If you happen to be drinking coffee with me today and asked
what I am going to be doing this Sunday, it would take me a moment to pull myself
out of this world Amanda and I submerged ourselves in, full of zebras, giraffe,
elephants and lions to answer you that I would in fact be running 54.5 miles up
hill and hoping to do so in less than nine hours. Maybe you’d be impressed. But
I’d shake my head and tell you how you could do it, too… you just have to want
it and put in the work. Training. That’s what’s going to get me to the finish…
and the start…
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| Yes, we were really that close. It was awesome. |
I was wrapping my head around the possibility of Comrades
eight months deep into 2014, a pretty solid year. In fact, it was a year full of PRs.
It was the year that would finally rival 2010, when I trained with James and
was seriously aiming for a Boston qualifying time. Vienna Marathon worked out
well for me in April with a two minute PR. Brooklyn Half in May with a PR of
about the same time. It didn’t mean that I was finally matching my speed in
2010, but I was on my way. In July I knocked off the Lake Placid Ironman and my
sights were set on another substantial Marathon PR in the fall. Speed. I was
feeling a need for it.
Since 2009 I’ve had my eye on a speed goal- run a sub three
hour marathon. Leaping toward that, I set a pace for 3:10 in the 2010 NYC
Marathon, which would have been a 39 minute improvement over 2009. My time goal
crumbled under muscle cramping issues starting at mile 16 and I finished (happily)
with a 3:29. I’ve since figured those cramp issues out, thankfully. But my
level of fitness and speed potential has yet to match that magical 2010
training year, partly because of injury and my desire to become a midfoot
strike runner, and partly because I get distracted by shiny things, namely
Ironman NY/NJ, Ironman Lake Placid, and now Comrades.
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| 2010- the year of speed, PRs, and hotdogs. |
But wait, would Comrades get in the way? Could I squeeze in
two to three more marathons all while building a base for this 54 mile event? I
did what any sensible person would do and Googled “ultra marathon training program”
and found a 2005 Runner’s World article that told me I could do this with 16
weeks of training IF I already had a marathon-ready base (ie, I was already
doing 18ish mile long runs). Of course, this article also gave the advice of a)
Run something locally, and b) Do a flat race.
Hahahaha, oops. I couldn’t find much more on the topic, surprisingly,
but it was enough to give me confidence to sign up and put the Comrades-specific
training on the back burner. Because of this urgency I felt for velocity.
My training in the summer and fall was a bit rocky because
of my health. I attribute this to the travel I was doing for work and the
consequences of Ironman, at least for me- burnout. Though I wanted to race
Mohawk Hudson in October, I deferred and instead raced Brooklyn Marathon in
November. My training ramped up quickly because of the short amount of healthy
time I had and I ended up over-training.
Luckily, I recognized this, did a fairly
sharp taper of almost no activity, and PRed Brooklyn! It was my best race yet.
I felt amazing and the support I received from friends and teammates around
Prospect Park made it my favorite marathon so far. I could easily devote a
whole blog post to this and thanking the team- SCBkR and TNT- for their
support. Too many fun things.
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| South Hill Cheer Squad |
Where was I? Oh yes, Comrades… It was now late November, I
had signed up for Comrades a few weeks earlier and was entering my qualifying
marathon time when I noticed this: “All runners will be seeded according to
their qualifying times.” I don’t know if this means waves or just corals, but
the faster qualifying time I get the farther toward the front I’d be. Ok, cool.
With a 3:24 time, I just missed Batch B, but my time was good enough for batch
C, third batch out of nine. Still good, and perhaps I can improve my time with
my spring marathon!
This also caught my eye:
Ok so, what’s my goal then? With a cutoff time of 12 hours,
which is shorter than either of my Ironmans, I felt comfortable that I could
somehow get this done ok, but hadn’t really thought about what type of time I
would be aiming for, if any. Referring back to that Runner’s World plan, it
estimated I would finish a 50 miler in 2 x Marathon time + 2 hours. Basically 9
hours for me. Bill Rowan. Crap. I think I have a time goal now…
Can I trust this training calendar? It’s so vague, clearly
meant for a flat 50 miler, and I think a trail race as well. Turning back to my
trusty friend Google and searching “Comrades training plan” did turn up some interesting
things. I found specific schedules for the months of July to December. I wasn’t
sure what to make of it exactly, since Comrades was in May and the workouts
here were much easier than what I had planned. So I brushed it off.
I laid out my training and race calendar. Coordinating with
friends, I took aim at Virginia Beach Marathon in March at my next attempt at a
PR and getting into Batch B. Putting my faith in that Runner’s World calendar,
I marked February 9th as 16 weeks out from Comrades. It was five
weeks prior to VA Beach, but I’d figure that out later. It’s not something I’d
have to worry about immediately, and besides, I felt a longing quickness…
And then came my calf issues… More to come!
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