Sunday, June 10, 2007
Countdown to Rocket City Marathon begins Monday
ORN: Saturday: 7 miles, 1:09:01, R7/W1, 9:51/mile
Had a delightful early morning run on Saturday on our local trail system. The humidity was down and what a difference that makes. One fun surprise: I got to take a survey! With Purdue University in town, we often see survey takers because professors need to write papers to keep their jobs and have to do research in order to have something to write about and have to take surveys to have data for the research. A young grad student ( aren’t they all young? ) was sitting along the trail with a sign asking for volunteers, so I stopped and helped. She had questions about how often I use the trail and for how long. It was fun, as I am a big fan (and user) of the trail system. She gave me an info sheet about the survey and, when I got home, I read it. Oh the joy of academia…the survey was to test the reliability of surveys. Hey, I was there.
Monday marks the beginning of a 26 week training effort leading to the Rocket City Marathon on December 8. I got word at work this week that the one manadatory work obligation I thought might interfere with this race will happen on December 14-15. So, I’m clear to shoot for this event in Huntsville, Alabama.
The training program lines up nicely with the seasons here. Most of the summer is occupied with hill work and shorter speed work. The real distance work doesn’t kick in until late August, then builds through the fall. Have I mentioned before how fall is the best time of year to run here in Indiana? And how much I missed all the long runs last fall? Yeah, I thought I did. Not this year…I want to relish the fall.
This program (from Jeff Galloway) includes two marathon-length runs in training. One will nicely coincide with the Indianapolis Marathon on October 20, so I’ll do a training run and get “credit” for it. The other 28 mile run is set for November 17 and I can find no marathon anywhere near here that weekend. So, I’ll just do a long run here. I’ll fit in a few other races as distance and timing and the price of gasoline allow.
I hope all your surveys are highly reliable…even if they aren’t, persevere anyway.
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6 comments:
26 week plan? That's a long one. But, hey, it keeps you out of trouble and off the streets. No. Wait. That's not right. It puts you ON the streets a lot. Well, you'll be busy and not mis-behaving.
I love when I can find races to serve as training runs. Nice. Here's a toast to the start of your training program! : )
I ran Rocket City last year. It is a well managed race. Just hope it is a little warmer for you this December. It was 17 degrees at the start!
If you haven't made hotel reservations, I would encourage you to do so. The headquarters hotel is a Holiday Inn. There is a new Embassy Suites across the street. The race starts in front of the Holiday Inn and the finish line is in the side parking lot.
It is a great race and you can't beat the value, race, tech shirt, finisher cap, metal and free photo!
26 weeks eh? I'm not planning on starting training until September. LOL. Hmmmm. I wonder if I'm in trouble! Hopefully my tri training will kick start me in the right direction!!
The plan should prepare you well for the marathon. I am glad that you managed to find another marathon to do a training run for credit. That's the way I like to train, but I suspect you already know that. It's good to hear you're healthy and with your sights on the marathon again.
So you are going all the way with this one? I've only talked to one other person that has done Galloway's really really long long runs. It will be interesting to see how it goes.
So will that qualify you as an ultramarathoner?
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