Realistic Magicalism

Race Afterthought
... I wish I got bib #24601, and registered as Jean


Now What Do I Do?

The facts of the matter:

• I knew I could do a half marathon in 3:25 (based on previous runs) - good enough to earn the medal
• Knowing that, I set a "goal time" in my head for less than 3:00, just because it's a nice round time.
• as race day approached, it started to stress me out
•  in order to take my self-imposed pressure off myself, I said that whatever time I hit is the time I hit ... and that's my goal to beat for the full marathon!
• I ran the half marathon in 2:59:56!  Beat my goal time!
• which now means my "new" goal is to beat 2:59:56 for a full marathon!

Oh yeah, I've decided a full marathon is next.  I was bouncing around between trying to get really fast at 5Ks, trying to get faster at a half marathon or do a full marathon.  And at this point, I fall into the endurance camp more so than the speed camp ... I'm an idjit that doesn't know when to quit, not a fast idjit.

Here's where reality kicks in.
AFAIK, 3:00 is *fast* for a marathon, given that 3:25 is the 2018 Boston Marathon Qualifying Time for men aged 45-49.

So, here are the STWM 2017 goals, in order of priority:

1. GET THAT FUCKING 2017 STWM MARATHON MEDAL
   (which means under 6:00, meaning I'm gonna have to boot it, as I barely beat 3:00 for the half, and I dunno if I could have kept up the same pace for another 3 hours)
2. GET THAT FUCKING MEDAL IN UNDER 5:0
3. GET THAT FUCKING MEDAL IN UNDER 4:3
4. GET THAT FUCKING MEDAL IN BOSTON QUALIFYING TIME (because, why the fuck not?  A solid aspirational benchmark, and a good excuse for a trip to Boston)

I'm thinking about a 16-24 week training plan, given I'll have at most 4 days/week to train (Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays already spoken for) ...
I also think I'll take a a periodization approach, so I'll probably do the following:

• Nov - Jan : adding some more focus in strength training (compound movement, maybe some plyometric stuff), and more aerobic base building (mainly rowing and swimming I think)
• Feb : getting back on a track, maybe try a month-long speed training plan
• Mar - Apr : more aerobic base building (back to rowing and swimming)
• May - Oct : implement the 16-20 week marathon plan

-tak! thbbft!