Yesterday I ran the Hartford Marathon. Going against the oddsmakers, I pulled off an unexpected PR, just 13 days out from the Wineglass Marathon.
But was it really unexpected? The weather was perfect and that helped. Also I studied my Performance Management charts (see photos uploaded this morning) all week and continued to maintain fitness with run and bike intervals right up until days before the race.
About 48 hours before the race I let my race readiness score drift up a bit. Close to the race I did a lot of high cadence spinning and run strides. So despite recent Marathon out I was in the "window" by Saturday morning.
How did I come to this methodology?
1. Kept a log
2. Studied log for trends
3. Looked to see the type if training that produced the best indivual response.
***This must be reconciled with muscle type ( slow twitch vs. Fast twitch) and season ( pre season, in season, post season). ***
[It seems to me that in Pre and post season it may be best to have a training focus. In season, races sometimes work as training. To race or not, well it depends, the answer to that question is probably in the log]
4. I finally faced the music and admitted to myself that I most likely have a slight predominance of fast twitch muscles. I'm no Usain Bolt, but history speaks for itself.
I usually do better in the shorter more acutely painful events even though I don't train for the distance, in fact I was even offered a college scholarship to run short distance back in the day.
This realization caused me to focus on doing a lot if shorter intervals after my distance work. That way I trained myself to hold back early on race, but still had what it needed to finish off the race.
***[this is a guess but I would bet that slowtwitch person might be better with a more traditional high volume steady state approach, with one or two separate sessions of longer but less intense intervals once a week]***
5. I monitored training load, balance acute and chronic stresses
6.I always thought the taper was all about resting. Looking over my data I could see it's much more complicated and involves a struggle to hold into fitness as there is a narrow window of opportunity to be fit and ready to race at the same time.
Other thoughts:
---What works for one person may not work for another, and what works for an individual in season may not work out of season. Studying your training log is the best way to figure out your approach for a particular goal or season.
--There are many theories on training and racing. All of them have merit and all of them have drawbacks. Listen and evaluate based on your logs to decide if it will work for you. If anyone person claims to know THE way it should be done, or has ALL the answers their advice or plan should probably be avoided. Compared to medical literature, for example, there are very little true scientific randomized double blinded controlled studies behind any of this.
--In training / racing there is always the X factor: all the things that cannot be controlled or explained- the weather, the course, unexpected happenings, stress, mental outlook, mechanical problems on the bike (!!!), the joys and calamities of life that affect the outcome in some inexplicable way...
That said, I am so happy I did not pursue the scholarship and the life of a competitive athlete. I love racing as an age grouper, having a career and life separate from times, results, PRs and PWs. After all of these years and miles I am still happy participating. I do not think I would feel that way now if I had pursued a competitive career where my whole livelihood and self worth was based on results that could be so easily influenced by the X factor.
Well this is anything but a typical race report but the Hartford Marathon 2012, it was a great way to celebrate being alive! Thanks volunteers, race staff, family and friends!
When is next year's race?
