The final week, leading up to the Denver Marathon.

10/13 – Off
10/14 – 4 Miles
10/15 – 7 Miles, last three at marathon race pace
10/16 – 4 Miles
10/17 – 4 Miles
10/18 – 2 Miles with 8 Striders on the grass
10/19 – Denver Marathon

Total 47.2 Miles

I felt great leading up to the race, just didn’t perform like I thought I should have.

One thing I struggle with is fueling myself during the race. I have trouble swallowing any type of energy packet and the jelly beans/other chewables require to much work when racing. In City Park, I was handed a Gu Packet, I look at it and it’s “Espresso Love” now mind you I am not a coffee drinker and I think to myself, great I hate these Gu packets to begin with, how am I going to choke this down. I tossed some in myself and almost literally threw up, it was horrible. I did manage to eat the rest of the packet, but it was tough. I skipped the last energy packet in Wash. Park, might have been a mistake in hindsight.

On top of that, Gatorade Endurance is just awful. I understand the benefits, twice the sodium, etc. but you combine Gu (I had two before the start of the marathon) and some Gatorade Endurance and my belly felt like it was full of HFCS. Plus, when that Gatorade Endurance gets in your eyes, it is no picnic, stuff stings!

Going forward, I’m not a high mileage guy. I like to think of my personal mileage and the law of diminishing returns. Simply put, the more miles I run (known variable) the overall return (race peformance/unknown variable) will start to decline at some point, or the curve will start shift downward. If I can run a sub three hour marathon in Denver, on 50 miles per week of training, that’s pretty solid. I increased my peak to 70 this year and even if I had my best race yesterday, I might have come in with a 2:55. Honestly, I’m not sure if being five minutes faster on race day is worth the extra “cost” that are associated with running 20 more miles per week, or nearly three additional hours of running per week.

I’m an above average runner and the increases in miles are, at the margin, only going to be marginal. I’ll never be winning any races (big ones anyway), or contending to win and that’s alright with me. I’ve got two kids under the age of three and I’d rather spend those additional three hours per week with them, than trying to knock off five minutes for a marathon. I spent my rare day off today playing catch with my daughter in the backyard and reading Horton Hears a Who! and I derived a lot of utility out of that, more so than any training run brings me.

Going forward, I’m going to stick to about 50 miles per week and try to increase my intensity. I ran Division III in college, I didn’t take it seriously and probably only ran 40-50 miles per week, most of the other guys ran more. However, I was still able to run a sub 17 minute 5k, a 28:30 8k, etc. Nothing impressive, I know, but I did that on low volume and was a middle of the pack D3 runner, granted I am older now, but I think if I pick up the intensity and lower the volume, I can still have good results, maybe even better.

When I was reading Bowerman: Men of Oregon, Kenny Moore talks about the first time Bill met Sebastian Coe and how Sebastian told him he was only running 40 miles per week, yet killing everyone who ran more than him, it blew Bowerman away, as he just became enamored with Lydiard and his philosophy. His Dad was his Coach and a bit unorthodox, so it’s hard to say what’s the right amount of volume for any runner, just my thoughts for the day.