The Road To New York 2012

This will be the only place I will talk/write about my training for the New York City Marathon on November 4th, 2012. If you find it, congratulations. If not, I guess you will never see this.

Previous Year in Review

• Boston Marathon 2011: 2:48:41 PR
• Horrendous summer training with below par shorter races.
• Catching Lyme's disease in July 2011, resulting in 3 weeks of sun-sensitive antibiotics treatment.
• Sub-par training for New  York City Marathon 2011.
• New York City Marathon 2011: A training run in 3:09:43. 
• Shortened training cycle for Houston Marathon 2012.
• Injure left hip after a 100 mile week, 2nd week after New  York.
• Follow Canova type training workout, which are done mainly on the treadmill due to hip injury.
• Houston Marathon 2012: 2:55:55. Attempted to run 2:46-2:47, but after 7-8 miles new that wasn't going to happen...
• Boston Marathon 2012 training cycle. After one week of 3 miles after Houston, attempted to jump gradually into Pfitz 12/85+ cycle.
• Legs never responded. 10-day Hawaiian vacation in middle did not help. Hurt ribcage on vacation, causing 6 days off from  running.
• Four tune up races for Boston 2012 were significantly slower than Boston 2011
• Caumsett 25k: 2012 - 1:48:4x, 2011 - 1:38:5x
• Huntington 4 miler (different course layout): 2012 - 25:23, 2011 - 23:39
• Suffolk County Half Marathon: 2012 - 1:30:5x, 2011 - 1:23:5x
• Aspire 10k: 2012 - 39:15, 2011 - 37:10
• Boston Marathon 2012: It was 80-90F and sunny. So basically, it was a no pressure race due to horrible training cycle and with a goal of just finishing upright and not needing med tent. Mission accomplished. 3:33:55

What's Next???

Well, the plan is to actually race New York in November. Hopefully, for a PR, but I will let the training cycle play that out. I already have a BQ-19:05 for Boston 2013, but do not have a NYQ for 2013 (1:23 half, 2:50 full). I had decided that after Boston 2012, I would take 2 weeks completely off of running. That ended yesterday. I was 155.2 lbs when I left for Boston on April 13th, and this morning on May 1st I was 166.6 lbs.

One decision I have struggled with is what training plan I was going to follow. I definitely knew I was going to sit out the New York State Park Summer Series since those races never went well (since it usually was 80-85F and humid during the races) and always made me feel negative about my running.

So the two options were:

• Concentrate on some track races (400m, 800m, mile) to improve leg speed and change it up a little.
• Go back to the HRM and HADD base training for a couple of months to improve the aerobic engine. I haven't worn a HRM since June 23rd, 2011.

So, what was the choice????

The plan is:

1. Start running May 1st
2. From May 1st - May 24th, easy HADD type running in the HR range of 135-150. First week, will be short easy runs at strictly HR135. I will set my ILTHR to be 150. 
3. Vacation. I'll be traveling to Ireland from May 24th through June 4th. Not sure how much running I will be doing while there. Hopefully, maybe once everyday. Again, in HR135-150 range
4. From June 5th - July17th, more HADD type running.
1. I will try to do 2 ILTHR runs a week, probably keep the ILTHR @ 150.
2. I will start to throw in some 5-6 mile double runs during lunch @ HR135.
3. I would like to run at least 300-350 miles in June and somewhere near 500 miles for July. (Yes, that is almost 17 per day). 
4. For the two weeks in July, I will replace one of the ILTHR runs with some 5k interval work. Something like 5-6 x 3min.
5. July16th - August 12th. 4 weeks of Canova type training, which will consist of a Power Workout and an Endurance Workout each week, while trying to maintain mega-mileage. Paces for the workouts are based on MP, and I will assess what I think my current MP is at that time.
1. Power Workouts
1. 10 x 800m with 90 sec jog @ 110-112% of MP
2. 6 x 1mile with 2 min jog @ 108-109% of MP
3. 4 x 2 mile with 3 min jog @ 105-106% of MP
4. 3 x 3 mile with 4 min jog @ 103-104% of MP
2. Endurance Workouts
1. 18-22 miles @ 90-95% of MP
2. 24-26 miles @ 80-85% of MP
3. 18-22 miles progression @ 85-100% of MP
4. 12-15 simulation miles @ 100% of MP 
6.  August 13th - November 4th. 12 weeks of Pfitz 12/85+.

Planned/probable races:

1. Reach The Beach: NH. September 13-14.
2. Hamptons Half Marathon. September 29.