can I still do it?

[Marcus Holmes]

Here's the story. I've long planned to run this year's Marine Corps Marathon as my first marathon,
after the DC Marathon was cancelled. I've been training steadily, but lately because of work things
have slowed down. Today is September 16, and the marathon is October 26, which gives me roughly a
month with a week of taper. My longest run in the past few months was two weeks ago at the VA Beach
half-marathon where I did it in 2 hours. I have yet to do a 16 or 20 miler this go around (I did a
20 miler while training for DC marathon this year that never happened).

Question: Do I still have time to train enough so that I can run the MCM? If so, what should my
abbreviated schedule look like? As I see it I have the following weekends left for long runs:

Week 1: This weekend Week 2 (Sep 26) Week 3: Running Army 10-miler on Saturday Week 4: (Oct 10) Week
5: (Oct 17) <-- :Last weekend before race Week 6: Race

How would you guys schedule the long runs out?

Thanks!

Marcus

[Anders Lustig]

"Marcus Holmes" <mholmes@world.std.com> wrote in message news:<bk89e9$2b2$1@pcls4.std.com>...

> Question: Do I still have time to train enough so that I can run the MCM?

Depends on how you view the prospect that you *could* be in for a nasty surprise:-)

> so, what should my abbreviated schedule look like? As I see it I have the following weekends left
> for long runs:

> Week 1: 16 (easy does it, drink, stop to stretch or
massage)
> Week 2 20 (ditto) Week 3: Running Army 10-miler on Saturday
16 (easier still)
> Week 4: 20 (easy, try to give it a go on miles 15-17) Week 5: 6 (easy, it´s taper time) Week 6:
> Race (good luck!)

Anders

[Doug Burke]

Anders has some great ideas but the one big thing I would suggest is to bag the Army 10 miler. Great
race of course but with all the real life stuff happening to you it's simply a matter of setting
priorities. With that in mind, here's my suggestion: Week 1: 16 miles Week 2: 18 miles week 3: 15
miles (no Army 10) Week 4: 20 miles Week 5: 12 miles Not ideal of course but if you take all the
runs easy (and walk if you have too) you just might get to the starting line uninjured. I'll be
there at the MCM too. Good luck. Doug Burke

Marcus Holmes wrote:
> Here's the story. I've long planned to run this year's Marine Corps Marathon as my first marathon,
> after the DC Marathon was cancelled. I've been training steadily, but lately because of work
> things have slowed down. Today is September 16, and the marathon is October 26, which gives me
> roughly a month with a week of taper. My longest run in the past few months was two weeks ago at
> the VA Beach half-marathon where I did it in 2 hours. I have yet to do a 16 or 20 miler this go
> around (I did a 20 miler while training for DC marathon this year that never happened).
>
> Question: Do I still have time to train enough so that I can run the MCM? If so, what should my
> abbreviated schedule look like? As I see it I have the following weekends left for long runs:
>
> Week 1: This weekend Week 2 (Sep 26) Week 3: Running Army 10-miler on Saturday Week 4: (Oct 10)
> Week 5: (Oct 17) <-- :Last weekend before race Week 6: Race
>
> How would you guys schedule the long runs out?
>
>
> Thanks!
>
> Marcus