Colfax Marathon Taper

I ran 23.3 miles last Sunday, April 27 for my last long run before the Colorado Colfax Marathon May 18. Now it's just taper for three weeks as shown on this spreadsheet. I try and start my threshold run at my 0-10 mi marathon target heart rate 137 b/m, then 10-20 mi heart rate of 140 b/m and finish at 20-26.2 mi heart rate of 143. The first week is recovery with a 2 mi threshold run on Friday and a 4 mi threshold on Sunday. Instead of hip extensions and abductions I am going to run 4 mi easy. I'm hoping I'll get the spring back in my legs and lose some weight. I stepped on the scales this morning after breakfast and weighed 168 lb.

Target Heart Rates for the marathon

I am going to use my heart rate monitor with three heart rate targets for the start, middle and finish sections of this coming marathon. According to coach Benson on Running Times Magazine, miles 0-13 at a low heart, miles 13-20 at +3-4 bpm and miles 20-26.2 at another +3-4 bpm. The trick is to choose heart rate 1 (HR1) wisely, or to put it another way, not to go out too fast. I went out at 137 in the 2004 Boulder Backroads (BBR) marathon and felt strong at the finish. I went out at 140 in the 2005 BBR and fell apart at mile 17. Last Sunday I did a 4 mi run at 140 and was very sore for days afterwards. So I am not going to start at 140. Starting at 137 seems safe but what about 138 or 139? Am I going out too slow at 137? Three Sundays ago I ran 3.5 mi at 139 and felt fine afterwards. Was it the extra .5 mi that caused my soreness and not the one beat per minute? Right now with five weeks to go I'm settling in to train at 137, 140 and 143 bpm. I may up these by 1-2 bpm in May if this goes well.

Tweaks to My Marathon Training

I have settled into a two week long cycle for my marathon training. I will do four of these for eight weeks of marathon training. That added to my five weeks of 45 mi/wk in February and March plus two weeks of taper is 15 weeks of training. My latest schedule is here
Mondays and Saturdays are off. Tuesdays and Thursdays are 30 minutes of hip extensions/abductions and abs crunches. Wednesdays are a one mile run at 143 bpm, Fridays are a 2.5 mile run at 140 bpm. The first Sunday is a long run of 20-24 miles at 134 bpm and the second is a 10 mile run with a 4 mi run at 137 bpm in the second half.

I'm Running the Colfax Marathon

I have decided to run the Colfax Marathon, May 18 in Denver rather than the Colorado Marathon, May 4 in Ft Collins. Denver is a lot closer than Ft Collins, the Colfax is an out-and-back meaning there is no 4 am bus ride to the start and I'll get another two weeks of training in. The Colfax was previously a one-way with the last 13 miles rising 400 ft in elevation. Last year the port-a-potties didn't show up and some underling reset the course in City Park so it was 27.5 miles. This year's course looks really good on paper. The start and finish are both located in City Park where there is adequate parking. The marathon heads West on Colfax Ave while the half marathon heads East and I will not be tempted to keep up with the faster half marathoners. The first three miles are flat, in mile 4 there is a drop of 100' down to the Platte River, there is a 400' gain from mile 4 to mile 10, miles 10-13 are flat, miles 13-21 drop 450', miles 21-23 gain 150', and mile 23 to the finish is flat. My plan is to run the first 13 miles at a heart rate of 137 bpm. I used this strategy several years ago in the Boulder Backroads marathon that also has an uphill first half and I felt strong at the finish. I will increase my heart rate to 140 bpm for miles 13-21 and 143 bpm to the finish. Typical strategies for running a marathon using target heart rates call for 3-4 beats increases at miles 13 and 20. I am delaying the increase to the low elevation on the course at about 21.3 miles.I really have no idea of what time I'll run. My 21:28 in the Kickoff Classic 5K last September predicts a 3:33 marathon according to the Bolder Boulder conversion charts. I ran a 3:54 in the 2005 Boulder Backroads marathon using this target heart rate strategy but that race is on gravel with much more elevation gains and loses. Actually, I don't care what my time is, I just want to not go out too fast and be strong at the finish.

Eight Weeks of Training to Go

The marathon I plan on running is May 4, 2008 and I have 8 weeks to go. I have been increasing my long run by 2 mi every other week since February 1. I reached 20 mi on the second week in March. The 20 milers will be the cornerstone of my training from here on. I will do three of them and taper for 3 weeks. My two hard workouts during the week will be 6x800 and a 35 min threshold run. The spreadsheet is published here.

Marathon Training Plan

I have decided to enter the Colorado Marathon, May 4, 2007 in Ft Collins, CO. I last ran this race in 2003 with a time of 3:29. Runners are bused 26.2 miles up Poudre Canyon to the start. The course runs alongside the Poudre River and is breathtakingly beautiful. I completed 5 weeks of 45 mi/wk on Sun, Mar 9. During this 5 weeks I increased my Long run to 16 mi by adding 2 miles every other week. I also ran five of 6 hill repeats to strengthen my glutes. I am ready for anaerobic runs of 18-20 miles. I am 60 years old and need extra time to recover. To enhance recovery and lower the risk of injury I am going to change to three runs per week. These will be Speed, 6x800 or 5K race, Tempo, 4-5 mi at my anaerobic threshold or slightly higher, and alternating anaerobic long runs of 18-20 mi or 7-8 miles at marathon pace.

January 2008 Running

My plan for this month is to increase my weekly total to 45 miles in 10% steps. I will then run 45 mi/wk for 12 weeks in preparation for the Colorado marathon in Ft Collins on May 4. This is pretty ambitious for a guy that has only run 26 mi in the last week of 2007.