Thursday, February 14, 2008

Meat of the program

I'm now moving into the meat of my training program. All weekend "long runs" from here until the week before the race are double digit mileage. I'm scheduled for 14 miles this Sunday. The scheduled mid-week runs are generally longer as well. My weekly mileage goes up to as much as 42 starting three weeks from now.

I'm sure 42 miles of running in a week sounds like a lot to most people. Frankly, it sounds like a lot to me too. But for world-class marathoners, 42 miles is barely two days worth of training. Most Olympic-caliber marathoners will run anywhere from 120 to 150 miles per week. I'm pretty sure my legs and body would not stand up to that kind of pounding, but then again, if a guy like me could train like a world-class athlete, the world-class athletes would be training that much more. That's why they're world-class athletes.

The AT&T marathon and half-marathon will be held this coming Sunday here in Austin. I would have probably signed up for the half-marathon had I gotten around to it before the entrant cap was reached. One of my co-workers is going to run it. The weather looks like it should be pretty good. I hope it is. If so, the weather will be good for my 14 miler too.

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