Marathons upon marathons
No sooner had I bagged the first of two ski marathons this season by completing the 51K Noquemanon on Jan. 26, my 18-week running marathon training program began.
I wasn’t adequately prepared for the Noque – a “race” that took me 4 hours and 41 minutes to stride. My longest ski outing before that was less than three hours. I’m still hurting.
Even with that painful lesson and now the Birkie on Feb. 23 breathing down my neck, I’m still not concentrating solely on skiing. I’ve got the May 18 Green Bay Marathon in my sights, too. As someone who’s run 10 marathons but never one in the spring, training over the winter is proving to be unique challenge.
This past Saturday I skied 9 miles in 90 minutes and on Sunday ran 13 in 1:50. I’m no speed machine (be it in snow on the trails or roads), but I’ll be further tested in the coming weeks as I attempt to do faster and longer outings in both disciplines.
I need only survive the Birkie. But less than three months later in Green Bay I’m hoping to shave two minutes off my PR and earn my place at the starting line for the Boston Marathon.
To do this, I’m running just three days a week and cross training two or three days more per instructions found in the book Run Less Run Faster. I know this approach, promoted by the Furman Institute of Running & Scientific Training in Greenville, South Carolina, goes against the grain. It is more widely believed that to do well at distance running you need to do a lot of distance running. Well, I’ve found I’m not biomechanically cut out for high mileage. And besides, I would like to have time and energy to ski and bike, too.
So we’ll see. So far the book’s very specific program for a Boston qualifying time in my age group is intense. Running 800- and 1,600-meter repeats in snow and sub-freezing temps ain’t easy, I’ve found.
The first 20-mile run on the schedule falls on the day of the Birkie. But I expect to ski 30-odd miles and call that “close enough.”
– Joel Patenaude