This is kind of what my January looked like. Pretty much 2 full weeks of being sidelined with the flu right in the middle of it. I got in about 9 runs, most of them being relatively short distances. One 19 miler right at the beginning of the month and then no long runs until last Saturday.

So the big question becomes, how do I make up for lost time? After this weekend, it will be 4 weeks to race day. I’ve already decided I’m doing my longest run of 23 miles on the Saturday 2 weeks before race day. Common knowledge is that the longest long run should be 3 weeks prior, so I’m already breaking that rule.

Now I need to decide if I’m going to run long 2 weeks in a row… or if I should give myself a few more days and do a midweek 21 miler next Wednesday?

I found out some interesting news when I went to the doctor last Thursday. By that point I was pretty much recovered, but it was taking long for me to go back to feeling 100%. Going out on long runs will no doubt slow the recovery process. Fortunately my doctor was an awesome marathoner (a Boston finisher in 2:38) and he understood that if I didn’t go out and do 19 miles last weekend, I would have been psychologically destroyed. So he gave me his blessing and just recommended I take it easy.

He also said no tempo runs, no speedwork. So my hopes of a 3:25 marathon are looking pretty bleak. At this point, I’m going to say just beating my PR of 3:40 will suffice in my book. And you know what, training for a spring marathon has been a great learning process for me. I’ve learned to never train for a spring marathon again!

Here’s what last Saturday’s long run looked like…

What an awful 10 days. I felt a little off at the beginning of last week… tired, lethargic, stiff neck, etc. But I couldn’t figure out what was wrong because none of my symptoms were bad enough to keep me from going to work or going to the gym. Then Wednesday night after a nice meal with my lovely wife, I found myself hugging the toilet at around midnight. At first I thought it was food poisoning, but as the next day wore on and the body aches really kicked in, I decided that I caught the flu.

This proved to be pretty catastrophic in terms of keeping up with my training schedule, since I had my first 20-miler planned for Saturday. And to add insult to injury, Saturday was probably the nicest day of winter weather we’ve had all season. It would have been pretty much perfect conditions for my long run. I told myself I would be able to make it up on Sunday, then as the symptoms wore on, I thought I would maybe get out of work early and take a stab at it on Monday. Bad ideas.

It took an article in the February issue of Runner’s World to finally persuade me that attempting any long run within 7 days of my worst flu symptoms would just be suicidal. That any attempt would surely end in failure. So now I have the unfortunate circumstance of having to wait an extra week to attempt my first 20 miler, which throws my training plan way off schedule. That really only gives me one more subsequent opportunity to do a run of 20+ miles before race day.

I wanted to have at least three 20+ milers under my belt for the Gasparilla Marathon. I’m already starting to readjust my goal finish times in my head because of all of the challenges that winter marathon training has thrown at me. On the same token, there are almost 6 weeks between now and Feb 28^th. It’s possible that if I work hard and there’s a race day miracle, I could still make or break 3:25.

One of the only positive things to come of this flu, was that it did give me a break. I may have been teetering on the brink of over-training recently. I could tell that my enthusiasm for hitting the treadmill or the cardio machines had reached an all time low in my current training program. Now it’s just the opposite. I’m fired up from missing out on basically all of last week and am excited to get back into a training routine. I’ll have a much better grasp on things after we see how Saturday’s upcoming long run turns out!

J

I didn’t do a long run this weekend, but I ran 10 treadmill miles on Thursday night without puking from boredom, which was an accomplishment. Then I went to Atlantic City on Friday night, which spilled well into early Saturday morning. This left me totally incapable of a weekend long run. All the comfort food I took down on Saturday and the arctic conditions on Sunday really made me not want to run outside at all, so Sunday night I opted for a triathlon of indoor cardio: 1hr bike, 1hr elliptical, 1hr running.

I can’t believe I’m saying this out loud, but my perroneal tendonitis has really subsided since late-December. Of course now that I’ve said it, it’s going to start screwing with me again because I’m being arrogant. That being said though, I’m going to try to do less biking and more elliptical now that I’m mostly injury free. I was doing a lot of elliptical when I ran my 1:30 half marathon… so I have to assume it’s a solid cross training activity.

Now, I have to start mentally preparing for next weekend, when I do my first 20 miler! God I hope the weather doesn’t suck.

J

Happy New Year! I would make some sort of resolution to update my blog more frequently in 2010, but unfortunately I just don’t see that happening. How about I resolve to post just a little more (December was just pathetic).

Ok, so making up for lost time…

I kept up with my training pretty well over the holidays. I made room for all of my important runs (ie, one weekly tempo, one weekly long run) and fit in some cardio/weights in between. The eating, or rather extreme over-eating, was the biggest setback but those 5lbs were worth every ounce and are sure to come off within the first week back to a normal schedule.

My long run in Miami on Dec 27th was awesome. Having completed 18 miles the week before, I was thrilled with the prospect of dropping back mileage for the first time since I started marathon training. And South Beach provided the perfect back drop for a 13 miler, with morning temps in the high 60’s and gorgeous views of Ocean Drive, Star Island, and the Venetian Causeway; a stark contrast to the freezing and hilly route I took down on New Year’s day.

19 miles throughout the sloshy, snowy streets of suburban Allentown. Normally, when I do my long runs in Allentown, I take advantage of the Ironton rail trail, which is remarkably flat compared to the surrounding terrain. Since the trail was covered in snow I toughed it out on the partially plowed streets, which follow the pattern of: big hill, small hill, medium hill, and so on…

I would say that this was easily the hardest long run I’ve endured this winter, but I’m not even sure that’s true. There were some rainy ones in NYC that give Allentown a run for the money. I guess my point is that marathon training in the winter sucks. Have I mentioned that lately?

J