My Art

While this is not the optimal circumstance for training, it does provide a challenge and requires a certain degree of craftsmanship. With about four weeks until the race, and coming off an injury that set me back a few weeks, every workout needs to be planned and with a purpose. In a way this is fun.

I have mapped out the distance of each run, especially the long Sunday runs, and also marked the days where I will swim. Every run has to count towards the overall goal of breaking two hours for the 13.1 mile race. This means a pace of no more than nine minutes per mile. Normally, I will attack my workouts with the appetite of a hungry lion. This is probably why I got injured in the first place. But now I have to carefully consider each workout and keep a sharp eye out for every little ache and pain, and then adjust accordingly. I feel like an artist prepping for a masterpiece. Getting the canvas ready, sketching the idea first in pencil, laying down the base color, making the bold strokes and then carefully finishing off with subtle and detailed touches. If all goes well, I will get to add my signature to this work.

The key element in training for a distance race is the long Sunday run. My legs need to be ready for at least two hours on the road in the heat of August. To get ready for the heat, my smaller two to three mile recovery runs will be in the middle of the day. On Mondays, the day after the long run, I will head to the pool to swim. This will give me more aerobic work while giving my legs a break. Tuesdays will be a good six to seven miles on the road. Wednesday is the tough double day, a swim around 11 AM, followed by a three to four mile run in the late afternoon, while it’s still hot. Then comes Thursday. By Thursday I’m very tired, but a medium six to seven mile run on this day provides a big payoff. Running on tired legs makes me stronger both physically and mentally, and makes Friday one hell of a nice rest day. Interwoven with all this will be a lot of sit-ups, and when that weight bench arrives, some high reps with low weights should help strengthen my legs.

The run that I have been thinking about all year as the centerpiece of my training will be a double loop in Peters Canyon that will be eight miles of pure hills. This masochistic tour de pain will be on August 2nd. If I can do this without crying, I’ll be ready. Even though this run will be painful, hot and brutal…… I’m looking forward to it….weird huh.

Being a middle of the pack, fifty year old (ouch) distance runner in a race of five thousand people, means I will not be racing for a trophy or a shoe deal. My trophy is the number on the chronograph strapped to my wrist. Getting that time, and being able to say it’s mine and knowing how hard I had to work to get it, is the masterpiece; my magnum opus. It’s my art.