The power of three

With my third marathon just a week away, the taper in full swing and a little more free time on my hands, I figured it was time for a blog entry :-)

The French have a saying, "Jamais deux sans trois", it tends which has a negative connotation to it, and could be loosely translated to "bad luck (stuff) comes in threes", if I were to look at things from a negative perspective,  this could be applied to my marathon history.  In my first marathon I suffered some nutritional issues at around 30K and finished well over my goal time of 4:30:00.  In my second marathon, I had some IT band issues and although I bettered my first marathon result, I was still well over my goal time.  I've worked out my nutrition plan over the last year and a half, and with the help of solefit orthotics and my RMT, I've sorted out the IT band issues.  So this being the third marathon, a negative person might dwell on what new obstacle would prevent me from achieving my goal.

However, there's a more positive way of looking at this for me "Third time's a charm".  With the lessons learned from my first two marathons, the proper shoe, a tested nutrition plan and a number of other races under my belt, I am hopeful that this will be the race where I finally break that 4:30:00 goal.

I don't know if the taper for this race is any indication, but it has been very different from any taper I've been through so far.  I have not experienced the nervous anxiety I normally do as the length and intensity of the workouts decrease. I have not had the hypochondriac thoughts that every twinge, cough, or slight ache might be the one that takes me out of this race or running altogether...and  my pace has been getting faster rather than slower during this taper in spite of the fact that I've been running based on PE and not watching the Garmin (with the exception of this weekend's long run where I thought it best to closely monitor my pace).

I've decided to focus on the positive, to trust the training plan that has got me here injury free and the nutrition plan that has worked in both the half and 30K distances...I've decided that everything that my coach, my training partners and I have done in the off season and throughout this racing season, have prepared me to run the best race that I can next Sunday and that's the goal that I'm going to focus on when the gun goes off.

Now to turn that French saying around...I've had two Personal Bests this year...so the way I choose to look at it is that the Marine Corps Marathon could very well be my third PB this year, "Jamais deux sans trois" INDEED!!

Hills…ya’ gotta’ love ‘em!

It’s no secret to anyone I run with that I tackle (well it seems like that to me) the hills we come across on our runs. Fortunately for the majority of my runs there are very few hills, particularly on longer runs and most are not what would qualify as a true hill…more like speed bumps really.


Just because I tackle the hills, doesn’t mean I find them easy, nor does it mean I always enjoy the experience, quite often I’m struggling as much if not more than my running mates… so why then do my running partners and team mates think I LOVE hills?

Here’s my secret…I pretend I LOVE them, I pretend as I see the hill coming up, I pretend as I start the hill and then I find a new gear, switch it on and motor up that hill believing that I LOVE it….and so far…in training that has worked…I haven’t done quite so well in races as evidenced by the effects of Hamilton’s Around the Bay for the last two years. I’ve set a goal to change that at the Marine Corps Marathon this October, there are not a lot of hills, but there are a couple of big ones near the start and we finish on an uphill, so I’ll have the opportunity.

I was beginning to question if my two weeks away from the Campus hills that I normally run 3 times a week was going to take its toll. I had been training on mostly flat routes due to scheduling issues while away from work. I was still getting in the times and distances, but the post-run feeling was not quite the same as when I’m tackling 3 or 4 hills on a route.

I came back to the campus last week and was really relieved to see from my Garmin stats that my times and distances were pretty much where they had been before leaving the hills behind and running the flat routes.

More importantly though, I really missed the hills, I was able to charge up all of the hills in each training session and although I still felt the effects of the hill, I had renewed energy and appreciation for what the earlier training had done for me. I can honestly say that (last week at least) I LOVED the hills!!

I’m looking forward to the next couple of months of training and to seeing how well this plan transfers to race day and the ability to charge the hills at Marine Corps…I’ll keep you posted.