..."  Phil Conors, played by Murray, wakes every day to this song, finding himself in a time loop, resetting every day on Groundhog Day.  At first he tries all sorts of hedonistic and self serving ways to fill his days, even attempting suicide.  But after awhile, he sees that he can accomplish good things during these repetitive days, and re-examines his life and his place in the world.  

Marathon training can be a bit like Groundhog Day.  I've completed my seventh of eighteen weeks, and while I have plenty of motivational gas left in the tank, I can say with all honesty that it is very much a life consuming routine.  I'm constantly thinking about what I will be eating, because the runger strikes every three hours with a vengeance.  I obsess over the hour by hour weather forecast, in an effort to plan out when I will get to run.  I plan my social life (don't kid yourself, Kid, you don't have one) around my runs.  I track the mileage on the three pairs of shoes I have in rotation and plot when I will need another pair (another few weeks).  I mark my miles on a calendar at my desk, track it against the plan I have in a handy-dandy binder, and also log my miles online with my Garmin.  See what I mean about consuming?  

I just finished reading Miss Peregrin's Home For Peculiar Children.  The story features a Groundhog Day-esque loop, where the head mistress, Miss Peregrin, oversees an orphanage for children with superpowers.  Their loop resets every day the moment before their home is bombed by Nazi war planes.  Their days are filled with chores on the same sunshiny perfect day and highlighted by the children's shenanigans."Believing that routine was the best defense against depression, Miss Peregrine tried to keep everyone interested in her daily lessons, in preparing the daily meals, and in keeping the house spic and span." 

The routine of marathon training is exactly what keeps me moving forward, week after week, running four days a week.  I've done training plans before and executed miserably.  What's working for me this time is that I am not just getting the miles in, rather each day I run has a specific purpose.  Each of the four runs I do each week are entirely different, and maybe that's what keeps the Groundhog Day Syndrome to a minimum.  I've played around a lot with training scenarios and structured a plan that's paying off already, physically and mentally.  And it goes a little something like this...

• Running Down a Dream / Intervals :  I watched my friend Jessica get faster and faster all spring.  I finally asked her, how in the heck are you so fast?  Her response: intervals.  Looking up how to do interval training gave me total information overload, but I embraced the spirit of it and came up with this plan: run 4 minutes at average/comfortable pace, run 1 minute just about as hard as I can, knowing I have to keep it up for a whole minute.  Repeat for the length of your run.  (I've taken 1:22/mile off my interval time...she wasn't kidding, it works).  
• The Distance (she's going the distance, she's going for speed) / Pace: Pace runs are mid-distance runs at the anticipated race pace.  It's to get my body synced in with what it "feels" like to run at the speed which I want to run my marathon.  A lot of people don't really have a good idea what their first marathon race pace will be, and I've used 4 different calculators that put my race pace within a 7 minute range based on my races this year.  Oddly, smack in the middle is the pie-in-the-sky time I put on my registration.  It's a little overwhelming thinking that's how fast I will run for 26.2 miles, without allowances for potty breaks.  But as Jamie has said, I'm sure there are worse things that have been done on the streets of D.C.  
• Happy Trails to You / Trails:  Ahhhh, trail running.  I love trail running.  I hate trail running.  I love trail running.  I am lucky enough to live in an area with a multitude of state parks with nicely marked trails through the most stunning dune forests you will ever see.  My trail run days rejuvenate my soul. That is, when I'm not panting and cursing at how hard it is to run trails.  Trial running is good because it improves proprioception, strengthens different muscles, is less jarring on your joints, and adding in the hills gives you a cardio workout like no other.  It's also the place where I leave behind all expectations of pace.  I walk when I need to.  I fall flat on my rump sometimes.  It's all good!  
• Slow Ride, Take it Easy / Easy: Hal Higdon recommends his marathoners do their long runs 60-90 seconds slower than anticipated race pace.  Whaaaa?  Wouldn't I want to run my long runs at pace, so I know I can make it that far at that pace?  Hell.  No.  First, it would wreck your body and you'd be beyond wiped out tired after your long runs, never able to recover to do your other runs during the week.  Moreover, without pretending like I know a lot of exercise science mumbojumbo, running more slowly helps your body learn to burn glycogen more efficiently.  Your body burns fat on those slow runs.  And whether it's proven or not, I've read for every pound lost, you take 10 seconds off your mile.  If that's actually true, hey, it's just another benefit of the slow run!   

So while it may look from the outside like ALL that I am doing is running ALL the time (okay, it's kinda true), the routine really is the sweet spot that keeps the Groundhog Day Blues away.  So when my alarm goes off at 6 o'clock, and Sonny is singing "Babe...I got you babe" all I can do is smile, hop out of bed and slide into my Mizunos.  There are miles to run, my friends!  

Until we meet again...

      Week Eight's Intention: You're a BAMF