Relatively undertrained, but workable
I’ve been fairly casual this time around, compared with previous marathon training cycles. This will be my 4th outing at Big Sur, and I’m basically just planning to enjoy the run, probably something around 4:30 or even 5:00ish, depending on the weather and how interested I get in taking photos. I took a lot of notes and did a lot of planning the first couple of times on the course, but this time I’m relying more on past experience and being able to look back at previous runs there.
Looks like I’ve averaged something like 35-40 miles per week since the start of 2007 on this training cycle. The graph is slightly misleading as I’ve also been coaching my daughter’s soccer team for the past few months, and other activities which I don’t try to log, but in general I’m running at slower paces than a couple of years ago which tends to hold down the weekly mileage. This training cycle has been pretty similar to last year’s.
I still haven’t gotten any constructive resolution of my “mysterious breathing problem“, other than it’s not life-threatening, and my lung function is still testing in a “healthy normal” range. I find it psychologically challenging, though, in that I always feel like I’m working harder than the pace I’m actually running, i.e. it “feels” like I’m running 30-45 seconds/mile faster, based on my level of effort and heart rate from a couple of years ago.
This year I actually did log a single 20 mile run (versus last year’s zero 20+ runs) although I don’t feel that it’s making me any more prepared at this point. I generally try to stay at 3 hours or less for training runs, and I simply don’t go as far in a given block of time on my current (slower) paces. While we were on vacation in Maui a couple of weeks ago, I had the luxury of extra time and nice scenery, so I got in 10-12 miles along the ocean, several days in a row, and in relatively higher temperatures than I expect to see on Sunday.
The current forecast for Carmel this Sunday says 64 hi /51 low, partly cloudy, 10% chance of rain. A few degrees cooler, and that’s nearly ideal weather for the marathon.
Views like these are basically why I run at Big Sur:
