Planning Ahead for Another Marathon (or two).

We're two months into "Social Distancing", and it's three months since I ran a Boston Qualifier at the Napa Valley Marathon. I'm lucky to be able to run at the time of "shelter in place", as there is a wide trail in my town that is open, and has room to support safe running.

However, after 13 months of marathon training over three buildups, I've decided to rest for a few weeks. I have a strained left Achilles tendon and a strained hamstring. Time to heal up, and ruminate.

While I do hope to run the Boston Marathon, it's more important to me to try to improve while I am still able. Having run a PR two weeks prior to my 63rd birthday, you can appreciate that my time for improvement is sooner than later!

Having attended high school in Eastern Massachusetts and watched the Boston Marathon growing up, I relish the idea of running this historic race. Only I don't really think it will be much of a chance to race, or run a great time, rather it will be an "experience" to be relished, a running parade.

That being the case, I'm hoping that regular racing returns before too darn long, and I can select a fast marathon to race. My most recent build saw me complete twelve weeks out of 16 total at 50 miles-per-week or more. I believe that slowly building to a volume of 60 - 65 per week for my next marathon should allow me to PR.

I don't worry too much about speed, as a former middle-distance runner I have decent leg speed. My hard workouts tend to be tempo runs and fast finishes to long runs. In truth, my main problem is to limit the frequency of my hard workouts!

I'm writing this all down to remind myself how to do it! I've tentatively selected the California Internation Marathon in Sacrament this December to put my ideas into action. Of course under COVID-19 everything is provisional, but does feel good to have a plan!