So I’m happy to share with you that I’ve finally run a marathon, in contrast to that mess that was the Tokyo marathon.
I’ve since departed the concrete jungles of Tokyo for the green burbs of Chicago, and at the beginning of the year my firm offered to pay admission to the Chicago marathon for anyone who wanted to do it. Unable to say no to such a fine offer (including people to run with in the office), I signed right up.
Fast forward to when I actually needed to start training for the marathon. The first two weeks went just fine. I was following one of Hal Higdon’s training programs to a T. Then work intervened, and one week not running quickly became eight weeks. I didn’t pick up my shoes again until Labor Day weekend.
Now that I basically had about six weeks to train, I had to do the best I could with what little time I had. I decided to use one of Hal’s training schedules as a basis, but just ramp up mileage every weekend until two weeks before the marathon, at which point I’d just hop back onto Hal’s two taper weeks. The plan actually went surprisingly well for the most part. Sunday runs ramped up to as high as 22 miles (two weeks before the marathon) and midweek runs were generally about 60% of the distance of the Sunday run (I ran a half midweek the week I ran the 22 miles). I also decided that I’d try to push speed on the taper weeks, and I found myself knocking off four-mile runs at 7:15 to 7:30 mile pace.
