ENDURANCE MESOCYCLE

Tomorrow morning is a long run and completes my first week of serious training in 2008. I haven't ran 6 days in row in a long time. I have felt that my legs were a little tired and sore in the mornings but all and all I have felt exceptionally well. My ankle joints have hurt more than anything but no serious problems just soreness. I have had a time getting out of bed a couple of days this week.

My goal is qualifying for the Boston Marathon. When the 2009 race occurs I will be 37. My qualifing time will be 3 hours and 15 minutes. That averages 7:20 for 26.2 miles. My training and goal pace is to break 3:00 hours or a 6:52 pace. I want to train so that I can maintain a 6:50 pace. If something happens during the race and I slow I should still be able to finish in 3:15. At least that's the plan right now.

Sounds simple enough on paper. Last year my PR was a 3:45 at Richmond. It felt painful and I walked an awful lot during the last 8 miles. I know I have an 3:30 in me right now if I can just get it out of me. The Shamrock Marathon is on March 16, 2008. I am training using a short 12 week plan that should get me to the finish line in under 3:30. This will serve as my baseline for the summer training and will help me determine my starting point for a fall sub 3:00 attempt.

My Shamrock training plan will peak at 70 miles per week. That will serve as a good test for what kind of mileage I can handle during the hot summer months. I should have around 40 weeks after Shamrock until a December attempt. Right now I am thinking about spending 20 weeks building up my endurance, strength, and speed while continually keeping my mileage around 70 miles per week. Then I am planning an 18 week training plan that will take me straight to Boston.

Last year I ran one day a week speedwork sessions. I am planning on twice a week speed or hill workouts. The problem is that all of the running clubs do intervals on Wednesday nights, and that just makes scheduling a second hard week difficult. I've got plenty of time to figur that out.

The key to being succesful this year is going to be consistancy and sticking to the plan. No sleeping in, no skipping days. The only way to Boston is with mileage, lots of mileage. I am going to use the hard day easy day technique. And every third week is going to be a fall back week where I cut my mileage back.