May 2014

On April 27th I wrote a post about being so excited by Meb winning the Boston Marathon that I rashly signed up for the Ogden Marathon with only three weeks to put together what little training I could get in before the race. I stated my ambitious goal of trying to run under 4 hours in my post and in the back of my mind dreamed of a time around 3 hours 45 minutes. My furthest run of the year had been 17 miles on April 12th. I fully intended to get at least one 20-22 mile run in before the marathon, but I opted to race a half marathon instead (I don’t always make the best choices).

Due to my lack of training, the forecasted heat, and my uncertain race plan, my pre-race nerves were higher than usual in the days leading up to the event. I posted about the four race plans I was considering on Friday afternoon asking for guidance from all of my running friends on which plan they thought was the wisest. I got support for all four options, so as I got on the bus Saturday morning, I was still undecided on what my plan would be. I was leaning toward running as long as I could with my friend Jonathan Crampton, but as I tried to mentally picture it my nerves didn’t settle, they just increased. As I thought about the option of going out with the 3:45 pacer (around an 8:35 per mile pace) and seeing how I felt after mile 14 or 15, my nerves settled to a manageable level and I finally felt ready. The only thing left to worry about were miles 20 – 26.2.

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You will have to forgive me for doing two posts so close together. You see, I am not working today, and in an effort to stay off my feet and keep my body rested, I decided I would do a post asking my seasoned runner friends to help me finalize my race plan tomorrow’s Ogden Marathon.

I am a little more nervous for this marathon than I have been for my last three marathons. In each of my last three marathons, I had almost a year in between races. I find that a year is the perfect amount of time for your body to forget the punishment you inflict on it during a marathon. Frank Shorter said it best…

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Rule number one during race week is to rest and to NOT CHANGE ANYTHING. Add a few extra carbs to each meal for a few days and before you know it, it’s race day. That being said, I have a confession to make; I just broke rule number one.

My typical race week usually proceeds as follows. Five to six miles at my normal pace on Monday. Four to five slow miles on Tuesday, and Three to Four very slow miles on Wednesday. Thursday and Friday I don’t work out at all and spend time mentally preparing for Saturday’s race.

This week I started with my usual five to six miles at regular pace and felt fantastic. Instead of doing my usual four to five slow miles on Tuesday, I decided I could use some extra stretching and that cross training with a little yoga would be the perfect thing for my body. After seeing the forecast predicting the weather in Ogden to be over 80 degrees on Saturday, I had an idea. Not only would I do yoga instead of my run, I would do bikram yoga to prepare for the potentially hot weather on Saturday. Unfortunately, I followed through with my plan, broke from my usual race week routine, and I went to a 90 minute bikram yoga class.

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