Thought Sausage

Welp, I've had a week now with the Nike + system and I'm starting to narrow some things down.

I'm running an average between 8:30 and 8:35 miles at a 3 mile clip (I haven't really started building distance yet). This is considerably faster than I was running back in June. In the incredibly unlikely scenario I where manage to hold that pace for an entire marathon, I could theoretically go sub 4 hours (although it'd be by a slim margin, between 3:55 and 3:58). Now, that's over a minute and a half faster than what my marathon pace in Hawaii was (and this is in 32 degree weather).

So, to pull this miracle off in Belfast (or more realistically, Chicago), I'm gonna focus on training to hold this pace as I build up. Fortunately, this is somewhat measurable with that ipod since I can keep track of my average paces.

There's a few scenarios I think I'm going to have to deal with. First, since I'll be doing everything a little faster, and obviously, this pace doesn't allow for walking of any kind, my cardio is going to need to be a lot stronger this time around than it was. Swimming should more than take care of that, as 3k yards right now, and ultimatley around 5k yards later in the season should provide all horsepower I'll need.

But a big problem is going to be the joints. At that clip, I doubt my knees are gonna last much more than a dozen miles before they completely shit out. I'm not sure how to approach this issue (I'm already pushing my luck running 3 marathons within a year span), but I'm thinking some diet alterations to make sure the sodium/iron is there, coupled with some possible changes to the armor (knee brace etc). I had serious problems with my ankles cramping up over the summer but I seemed to have fixed that by doubling up on my socks and going to full motion control shoes.

Most of all, what I think I'm gonna call on is massive baggage reduction. Gotta get the bod light enough to where the joints can hold this pace for really long times without shattering. Plus, the lighter load should make it so I can pace faster too. The only logical method to that is caloric reduction, which I've been doing since the beginning of December to pretty good results. I've been eating a lot more during the day, but in way small portions so I'm never like, "super hungry" (although I always could eat)

Needless to say I've got my work cut out for me. The nice thing is that swimming should be an excellent compliment to running since it virtually eliminates all impact.

4 hours or bust!