{"id":2706,"date":"2009-06-15T08:52:20","date_gmt":"2009-06-15T12:52:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nomeatathlete.com\/?p=2706"},"modified":"2020-04-14T14:38:02","modified_gmt":"2020-04-14T18:38:02","slug":"fall-marathon-training-qualify-boston","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nomeatathlete.com\/fall-marathon-training-qualify-boston\/","title":{"rendered":"Marathon Training Begins, Social Life Ends"},"content":{"rendered":"

Well, we’re back from our trip to New Hampshire\/Massachusetts.\u00a0 Oh, how I will miss seeing Red Sox logos every frickin’ place I look.\u00a0 The wedding was really nice, and I was right on with my veggie-pasta premonition.\u00a0 Here’s a quick shot of it, and one of me and Erin all dolled up.\u00a0 Imagine how good it would be if my mug weren’t in it!<\/p>\n

\"Close<\/p>\n

\"Matt<\/p>\n

We were seriously missing our smoothie after a weekend of on-the-road eating, so today we had a big one with banana, frozen cherries, and Amazing Grass<\/a> SuperFood powder.\u00a0 I’ve been really happy with the Amazing Grass powder; it doesn’t affect the taste of the smoothie at all.\u00a0 Come to think of it, I should have brought a few of the packets on the road with me, but then I’d have had to mix them with water, and I just don’t know if I’m ready to take my relationship with Amazing Grass to that level.<\/p>\n

Marathon Training Starts This Week!<\/h3>\n

Yesterday marked exactly 16 weeks until the Wineglass Marathon, where I’ll be making another run at the goal I’ve been chasing for seven years, qualifying for Boston.\u00a0 Which means my official training starts tomorrow.\u00a0 I explained my tentative training schedule a while back in How I Plan to Qualify for the Boston Marathon<\/a>, but now I have a much clearer picture of what I need to do to get across that line in 3 hours and 10 minutes.<\/p>\n

\"MattI have mixed feelings about my chances to actually do it this time.\u00a0 On one hand, I feel extremely confident because my new vegetarian diet (and resultant weight loss) has allowed me to run faster than I ever have before, even with limited training due to a knee injury early this year.\u00a0 My recent race times of 19:16 for a 5k and 1:34:27 for a very hilly half marathon are indicative of the fitness level associated with a 3:05 to 3:10 marathon.<\/p>\n

But even though a 19 to 20 minute 5k is what you’d expect from a 3:10-marathoner, it’s not even close to a guarantee of a 3:10 marathon.\u00a0 To run the marathon without breaking down after 15 or 20 miles requires intense training and a significant mileage buildup, and preventing injury during such training is perhaps more difficult than the exercise itself.\u00a0 And that’s where I’m not so confident.\u00a0 Although my knee seems to be healed and hasn’t affected any of my runs in a long time, the substantial rest the knee has required has prevented me from building up the mileage base that I had hoped to have at this stage.\u00a0 I’ve managed 10-20 miles per week for the past few months; the mileage required by my training program will eclipse this amount in the first week.<\/p>\n

The Training Program to Get Me To Boston<\/h3>\n

The training program I’ll be using is a hybrid of the programs in Runner’s World Run Less, Run Faster<\/a>\"\" and Core Performance Endurance<\/a>\"\".\u00a0 Here’s my plan for a typical week:<\/p>\n