Next!

Next stop - Hopkinton, Mass.

I've taken a two-week break to let my body heal up.  Now it is time to start thinking ahead to April 18, 2011 and preparing for what will be my fourth marathon in fourteen months. 

My training grid will officially start on December 27 so for the next five weeks, I'll spend my time just keeping up some maintenance miles.  I also need to figure out how to mix some cross-training in.  I don't have a bike and I don't like to swim so I'm not exactly sure what that means yet.

Despite all efforts to the contrary, I've also managed to maintain roughly the same weight I was at in New York, which means it won't be as difficult to reach an optimum racing weight by April. I did not train as hard for New York as I did for San Diego in June, and my diet was not as consistent for New York either.  The difference between June and now of plus-eight pounds undoubtedly took a few minutes off my New York time.  That was fine because I wasn't trying to kill myself for New York, but I want to get back that for Boston.  I'm pretty sure I'm going to need every advantage possible.  Can't really phone that one in.

I am going to repeat the same training plan I used for San Diego, and I am currently reading "Racing Weight" by Matt Fitzgerald.  While I think I know what my optimum race weight is from my San Diego experience, I also don't have the most professional diet even when I am serious.  I am probably not going to change in that regard, but there are enough changes I can make (and I have enough time to do it) that I at least should not be able to blame any problems in Boston on my level of fitness.

The hard part will be, as it has been recently, keeping my body from rebelling and avoiding any injuries.  My ankles still are as knobby looking as the day I got the MRI's on them both, but there hasn't been any pain.  The shoes I trained in that were to help alleviate the strain on the anterior tibialis tendons made my feet feel like they had been smashed with sledgehammers by the end of the New York marathon.  I may continue to train in those, but I will not be racing in them.

For now, I'll just start on my easy runs and get back up to speed again through the holidays.  Sometime on or around January 2, 2011, I be posting: "Week 1: Boston."

Happy Holidays!