After taking a semi break to let my legs recover from the Hamilton Marathon it will be right back into training for the spring. Yes I know it’s a little too early to start my actual marathon program so we're going to call this my preprogram program. How’s that for really bad use of the English language.
This week put in 45 miles of mostly easy running. The plan will be to take it back up to 65 miles over the next month so that I have a deep base going into my actual marathon training program. Until Hamilton my Boston Qualifier was so far out of reach it wasn’t a realistic goal at all. Now I am only 18 minutes away, I can see the taillights ahead of me but they are still really far up the road. The reality is that I will most likely not be able to get a BQ in the spring but it will not be for lack of trying. If not next fall it will happen for sure barring the dreaded injury.
Currently the plan for the spring is to run Around the Bay followed a month later by a Marathon. It looks like it will be The Waterloo Marathon. My racing and training schedule doesn’t give me a very large window to fit a spring marathon into so my choices are somewhat limited. I plan to attempt to run my first 100 miler at Sulphur Springs at the end of May so I need to make sure that I have enough recovery time from the marathon.
With the start of my new training program comes another drastic change (at least for me). I will be doing all my runs in KMs instead of miles. Tried to change this once before but it went badly. My pacing got all screwed up as in I couldn’t hit my proper paces. Like any rational person I blamed the KMs and went back to miles. I know sounds silly but it made perfect sense at the time. Its time to switch though. First because my new program is in KMs. Secondly because it gives me a lot more split times to make race adjustments. Thirdly I do actually live in Canada.
Have no fear my American readers I will still post my numbers in miles but will probably add KMs in brackets. KMs still seem to me to be the kind of thing you put in brackets.
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As a Canadian, I do actually prefer miles to kilometers. I attribute it to less splits to mind. Eventhough the distance is the same, psychologically, the distance in miles seems 'shorter' because there are less to count.
ReplyDeleteTalk about minds tricks for racing.
You're going to do it this year...Boston Qualifyer all the way dude.
Let me be the first one to welcome you to the Metric system! It's a fun and exciting world of even numbers!
ReplyDeleteAll the best in the pre-program program and you're goign to hit the BQ!
Woo Hoo! Go BQ! I look forward to learning about metrics via your new training plan. I've always wondered what my k-pace would be :-)
ReplyDeleteGood luck kicking off the "preprogram" and making thew switch to KM's. I'm SOO programmed to the metric system that I still don't 'speak' miles very well at all. I've gotten used to some of the main conversions for didtance, but no idea about equivalent paces.
ReplyDeleteHey dude, Kilometres are shorter than miles - that's a bonus isn't it?
ReplyDeleteAh, I have total km phobia and I know that is truly stupid! That's a big mileage hike by the way, but I see you're used to that!
ReplyDeleteChrisa, Huge plans, I love them. Especially the Boston part. Boston is really special, in my mind the best marathon in the world (regardless of how best is defined)
ReplyDelete100 miles = no comment. Crazy stuff but one day I think I will do it as well... One day....
It's refreshing to see you loving running as such.
Sounds like some good plans! Welcome to the world of KMs. I still do weight in lbs... don't we all?
ReplyDeleteHow does a Canadian not operate in KM? I know what to expect in a 5K, but miles are all I really know. yeah, back in the 70s we Americans were told that metric was coming. Still waiting... Best of luck on that 100 M effort! Sounds, well, daunting, at least!
ReplyDeleteBQ BQ BQ!!!! And 100 miler!!! What an exciting year ahead.
ReplyDeleteAs a fellow Canuck, I share your km vs miles conundrum. I've sort of fallen into this strange habit of running in km, and logging my runs in miles. Not sure why, but it seems to work for me.