Looking Back

I flipped to the next page of my weekly calendar at work and there was the word "marathon" sitting right at the bottom on Sunday. I remember sketching out a rough training plan in this calendar back in June. Not much to it, just some mileage goals for each week and the distance of my long runs so I could keep things straight.

At the time the mileage looked daunting, the summer looked long, and the marathon seemed very far away. Of course the time flew by, there were a lot of miles, for me at least, but they weren't as bad as I thought they were going to be. I compared my goals in the calendar to my actual mileage and I just about nailed it. There were a couple weeks that I was 10-15 miles short but it was either do to extreme heat or some aches and pains that I thought would be better served by a few less miles than trying to push things.

I thought it might be a good idea to go through a couple pluses and minuses of my training, perhaps give me something to look back at for my next training cycle.

Pluses.

-Long Runs - My long runs just about all went well this year. I decided to work speed into several of them by hitting some faster miles towards the end of the runs and it worked. I think it boosted my confidence to run hard on tired legs and prepared my body to work hard with less energy.

The long runs also did not feel as taxing after I completed them this year, I bounced back much quicker than in the past. It think this is due to two things, more total mileage each week so that the long run wasn't as big a chunk of my weekly mileage and the fact that I just have a lot more miles under my belt.

-Mid week runs - I built from about a 10 mile mid week run up to a couple 14 milers as my training progressed. This added a good bit of miles to my weekly total and left me better prepared for my long runs on the weekend.

-Races - I ran several races in the 5K range this year especially towards the end of my training and although I don't think any of them were as fast as I would have liked they were definitely a good speed work out.

Minuses

-Races Due to the fact that these races were slower than I hoped it was a bit of a downer. I try to keep in perspective that I am training through these races and they aren't goals but I was still hoping to pull off a PR somewhere along the way. That'll just have to wait until after the marathon

-Track Work I have mentioned several times in this blog that I need to get out to the track more often and again it didn't happen this year. The high mileage drains my legs and track workouts tend to really beat me up so I shied away from them. Although it is a marathon and pure speed isn't totally necessary I have no doubt that some time on the track can be a big boost. I'll have to make more of an effort this winter.

-Scheduling It's not really my style but I think a better schedule would help me in training. I schedule my long runs of course but everything else kind of just happens based on how I feel. I think scheduling things like tempo runs, track workouts and hill workouts a little more rigidly would help me in the future.

It is good to look back but now it's done and overall it went well. I of course now feel like I didn't do enough but it wouldn't be a true taper unless I felt that way.

I ran 7.5 easy miles with Heather yesterday afternoon on Forbidden Drive and my legs feel good, solid, they were aching to pick up the pace but I was content to be going slow and enjoying this beautiful fall weather.

A few easy runs this week with a couple of pick-ups and that is all that's left.

Now this could only happen to a guy like me
And only happen in a town like this
so let me say to each of you most graciously
as I blow each on of you a kiss
This is my kind of town Chicago is
My kind of town Chicago is
one town that won't let you down
It's my kind of town.

Lets hope so.