Sunday, January 29, 2006

12 weeks to go - 83 days

The final 12 weeks are the deciding part of the marathon training. Most of the published schedules describe this period. Once aganin this means the tightrope walk for me, not to run a higher mileage than my legs can cope with and to do enough to keep my target looking realistic.

My target? As usual when running a marathon I aim for a new personal best. That is less than 3:21 hours. If you have followed my training policy in recent years you already know that I have added two more important targets: To get to the start and to get to the finish. Only third is: As soon as possible. That's what I call the tightrope walk.

Getting started it may help that I did some high altitude training in the Swiss Alps last week. We did some winter walking in deep snow, wearing a special kind of shoes which enable moving in this kind of terrain. It was great fun with a group in good mood but the walks were not really exhausting. So I found myself running up to the local alp three times, enjoying especially the rush down 1200 feet of height difference in 19 minutes.

Less successful was - I have to admit - my faint-hearted attempt of a flirtation with a player of a viola da gamba whose renaissance like face got more and more pretty during the week. And this was not at all caused by red wine. There is something what running and flirting have in common: The journey is the reward. Arriving only means that it's all over.

Back to grey everyday life. This is the week's schedule:

Monday: gym
Tuesday: 15K (9m) slow 5:30min/K (8:45min/m)
Wednesday: 12K (7.5m) moderate intervals 4:30 (7:15)
Thursday: 10K (6m) very slow 6:30 (10:30)
Friday: gym
Saturday: 21.1K (13.1m) thereof 15K 5:30, 6K 4:30 (8:45/7:15)
Sunday: rest
weekly mileage in total: 60K (38m) incl. warmup on Saturday
current BMI: 22,3

happy running until next Sunday
Uli



wearing snow shoes