SAFD
My Goals for Marathon Weekend 2020 in April:
-Stick to my commitment of training using a combination of running + cycling + strength work. My body has been telling me I've been getting very close to the max amount of running I can handle a few times over the years and when I get too close to the sun, I get burned. So I'm slightly reducing the running and including a massive amount of cycling and strength work. The goal is to see whether I can come close to the same running fitness when I'm not running as much, and yet am exercising in totality about 2-3x as much.
I was able to stick to this commitment and do run + cycle + strength through the entire year. Technically speaking, my training for the 2020 Marathon started on November 26th, 2018. So this race has been a LONG time coming for this training cycle. I dropped the running total down (maxed at 6.5 hrs or about 47 miles), but increased cycling (maxed at 10.5 hrs) and strength work (these last 6 months have been around 2.75 hrs per week). So the total time commitment was much larger than anything I've done in the past, and I'm hoping it pays off.
-Enjoy another family vacation with my family in Disney World. My personal priority is the race, but an agreement with my wife is that I am a 99% participant. That should be easier this time around since I'm not doing Dopey.
So far so good on checking this one off.
-Run the one mile kids run with Gigi.
She's excited and so am I.
-Attend the HH meetup, the pre-race marathon meetup, and hopefully make an appearance at DATW so that I can meet as many of you fine folks as possible.
It's in the plans.
-Get to the starting line healthy.
Ugh, this has been the hardest one of course. It's been like a band's "Greatest Hits" tour for the last few months for me. Every injury I've ever had in the last 7 years is slipping into my mind and convincing me "this is the one" to take me down. The stress fracture of winter 2017/2018, the groin pull of summer 2018, the ankle tendonitis of fall 2018, and the glute/back pull of summer 2019. It seems like each of these want to come to the stage and remind me what they were like. Thankfully, each of these occasions have been one-offs and gone away in due time. But one of these days, it might be real. Let's just say I've been dealing with "taper madness" for about 4 months now. I've worked so so hard for this, and the amount of mental gymnastics going on right now is driving me crazy.
-Run a sub-3 marathon.
We shall see. I've got so much data that says it's not going to happen. I've got a very small handful of pieces of data that says it could happen. At the end of the day, I'm going to line up and give it my best shot.
-After 2755 days, and what will end up being somewhere around 12,000 running miles, 7,000 cycling miles, and about 80-100 pounds lost (depends on the day) in totality from the beginning in April 2012, finally reach my goal I set so long ago of qualifying for the Boston Marathon. I'm pushing all my chips on the table and going all in. My family is behind me 100% in support of giving this a full max effort. And I'm going to do what I can to prepare myself as best as possible.
Whatever it takes.
. The progress you've made in your journey is such an inspiration. From my own experience, I know how hard it is to lose weight -- 80 to 100 lbs is quite an accomplishment in itself -- but a sub 3-hour marathon as well? Wow! Another very impressive goal. I'm looking forward to hearing about your BQ. That's going to be a fun story to follow!
