Betting on Long Runs to Power Me Through the Marathon

I started training for the Singapore Marathon at the beginning of June, then changed my plans 7 weeks ago to run the slightly more local Malibu Marathon on November 14th.

This blog has not dwelled too much on my daily/weekly mileage over the last 22 weeks, but I do track it. I measure weekly mileage starting on Sunday through the following Saturday. Here it is for those of you who like numbers:

5/30-6/5: 43 total miles, 10 mile longest run

6/6-6/12: 42 total miles, 8 mile longest run

6/13-6/19: 25 total miles, 6 mile longest run (back problems took me out this week)

6/20-6/26: 50 total miles, 10 mile longest run (came back and ran a 17:27 5K)

6/27-7/3: 34 total miles, 6 mile longest run (this week the stomach flu laid me up a bit)

7/4-7/10: 46 total miles, 7 mile longest run

7/11-7/17: 34 total miles, 13 mile longest run (2 full days of travel cut into my training)

7/18-7/24: 60 total miles, 15 mile longest run

7/25-7/31: 40 total miles, 6 mile longest run

8/1-8/7: 57 total miles, 17.5 mile longest run

8/8-8/14: 54 total miles, 17 mile longest run

8/15-8/21: 57 total miles, 19 mile longest run

8/21-8/28: 57 total miles, 22 mile longest run

8/29-9/4: 41 total miles, 8 mile longest run

9/5-9/11: 44 total miles, 10 mile longest run

9/12-9/18: 60 total miles, 22 mile longest run

9/19-9/25: 43 total miles, 7 mile longest run (ran 17:30 5K)

9/26-10/2: 53 total miles, 22 mile longest run

10/3-10/9: 45 total miles, 9 mile longest run

10/10-10/16: 42 total miles, 19 mile longest run

10/17-10/23: 21 total miles, 5 mile longest run (sick with a cold, bronchitis, sinus infection)

10/24-10/30: 45 total miles, 19 mile longest run (still recovering, ran 19 on antibiotics)

10/31-11/6: TBD total miles, 13.5 mile long run on Halloween (still recovering...)

Average weekly mileage 45. At my marathoning peak 15 years ago I was running upwards of 80 to 90 miles per week. I've aged quite a bit since then and stay up too late and don't sleep enough...so I'm happy all things considered to average 45.

More importantly though, while I'm not fooling myself into thinking I'll be running a sub 2:40 marathon like the good ole days, I am very pleased to have run 18+ miles 7 times (I'm rounding up the 17.5) in preparation for this marathon. As long as I "hold my horses" and not take off running Malibu like a 10K race, I should be able to do around 3 hours for the marathon.

That said, the Malibu course has a 200 foot climb over 4th quartile of the course (miles 18 to 24) which may present some challenges. Not exactly a "fast" course it would appear. The good thing for me is the course I ran my long runs on had some hills.

13 more days until the marathon...time to start easing up and resting....