![\"nov10-1\"](\"http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/nov10-1.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nEvery year it’s been an order of operations:<\/p>\n
1. Recover from Kerrville 70.3.<\/p>\n
2. Do a long run as quickly as possible (6 days after in 2012, 13 days after in 2013, 20 days after for 2014 only because I was sick 13 days out).<\/p>\n
3.\u00a0 Ramp up the weekly miles to support the long run (all easy).\u00a0 This year, in 2014, I actually did this BEFORE doing a long run, which is the right way.<\/p>\n
4. Do my first 20 as quickly as possible (13 days after in 2012, 20 days after in 2013, 27 days after in 2014).<\/p>\n
5. Take a stepback week to let my body process all that ramping up.<\/p>\n
5. Maintain a decent amount of miles until 3 weeks out, and then start gradually tapering.<\/p>\n
I’ll admit that the initial ramp up is a little rough, pulling you by the nose instead of a gradual build, but within about 2 weeks it becomes the norm and my body adapts.\u00a0 I’m actually finding this cycle that my recovery is better than ever.\u00a0 I’ve been just bopping along with training.<\/p>\n
Zliten decided to go tweak his knee (doing non-running related stuff) so he’s been a little low on the miles – he did 3.3 miles with me Thursday night and was all smiles (once you get used to that steady stream of endorphins it’s hard to quit).\u00a0 But, as coach, I didn’t let him pick up training and do the 23 or even a 20 because that would be crazy after being out most of the week.<\/p>\n
I bailed on the 23.\u00a0 I was definitely iffy on the merits of doing it, and I wasn’t doing it solo.\u00a0 I had considered an easy 20, because it’s the last week to do it, but I also wasn’t convinced that would be the absolute best use of my time.\u00a0 My next thought was do something a little shorter and speedier (warmup, a good handful of m pace miles, cooldown, somewhere between 15-18).<\/p>\n
I had thought about doing the faster practice this week and doing a 20 next week (2 weeks 1 day out) to let Zliten have one more 20.\u00a0 Not optimal, but I definitely didn’t feel worse for wear after my last 20, so it was in the running as a possibility.\u00a0 So, I had lots of options and I was waffling back and forth on what to do.<\/p>\n
Then, I went to the internet for advice.<\/p>\n
Even though the second training plan I brought up had a 20 miler 2 weeks out, I guess it was the advanced high mileage plan for Boston prep, because suggesting that on the internet apparently is like kicking someone’s dog and insulting their mothers.\u00a0 How dare I consider running the magical 20 with only 15 days to recover?\u00a0 Apparently I’m asking to be injured, sick, and mentally addled, probably in conjunction with wearing a scarlet letter A on my chest or something.<\/p>\n
Ok, fine, I can concede that.\u00a0 Probably not the greatest idea.\u00a0 Three weeks out of Kerrville I did my second 13 (long run) and then chilled out a bit on the run miles, so makes sense.\u00a0 So, whatever I did this weekend was it, and then it’s taper time.\u00a0 So, even more pressure to get this right.<\/p>\n
Then I got paralyzed in that decision and decided to post my dilemma to a forum I frequent (that generally has sane people) to try to get ideas.<\/p>\n
Total mistake.<\/p>\n
Apparently my training thus far was an affront to the marathon distance (not enough miles, ramped up too fast), swimming and biking don’t count at ALL in building running endurance fitness (I heartily disagree over years of experience with it), and the best thing I can do is to run way less miles (now that I’m ramped up and absorbing training just fine?) and accept defeat right now that my marathon is just shot.\u00a0 Wow, thanks for the confidence guys!<\/p>\n