I was reading through my old ‘mai oui, Paris’ posts yesterday and was very impressed with how fast I was at the end of January and in February, much faster than I am now. But then that was the problem wasn’t it? The marathon was in April, and I was dead in April!
So I was reading it and trying to learn from the past, but I’m not posting at the moment, so how will I learn in the future? Well, there is a cure for that!
It’s 2022 now, I haven’t done a single race since early in 2020 since the Corona shit hit the fan. I’ve done a few park runs and my achilles problem has completely gone (hopefully for good) so I have decided to give this marathon thing another shot.
It’s going to be a bit different this time though. I was listening to Matt Dixon’s podcast and he talked about how too many people collect miles (km) and measure success based on just the number of miles or hours run. Well that is 100% me! Reading about Paris in 2018, I would feel like crap, but run everyday and extend runs to meet my arbitrary km/week goal, until I wore myself out and overtrained.
So this time I have a training plan, it has shockingly little running sometimes and I can swap out any easy run with an easy bike, according to the coach (Matt Fitzgerald). I am way behind where I was in 2018 at this time of year. I weigh 80kg, whereas I want to race at 75kg. I reckon I would run about a 38min 10k (may be optimistic), not the sub36 I could do back then.
But there are definite positives too. I am getting fitter. I am losing weight. I stopped drinking caffeinated coffee and my stomach is a world better when I run now. I also sleep much better, no more waking up to pee in the night, I generally sleep right through now. I’ve also been doing more core exercises and cycling on the trainer, to keep things more rounded and hopefully injury free.
So, where does that leave me. I have just under 10 weeks until my marathon in Zürich. I think that my weight will be about where I want it come marathon time. I will do my training plan as close to perfectly as I can, and trust that that will get my fitness to where it needs to be. I have been working on my race nutrition already in training, taking Maurten gels in every other of my every 4km walk breaks, something I am considering for the marathon itself… I have also bought some Alphaflys, and some Saucony Endorphin Speeds for training to get used to the carbon plates, so I should be good on equipment 🙂
We will see, as always the goal is a PB, followed by 2:48, followed by 2:45. I think I can do a 2:48 if I get to February 2018 shape in April 2022.
Oh yeah, back to the title of this post – RVV and ZUT. I’m going to ride the 135km version of the Tour of Flanders 8 days before my marathon. I don’t see any downside, unless I crash. I’m also planning on doing the Base+ Zugspitze Ultratrail in July. It’s 49km with about 1800m of climbing, a big day, but not soooo crazy. It should be an adventure, which is good I think. Speaking of adventures, I am trying to get a start for the Ötztalerradmarathon again and I have put my name down for the London marathon (I thought it was in April, but it’s in October :/ )
So 2022 could be a busy year. After a very not busy 2020 and 2021, I am really looking forward to it.
So see you next time when I’m update on my 10k in Ottobeuren, my only planned 100% effort race in my marathon training.