Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Practice?

I just completed the Sports Authority Rock ‘n’ Roll Denver Marathon this past Saturday, yet I hadn't planned to run it. I spent my summer climbing, cycling and traveling and had done little running in preparation of a marathon. I did run a marathon in May 2012 and I figured it was going to be it for the year. Nonetheless, when Team Refuel offed me the opportunity to run the marathon for free, I signed up. I'd run seven previous marathons and figured I'd find a way to get through it. My goal was simply to finish before the course closed and figured even that might be a challenge given that I'd run less than 26.2 miles cumulatively in the previous 3 months. Amazingly, I finished well ahead of the course closure with a time of 4hrs 43mins and never had to walk once. Moreover, the marathon felt much easier than past marathons and I never felt sorry and fatigued in the days that followed. At first, I started to think that Allen Iverson may have been on to something (practice?!?!). After have more time to ruminate on my performance, I've come to realize that my cross-training over the summer had kept me fit, I never over-trained and I stuck to my race day plan. I thinks these things had been problems for me during previous marathons, especially the sticking to my race day plan. It seemed like I'd do too much the day before, eat the wrong things the night before or morning of the race, or would forget to eat and drink at every aid station. I definitely plan to train for my next marathon, but I think I spend more time listening to my body during my training and will keep to my plan.

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