This year will be an up run.  Training began in January, after qualifying at the Philadelphia Marathon in 3:50, and a few weeks of recovery with no goals in mind.  Towards the end of December I began building up the mileage.

The plan this year is to train at the same mileage level as last year, generally following Noakes' recommendation.

January 2002

I ran 219 miles in January, or 7.1 miles/day, or 108% of the available training mileage.  This included 3 hill workouts on Fridays after work (5 x 90-second uphill sprints), 2 doubles and one triple, the long run of the month being 21.3 miles up to Pompey and back.

February 2002

I ran 186 miles in February, or 6.6 miles/day, or 93% of the available training mileage.  This included 0 hill workouts, 2 doubles, the long run of the month being a very thirsty 18.5 miles from Dad's house.  I traveled to Phoenix for my Dad's 75th birthday and spent the last two weeks in Fort Belvoir, Virginia at a training session.

March 2002

As of St. Patrick's Day

Training is going well.  Today I ran 16.8 miles up through Heiberg Forest with Tom, the long route.  I have 5 doubles this month already, with 3 this last week.

As of Easter Sunday

Today I finished March with a long and enjoyable exploratory run through Heiberg Forest to check some trails I've never been on before.  I started the usual way, turned right at the top onto Edwards Road, then all the way down to Foster Road like two weeks ago.  Down the hill to the Tully Truxton Road.  On this road, on a little level spot between the two steep down hills, there is a nice house on the left.  The house has a dog.  The dog bites.  Left on Tully Truxton Road, and then left onto Edwards Road - I figured Columbus took chance so why not.  This road ends at a nice farm on the left, but the old road no longer maintained goes straight back up the hill (500 feet of incline) back to the end of the maintained section at the corner of Heiberg Forest.  Back down the way I had run to the parking area.  Before getting there, I found an old trail off the the right, which petered out after a little ways.  I thought there was an old road on the map that I could intersect, but I didn't find it.  A little lost finding my way back to Edwards road.  It could be what I thought was an old road might be just a topographic line.  Anyway, back to the first house on the right and the road up into the cleared field.  That turned and I followed it to another trail intersection.  Trying this, a snowmobile path, I found it too wet and returned to the gravel road.  This went past Pond1, which I visited and found two Canada Geese swimming near the shore.  Then back on down the trail to the Tully Truxton Road, and the trailhead I had seen two weeks ago.  I also saw a log skidder in the woods and marked it as another trailhead to explore in drier weather.  Back to the car, for 18.7 miles, and the second longest run this month.  The longest was 20 miles on the 3rd. I finished the month with 6 doubles, 1 triple, running 275 miles in March, or 8.9 miles/day, which is 112% of the available training mileage.  On into April...

April 2002

As of 21 April

I have run to my plan.  I am averaging 8.8 miles per day so far, or 61.3 miles per week, with weeks of 65.4, 55.9 and 62.7.  So far I have run two doubles, both Fridays which included after work hill workouts, one of 6 repeats and the other of 8 repeats.  I ran 30.4 miles on the 7th and got very dehydrated and had to walk quite a bit.

As of 28 April

I am still on plan, although I didn't run today.  I ran 40 miles yesterday though, 14 laps around Green Lakes, in 7:27.  I had a really good day and enjoyed it.  I listened to War and Peace the first 10 laps.  I ran 1.75 miles and then walked 0.25 miles and repeated this pattern.  Each time by the parking lot I unlocked my trunk and drank water, Powerade, Coke, ate cookies, etc.  I carried a Clif Bar and took a bite each walking interval.  After 10 laps, I changed from my Audile Otis audio book player to my Intel Pocket Concert MP3 player and listened to Stevie Ray Vaughn, Albert King, Janis Joplin and the Eagles.  I also switched from water and Powerade to Powerade, water and Coke, and from Clif bars to cookies the last 4 laps.  I was thinking of going 15 laps for 42 miles, which would be a little over 75% of the Comrades (without the hills, of course.)  But I decided 40 miles was enough for one day.  I felt very good and was even running faster the last few laps.  This built my confidence a great deal.  Today I am a little stiff, but getting around all right.  So far for the month I am averaging 9.0 miles per day or 63 miles per week.

Graph of 40 mile training run, 28 April, 14 laps of Green Lakes

As of end of April

I finished April with 265 miles, 8.8 miles per day, 111% of the available training mileage.  Two very long runs (30 and 40), two doubles, two hill workouts.  Steady but nothing extraordinary.  I finished the month weighing 177, down about 18 pounds from last year's Comrades.

May 2002

As of 21 May

I am remaining on plan.  I have also stuck to the Atkins diet and my weight is 177 and holding, without the cravings I've had for years.  Yesterday I ran 31.4 miles at Green Lakes, 10 figure eights around the lakes.  The figure 8 is 3.14 miles, where the simple lap is 2.84 miles.  Again I stopped at the car every lap to drink, ate various things during every walking break, and picked up pace as I went along, feeling very good.  Through the 21st, I have run 161 miles or 8.5 miles per day in May, 101% of available training mileage.  This included a hill workout, a double threshold workout, and 2 long hikes, in addition to today's 31.4 miles.  Now the taper begins, planning weeks of 52, 42, 37 and 15 until the race.

As of end of May

I finished May with 224 miles, 7.2 miles per day, 67% of the available training mileage.  I prudently (I hope) cut back for the 4 week pre-race taper.  I had one very long run (31+), 1 double, 2 800m workouts, 2 hill workouts and a long lactate threshold run.  I finished the month at 173 pounds, still coming down a little slower than desired.  Another week and we're off.

June 2002

June 1  

A hill workout in mid-day sun, 6 90 second repeats up the SU hill.  Farther than I've ever gotten before, so they were faster, which is what Fordyce recommends - fewer, but faster.

June 2

A beautiful, cool run around Green Lakes from home, 9.9 miles.  I felt pretty good and remembered to go easy.  Nothing this "long" again until race day.  Just have to think about the race and keep my diet good.

June 3 & 4

I passed up the choice opportunity to get in a pre-teen heat of the 3000 meters at the Chargers all-comers meet and ran a leisurely 5.5 at lunchtime, feeling very good to relax.  Another easy run at lunch.  800s in the morning.

June 5

I had an excellent track workout this morning at the Liverpool HS track.  5x800 at 3:45 pace with 3:45 rest.   They all were too fast and too easy.  That completes the track training for this year's race.

June 6

7.8 at lunchtime and felt so good I didn't want to stop.  Well, I didn't want to go back to work.

June 7

5 90 second hills at Manley after work.  And that's it.  Now on to Comrades!

Graph of 31.4 mile training run, 19 May, 10 laps of Green Lakes

The graph below plots my actual daily mileage (in red) against the range recommended by my marathon qualifying time.  The training range is the vertical bar for each month.  The X% is the percentage of that month's available training range represented by the actual.