14 days, 15 hours to go...
Well friends we're just a touch over two weeks from the start of the Marine Corps Marathon, and today I did my final workout of the season. From now until the race, the emphasis in training will shift toward maintaining the fitness we've achieved, staying healthy, and getting adequate rest. In old-time parlance one might say "the hay is in the barn," and now it's mostly a matter of taking it easy and staying relaxed.
For many athletes (myself included), this can be one of the most difficult phases of preparing for a race. You aren't training the same way as earlier in the season, and the elevated energy-levels which typically accompany a pull-back in training can be paralleled by a kind of restless, nervous energy which drives one to constantly wonder how much fitness you're losing by training less. I'm thankful this form of restlessness isn't remorseless in my own mind, but I would be fibbing if I said it wasn't there.
Today's workout took place in three phases; one in the morning, one in the early afternoon, and one sandwiched in-between. The morning effort involved a brisk walk/run lasting 68 minutes under a brilliant clear (but COLD) morning sky. This phase went quite well, though at times I felt rather stiff, perhaps due to the cold. I was hoping to go longer, but a unremitting need to use the bathroom forced me home a bit earlier than expected. Sometimes that happens, so no worries. With this phase I sought to loosen the muscles in my legs, but also to get them tired. I also hoped to depleted my carbohydrates stores, for reasons we'll discuss more fully below.
Following the morning effort, I spent the next few hours doing various physical and non-physical activities; eating a little breakfast, raking some pine-needles, throwing around the medicine ball, and vacuuming the bedroom. The purpose of this phase involved the recovery of some (but not all) of the body fuel I burned earlier in the day, as well as taking care of needed household business on the first Saturday I've had off in over a year (a dusty room needs cleaning, marathon or not).
The third phase involved a strong 30 minutes effort of straight running. At first I was a bit leery of trying this, since historically I've usually tanked pretty hard when running later in the day on low amounts of fuel. This type of work seemed essential for the marathon, however, so to get over the initial trouble I went real easy the first 5 minutes, just easing into the effort and trying not to do too much. This proved a good strategy, because soon I got warm and started flying over the roads, pleasantly surprising myself in the process.
Yet it didn't materialize from thin air. About two weeks ago I spent all day at work, carrying heavy loads and remaining on my feet close to 7 hours. It's been hard to do any kind of training after a day like that, but back in the summer I'd managed some and did well if I took it easy. Last week I took about an hour to rest when I got home, then taking a few swigs of pomegranate juice, hopped on the treadmill and ran 36 minutes at a strong pace. The effort surprised me then too, but seemed to suggest that whatever training I'd been doing was having the desired result; that despite running low on carbohydrates and having tired muscles, I could still put in a good training effort at the end of the day.
This is a good sign, because the purpose of all these training efforts (including today's) is not simply to wear a body out, but to specifically adapt it and the mind to continue running strong even when tired and deprived of carbohydrate for fuel. In my experience this is very important for the marathon, since the final third of the race is almost always run under these types of conditions. During my first marathon it was just before the start of this 'final third' that I began struggling. Whether this was due to hyponatremia (salt dissolution), hypoglycemia (carbohydrate depletion), or a sheer lack of endurance remains unclear to me, but I suspect it was a combination of factors known and unknown. So in preparing for this race I've looked to address the three I suspect; hyponatremia by drinking less and measuring dehydration after workouts; endurance by running more than last year; and hypoglycemia by doing workouts like today's, which involve carbohydrate depletion and thereby a greater reliance on fat-stores as an energy source at faster paces.
Only time will tell if these measures prove sufficient to carry me through the race in good order. I feel happy with the training, but know it is light by most athletes' standards. My work and school commitments demand a lot, and what's left must be divided still further. Managing this division in a balanced way is the ever-present challenge of anyone aspiring to achievement in a field other than that which they study or do professionally (and even then, trade-offs must still surely be made). In the end I've really enjoyed these last several months of training, and that will be true regardless of what happens on the roads of Washington D.C. and Arlington in 2 weeks' time. It's been a journey and a process, to what end I do not yet know. It's been good though; that much is clear.
Happy Saturday, friends :)
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