For those keeping track, I just wrapped up week 8 of marathon training, as if it were a birthday present for my cousin and all I had for paper was the comics section of last Sunday's newspaper. With the swift exit of taper week 6 (two Sundays ago), I've seen the last of my less than half marathon long distance runs. I've wandered into the uncertain terrain of Tusken Raiders' territory that I was initially intimidated by, way back when, while I was deciding over which training program to embrace for my second date with miss marathon. The weekends are where the intermediate milage really diverges the most from the Novice 1 & 2 programs. Higdon calls for 2 hefty runs stacked back to back at week's end. Saturdays are a medium distance "marathon pace"* run, and then there's Sundays' Oolong Tea slow distance run.
I've found it helpful, when no other scheduling conflicts are present, to separate my weekend long runs as much as possible; like prize fighters after that end of the round bell dings, returning to their respective corners to gather their strength before jumping back out into the ring to bludgeon each other with their padded fists. Which is exactly what happens when running the long runs, especially if you don't space them out adequately. The recipe for recovery, that has been doing coin & card based sleight of hand magic tricks for me, is resting in between bouts as much as possible. On Saturdays, I'll run as early in the morning as possible. As soon as the sun is in the sky, my feet are on the ground. Then, on Sundays, I'll push my longest run of the week as far into the evening as possible, without intentionally interfering with any HBO programs (though there's always On Demand, and not all of them are all that great anymore).
Mondays are reserved for cross-training, usually cycling, which is a relief since those double digit socks full of quarters that are swung at my legs repeatedly on Sundays' LSDs don't really take too much of a toll on those slightly different muscles being exercised like Linda Blair the following day on Schwinny Cooper. When I was using Novice 1, for Tokyo 2011, the LSD was on Saturdays, leaving Sunday as a cross-training day, sandwiched between Friday & Monday rest days. It was a typical occurrence that the long run would leave me nearly incapacitated with ITBS symptoms, to the point where I often skipped out, or cut back, on the amount of cross-training I could do. Thankfully, so far, I've been able to adhere to a fully implemented cross-training routine of cycling or walking. I must admit, I do feel a benefit from "active resting" as cross-training sometimes seems to be, so I'm glad to feature it more prominently, or at least practice it more consistently, in my current training schedule. Looking over the Novice 1 schedule right now is slightly reassuring; if I've made it this far without incident, I must certainly be a better runner than I was back in December.
During the moments prior to my first marathon, before we lined up for the race, there was a bit of nonchalant wisdom imparted on me while Vin was having a conversation with a fellow runner. It has stuck with me ever since hearing it, and it's practical advice, or if nothing more, a clear reality check, which I will share with you now. Vin was chatting it up with someone from his running club, an experienced marathon runner from Australia (I think). Vin was explaining his runner's knee injury during the training program we both followed, and he said, since he was concerned with further injury, "I'm in survival mode today". His fellow club runner, not even looking up from his seat, scratched his shoulder while he stared off out the window and muttered, "It's all survival mode". And there you have it folks; marathons: in summation, "It's all survival mode". Wise words indeed...
Footnotes:
*The medium distance roughly equates to about half of the next day's long run. The marathon pace denotes the speed I should be running it at, or more precisely the speed in which I intend to run the marathon at. Since I don't use a watch or timing system, other than the microwave clock when I leave/return to the apartment, my timing system is imperfect to say the least. I pretty much take the time I come up with on Wednesdays (the mirror run, since Wed. & Sat. are a matching set), and just run harder on Saturdays. I feel like I'm improving, and yet, don't have the evidence to prove it.
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