Tomorrow is the Seafair Marathon, which is getting to also be known as the Bellevue Marathon, since it takes place here in my own hometown of Bellevue, Washington. Completing this marathon is part of my training plan for doing Ironman Arizona next April.
I've been training for only about 11 weeks for the marathon, but I'm feeling pretty good about it. My training plan was two phase: do two or three midweek runs of 3-6 miles at various paces above or below my planned race pace, then do an increasingly longer Sunday run at race pace. I don't follow the "long slow distance" (LSD) pace theory which has your long run done at a minute or so per mile slower than race pace. I want to get used to running at race pace. I also mixed in some cross training of cycling, weight training, and some swimming.
My goal time is 4 hours, which is going to be tough to make. My longest weekend training run was 17 miles at 9:12 per mile average for my flat training course, while some shorter weekend runs of 10-14 miles averaged faster at 8:40 per mile. The cool pace calculator says a 9:12 flat course pace will turn in a 4:07:30 result. The course isn't flat, and it's 9 miles longer.
My race plan is to wear my Camelback with Gatorade, carry a bunch of Gu energy gels (one for every 4 or 5 miles), and just run. No walking, no stopping, no walking the hills, just a steady run at or above the various per-mile paces from the pace calculator. I'll be wearing my Garmin Forerunner 201 as well as my heart rate monitor (yes, I'm a gadget guy) so I should be able to easily compare pace vs. heartrate and know how far I'm pushing myself, especially on the hills. Somewhere between mile 23 and 24, I'm going to push it as hard as I possibly can. It's unlikely I can make up more then say 30 or 40 seconds in the last 2.5 miles, but that would be enough for me.
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