Mississauga Marathon: 12 weeks to go

Today finish my last pre-training run before the 12 week program begins tomorrow. My target race for this marathon cycle is the Mississauga Marathon on May 10, 2009. I'm following the same program I did last year, the Pfitzinger 55 mile program. It's a compact little program jammed with quality work, lactate threshold runs, pace long runs and track work. I'm looking forward to the gains that will come quickly as I ramp up the mileage and get back into marathon shape.

I've been using the last few weeks to get back into shape.

Monday: 6.2 miles
Tuesday: 4 miles
Wednesday: 10 miles
Thursday: Rest
Friday: 3.1 miles
Saturday: 6 miles
Sunday: 13.6 miles

Weekly total: 43 miles

I did my long run today, 13.6 miles in DC through the Mall, around East Potomac Park, on Mt. Vernon Trail and on to Rock Creek Park. Long runs like these let you take in a lot of scenery while you fine tune your body. My first few kilometres were as usual a little blah but by the end, I was really going and I picked up the pace. I've now thrown down a 13 miler, a 15 miler and another 13+ in the last three weekends. I'm eating better these days, and aim to drop five to 8 pounds during the next 12 weeks so I'm in top racing form.

My goals for this program is pretty open. In six weeks, I have the Around the Bay 30K race, which I want to go sub 2:15. If I can do that, then I believe I'll be in shape for 3:15 to 3:20.  So I'm going to take things in strides, build my pace runs and LT runs and regain some speed. I have a 5K in one month and that gives me 28 days to get into sub 20 minute shape. That's not going to be easy but I've learned to be confident in the Pftizinger program. I pay the price and take the pain, and it'll translate on the roads.

Here's the upcoming week:

Monday: 8 miles 10x100
Tuesday: Rest
Wednesday: 13 miles
Thursday: 5 miles
Friday: 9 miles
Saturday: Rest (In New York)
Sunday: 6 miles (A lap around Central Park).

That's right, I'm going to NYC next weekend for 5 days with R. Our hotel intentionally is close to the park so I hope to get good running in. I'm going to try my 13 miler on Wednesday if I don't get it in Monday so I don't have to pressure myself to do long runs over the weekend in New York.