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December 12, 2004
Marathon
Since yesterday, I've been reading Hal Higdon's book Marathon: The Ultimate Training Guide. Hal almost motivated me into getting out on my day off yesterday.
Then I read further to the part where he covers how much training you need to do. His message is clear. Do as little as you can get away with to meet your goals. Any more and you're courting injury.
Hal says a first time marathoner, even an experienced runner, should have one goal: finish the race. I'm particularly attentive to all this since I injured myself last summer increasing mileage too rapidly and overriding signals from my right leg that I needed to back off. In the end, when I should've been able to train for the Chambery marathon, I had to stop running all together. (To people who don't get much exercise, that may sound like a lucky break. But people who run either can imagine or know from experience having to stop is as much fun as catching a cold that won't go away.) This year, I don't want to let that happen.
So I'm not going to try to qualify for Boston. I'm going to finish uninjured, establishing the base that will let me work on improving my time after that. If I still want to.
In any case, I recommend reading Hal Higdon's book if you're thinking about running long distances.
Posted by Mark at December 12, 2004 06:28 PM