My 18-week training block for the Jersey City Marathon starts today. According to the 18/70 plan from Pete Pfitzinger’s Advanced Marathoning, today is a rest day. After a rough week at work that was also spent frantically preparing to host a few friends for a Christmas party, I will take it!
It was hard for me to get on board with taking the day off. I didn’t run on Saturday or Sunday either; Saturday I needed every minute to get my house ready for guests to arrive, and Sunday I was sleeping off the party, shoveling snow, and getting the house back to normal for the week ahead. I definitely wasn’t idle! Still, another day without a run feels icky.
That icky feeling is probably anxiety. I don’t feel as prepared for this training block as I thought I would feel when I signed up for the race a few months ago. I wanted to show up having fully regained my 2:52 form from last December; I don’t have the mileage in my legs to confidently say that I have, and I don’t have the race results either. Here’s what I do have:
- A new post-collegiate 5-mile best from June
- A sixty-mile week from October
- An 84:52 half, run conservatively off of illness and injury, from November
- A recent wholehearted adoption of cross-training
- A plan
The way I see it (or that I’m trying to see it) is that I may not be showing up as a race-ready 2:52 guy, but that I may not need to be, either—that’s what the training block is for. An under-trained but experienced runner, with some recent successes and pleasant surprises at shorter distances, who is ready to do the extra work at the margins, is someone you can bet on.
It’s who I’m betting on.
So I’m resting today. I’m trusting my plan and my body and I’m resting. The big work starts tomorrow with a four-mile tempo—probably on the treadmill, after the snow we just had—and some core exercise. I’m ready to show up and see what happens.
Sunday: 12 miles. I tried to run this like another Pfitz MLR but ran out of gas around 8 miles and jogged it in. I wrote on Strava that I needed better sleep and more patience. I’ve been working on sleep again, and as far as patience goes I’m planning to slow down my training paces to start this block.
Pfitz bases all aerobic work from recovery to long runs on marathon pace, which I’ve been assuming is 6:30 because that’s my goal. However, I’m not that guy right now, so I’m going to move the goalposts to 6:40—2:55 pace. That gives just enough wiggle room on my other paces that I think I’ll be able to handle Pfitz’s training better.
Monday: Day off. After bonking on my long run, and knowing that my training plan sets aside Mondays for recovery, I thought this was a good idea.
Tuesday: 7 miles. Did a core routine out of Advanced Marathoning in the afternoon. It went pretty well, except I noticed some imbalances that I’ll have to work to correct over the next few months. This was to be expected seeing as I hadn’t done any core since April!
Wednesday: 8 miles at MLR effort. Not as many miles as I wanted because I ran out of time, but I felt good. I also did some strength work in the afternoon, also out of Advanced Marathoning. I was sore for a few days after this, but in a good way. I need to be doing this more, and I plan to.
Thursday: 7 easy with 30 minutes on the bike at lunch.
Friday: Another 7 easy. I had the day off from work today, so I also did some yardwork that was long overdue. My neighbor has a massive oak tree, and my yard was piled with weeks’ worth of leaves. This was more of a workout than I expected, but I’m glad I got it done.
Saturday: Party prep. No run.
This Week: 41 miles. Not what I expected for this week, but I had a lot of life stuff to work around, and still got some gym work and cross-training in. I’ve been telling myself the last few weeks that this build is not going to be pretty. There are going to be a lot of hurdles in the way. My success will depend on my ability to shuffle out of bed when it’s really early and I’m warm and sleepy, to sneak off to bed when I’d rather stay awake, and to make the training fit when I’m busy with important things. None of this comes naturally to me, but I’m working on it and getting better at it. If I can say the same about my running in a few months, that’s not a bad place to be.
Baby: My son has had a busy week! He spent the night of the Christmas party with Grandma and Grandpa, which was a treat for all of them—not to mention my wife and I! But we missed him, and we were glad to have our chicken home to roost on Sunday. I built a fire and we all sat together and watched it and listened to Christmas music. After a really chaotic week, it was good to slow all the way down and enjoy our first Christmas season as a family of three.
He also learned to pull himself up, which meant I was racing to lower his crib before bed on Sunday night! It has been incredible to watch him take to another new skill so quickly over the last day or so, after trying and trying without any luck for the last month or more. He’s been growing up just like that John Green quote: slowly, and then all at once, over and over again.
theDNF 
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