Wednesday, August 20, 2014

The Marathon Experiment ... Less Miles

One of my most favorite marathon photos from the
2011 Kansas City Marathon
After 28 marathons, you'd think I would've cracked the 26.2 code by now.  But like most folks, I might be just as confused and confounded as the day I started training for my first race.  Well, okay - that's a reach.  But the truth is, I love to tinker and continually mess around with the process.  It's part of the journey of building toward a race, and I simply love studying and redefining all of the components.  And for this year's first Fall marathon, I decided to try a drastically different approach ... reduce my weekly mileage like never before.

I've been very guilty in the past of over-training a little.  During a marathon training cycle my legs would ache constantly throughout the week, and I would struggle with energy level on a daily basis.  And for a lot of marathons, I felt like I left some of my best times at the training workouts.  And as I took a look back, a lot of it was due to double workouts, running six days per week, constant strength training, and not enough calories.  But probably the main culprit that left me exhausted at the starting line was too  much weekly mileage leading up to the event.

In 2011 & 2012, I ran over 3,000 miles in both years.  I really cut back the mileage in the latter part of 2013, but the first part of the year had me on track for a third consecutive 3,000 miler.  After reducing the mileage, I finished with about 2,300.  In 2014 I took a similar approach as last year and am on track for about 2,300 again.  And I can tell you that since I started reducing the mileage, my legs feel much fresher and I feel better on a daily basis.

But therein lies the lingering question for this marathon ... did I get enough miles in?  If I look specifically at my long runs, and especially the quality of my long runs, I would respond with an emphatic, "YES!", without a doubt.  In this 16 week training cycle for the Pocatello Marathon, I ran nine long runs of 18 miles or more, with five of them over 20 miles.  Plus, most of the long runs were slogged during suffocating hot and humid days, and for the most part I hit all my target time goals.  So the long runs really weren't the issue.

But the main thing I cut out for this training cycle was the double-run day.  For most of last year, and a big part of this year, I would run my main workout in the morning, and then another 4-5 miles in the evening, simply to flush a little lactic acid from my legs and add some mileage.  But for the most part they were just "junk miles", and I really didn't feel I was benefiting from them.  For the most part, they only served to make me exhausted for my workout the following morning.  But as a result, I only had one week over 70 miles for this training cycle, and most of them ranged from 63-68.  Whereas, in the previous years I would average 70-80 for most of the cycle.

Honestly, sitting here about ten days from the race, my legs feel very fresh, fast, and healthy.  I don't feel worn out in the least, and I'm ready to tackle the marathon.  And if a marathon were only 22 miles, I'd pretty much guarantee a PR!  But it's the remaining 4.2 miles that worry me.  Even though the longer mileage weeks sometimes seemed to wear me down, they filled me with a great deal of confidence that 26.2 was not a big deal.  Conversely, the reduction in training mileage really has me fearing those last few miles of the course.  But then again, we're probably supposed to be a little afraid ... right?

As I age, my body has really appreciated a little less wear and tear from the road.  Plus, most of my recent race results would indicate that scaling it back was the right thing to do.  But it's the unknown from changing a comfortable routine that has the same old butterflies fluttering around in my stomach before I even touch my toe to the starting line.  But it's only ten days until we find if this was the right approach.  But one thing's probably certain, even if I race really well this Fall ... I'll most likely go right back to the drawing board next year.  Hope your training's going well!
... be great today!

16 comments:

  1. I hate the last four as well. It's always when I get tired!

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    1. Ha yeah Jeff, that's when the ol' legs really start to feel it

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  2. You definitely SEEM ready. Really fast prep races, really strong workouts, really confident speed days. I'm sure you don't feel totally ready because of nerves, but you sure seem ready to the rest of us! I think the mileage cutbacks make sense. You're still doing a lot of longer runs and more miles than I EVER ran, so I'm sure that's good for marathon training. Truth be told, I think a lot of people overtrain for the marathon. You already know what you're doing; you've done 28 of these! You don't need junk mile practice: just go out and run sub-3.

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    1. Yeah, I feel pretty good about it Grace, but I won't be sub 3 this race, I'm just gonna run it by feel and just shoot for a strong time, but I don't want the 13 miles of downhill to beat up my legs for upcoming races

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  3. I'm the opposite, I hate the first four miles because it's such a struggle to breath due to asthma, then my body relaxes and I feel better. Would you mind giving your thoughts on tapering (or not) before a marathon? I personally think it's bunk, but I'm in the very small minority on that.

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    1. Hey Randall, I was actually going to write a post about tapering next week. I've actually tried it both ways, long non-active taper periods and short high mileage "taper" periods where I almost didn't taper at all. I used to complete agree with you and though tapering was pointless actually detrimental to racing, but I can tell you that since I've cut my mileage and rested up before big races, I've ran better than ever - but I'm still experimenting with that too, so we'll see.

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  4. no offense, Jim, but you seem to be one of the victims suffering from lactic acid... well, from the myth about it :-))

    tons of links available, just google "myth about lactic acid", here is one picked up rather randomly:
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/16/health/nutrition/16run.html?_r=2&

    love you, anyway :-))))

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    1. Ha, yes probably so - I've never fully understood the science behind it ... I mean if we "flush" it from out systems ... where the heck does it go? I will certainly check out the link - thanks!

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  5. Been enjoying all your practical training tips this summer - especially the importance of goal race pace running and doing weights on same day as a hard run. Keep them coming!! Kristen

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    1. Thanks Kristen, we'll see if it works on race day!

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  6. My BIL did an experiment with only running his long runs as 13.1. I never heard the outcome, he doesn't tend to discuss anything without a good outcome. I am sure you will come to the table with the results and I somehow bet you will do very well. Guess a little background on my BIL, he is a streaker and never gives his now 50 year old body a rest, 4 years of running every day through injury, cannot be good. And I'm pretty sure you log way more miles than him. So I'm really curious. This is all very very interesting to me.

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    1. Yeah Beth, I've really began over the last year to be more aware of my age and do things to preserve the legs a little, but I still want to race effectively too, so finding that balance is always the challenge

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  7. Hey Jim, nice entry today. Definitely excited to see how the race goes for you. Did you see the piece on RunnersWorld.com about some new results regarding high volume mileage right BEFORE the taper? It's very interesting..

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    1. Thanks Bill, yeah, my wife actually sent it to me - pretty interesting

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  8. I am no where near your speed, but the thing I hate about marathons is that I always take off way to fast at the beginning due to the crowds, the weaving in and out of people and such. I need to learn to control my pace and run my race which might help me later down the course.

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    1. Eh, speed is all relative J, but honestly some of the best marathons I've ran were the ones where I felt like I was starting a little too slow, maybe it helped me save energy at the end like you said

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