I've been meaning to put my current thoughts and feelings down on how my preparation for Jacksonville is going for a while and have given it enough time to turn over in my head. Quite honestly I am confident but still not sure if I have what it takes to get the OTQ in just under 3 weeks. I am confident because I've been training as hard as I ever have in my life since Philly, but still, 60 seconds over 13.1 is a lot to gain in terms of fitness in 9 weeks. I hope that I will get a little bit better pacing this time around and not go out too hard - I'll be right on the edge, so this might be all the difference I need.
Anyway, the training: all summer and fall I was running 90-100 a week with typically 2-3 workouts per week of varying intensity, all focusing on different facets of the goal race. My philosophy is no different now, but I am running about 15 mpw more than I was before (higher frequency of runs + better weather than summer/early fall), and the workouts themselves are of at least the same quality if not better. I had a rough period of adjustment to the higher workload and was feeling a lot of muscular fatigue, but I've been in a good patch for the last week and have run two of the best workouts of my life. With 3 weeks to go, I will keep training hard for another 1-1.5 weeks, with a race this weekend (5 miles) that I will run hard but train through, and then it's taper time.
This race looks like a once in a lifetime opportunity. The director has put together a huge field full of guys like me on the bubble, a good pacing group and has a fast course at the right time of year, both for weather and relative to the OT marathon. I think the most important thing about this race, and what makes it unique for a road race, is that it is a big group of fast guys all coming in with the same goal. It's the Stanford Invitational of the roads. Hopefully the weather cooperates and the pacing is good, because if I can get to 10 miles in something between 49:30 and 50 flat and not dying I give myself a good shot at running the OTQ.
