By my own admission, my training since Cincinnati has been rather non-existent. Indeed, I was totally exhausted at the conclusion of The Flying Pig and the even though the micro-fiber muscle tears associated with post-marathon soreness subsided within a few days, the general lethargy and cumulative fatigue did not. Since I had essentially a seven-week break between Cincinnati (May 3rd) and the Seattle RnR (June 27) I ended up taking waaaaay too much time off in between...something in the order of 5.5 weeks. Now, to be clear, it wasn't a total training hiatus. I'd ride my bike (or the trainer late at night) and do some easy runs along the Canal in G'town or some track repeats at sub-marathon pace, but generally speaking, both the volume and intensity needed to truly prepare for a marathon just hasn't been there.
I'm not sure there's really blame to assign for this--though clearly any and all of it would fall on me, since I write and administer my own program. I'm hoping, however, that the training reprieve leading up to the Seattle Marathon (which will undoubtedly mean that this race is gonna hurt like hell next weekend) will hopefully benefit me over the course of the last five marathons, each of which is difficult for a different reason: Seattle (time change/lack of training), San Francisco (time change/hilliest city in the U.S.), Colorado Springs (trail marathon/7,200ft of elevation), Marine Corps (always hot or raining here in DC that weekend), Las Vegas (tenth race of the campaign...total fatigue). That said, I'm not making excuses, but rather, trying to be pragmatic in looking down the road at the races still to come. Additionally, I've resumed an old practice that began back in the fall of '96 when I was running track at JMU: the dreaded ice bath. For those of you who have never done an ice bath, it is at once both unthinkably painful and yet horribly simplistic in design and execution. It is literally a tub full of ice cold water, followed by several bags of ice dumped in to further lower the temperature. It's not cold, it's downright painful. The benefits, however, far outweigh the pain when it comes to repairing damaged muscles.
Ask any runner and they'll tell you they bundle up, roll their shirt up, put on a tabogan, gloves, iPod and get a magazine to sit through the 20 minutes of self-induced torture. Last night, I did just that. After finishing an 11-mile tempo run in the driving rain along the C+O Canal, my quads were unreasonably sore and simply weren't recovering as they should've been. After all, it wasn't even half the distance of the marathon, and it was on soft-packed dirt/gravel, and at a pace some 10 seconds slower per mile than the targeted race pace. Nonetheless, my body was just rebelling. Foreshadowing aside, I did the ice bath last night and my legs this morning are discernibly better than they were yesterday afternoon.
So looking ahead, this race will actually be crazier than most, due to some travel within the travel and some Agent obligations. Here's what it looks like:
THU. 6/25
0700 Direct flight from BWI to Seattle
0940 Arrive in SEA (PST)
Rental car
Drive to Expo to pick up race packet
Afternoon media in Seattle
3-mile tempo run, stretch, shower, change
1730 VIP Reception for RnR Elites (no, I'm not an Elite, just got the invite)
2000 Drive 4.5hrs to Eugene, OR
FRI. 6/26
0100 Arrive in Eugene/check into hotel room
0830 USATF Agent Conference in Eugene, OR
1530 Conference concludes, see clients for 2 hours
1800 Quick pasta dinner in Eugene before hitting road for 4.5hr drive
1830 Start drive back to Seattle
2300 Arrive in Seattle/check into hotel
2315 Lay out gear for race
2330 Bed
SAT. 6/27
0330 Wake up, stretch, caffeinate with 180 Energy Drink
0530 Drive to downtown Seattle and shuttle to Tukwila start
0600 Arrive at shuttle/head to Tukwila start
0640 Arrive in Tukwila/drop off bag
0700 RACE BEGINS!!!!
Let's hope for a 3:30 finish
Pick up rental car
Drive back to hotel
Shower/Stretch
Call family, post Blog, follow-up media
1300 Drive out to Wounded Warrior event in Olympia (70min away)
Drive back to Seattle
1900 Post-Race Reception
See college friends in Seattle
SUN. 6/28
1000 Ice bath in hotel
Sight-see in Seattle
1500 Return my money rental car
Blog/Client calls from airport
2100 Return redeye flight to DC (arrive back at BWI at 0740hrs on Monday)
It'll be a great trip. I'll write more this week in the days leading up to the race. For now, I'm going to try and sneak in a run before yet another round of thunderstorms rolls into the area. The wind has picked up, the skyline is dark and the sunny forecast is about to go right out the window...very rainy spring and early summer in D.C.
More soon.
Doug Eldridge
President
DLE Sports
