Woe to Gazelle – Running Theory

In two weeks time I am finally at my goal; Onehunga half marathon.  While I am not actually doing the half marathon, but doing the 10k, I’m still aiming for a good day out, which for me is a 55min 10k (or less).  Ultimately I want to do a full marathon, and that is definitely a long term project.  I’ve only been working at running for four years, so hey, what’s another 2-3 to get there?!  While the journey has been frustrating, it has by default identified every imbalance in my body which I have slowly gone about correcting.  That has to be a good thing in my mind, despite the frustration.

I don’t want to slog my way through a 5-hour marathon.  No way – I want to do it, at least quicker than Oprah (4:30!).  In fact somewhere between 3:00 and 4:00 would satisfy my marathon ambition.  At the moment I suppose I am working at about the 3:49 marathon pace – for quarter of the distance.

There are a few running training theories out there.  The first being the traditional view of building endurance, then speed.  The second is build speed, with endurance. I’m going for the second one, and thus far it’s worked well, as my volume has increased, my pace has improved 2-2.5 kph in the past four months.  I like the second theory, as I don’t see the point in being an endurance monster and doing 5-6-hour marathons.  You may as well walk.  And, following the traditional view in marathon training, you barely do any speed work at all, in fact it’s 99% about volume.   I like the new view because you build speed, and aim to hold it.  Plus your body then gets used to the extra pounding that speed entails.  You can’t turn a donkey into a race horse, but I think you can make race horse run for longer.

While Onehunga is nearly here, it’s just the beginning, especially since I still haven’t got the half under my belt.