The Pull

Before I get into the pull, a few items of note.

- I hope to post a picture of the Lunar Rendezvous shirt tomorrow. That way Pony will get motivated for the morning drive on Saturday. Besides, she is a shoe in for an age group award.
- On the Run is looking for a runner to work part time (20h/wk) at the store. BARC's strong veteren runner Ignacio Ybarra is moving to Dallas and won't be able to continue working there. If you know someone who would be a fit, have them contact Jay Lee at jay@ontheruntx.com or go to the store.

Now back to your regularly scheduled blog.

The steady tug of marathon training is starting to work on my psyche. I read that the Striders SMART program will start at the end of July. Since I am working on the West Side, and since the program is first class I am sure, I was thinking seriously about joining it this fall. Furthermore, my fellow bloggers and good BARC friends are lining up with Clear Lake Fitness, Bay Area Fit, Houston Fit, other organized programs or planning their own schedule.

The pull is strong.

But I intend to resist it this fall (sigh). My main goal is to shoot for a 3:45 BQ in the fall of 2010. I am starting to develop the critical success factors to get there. The first few are as follows:

1) Stay healthy. This is easy to say but to find the right training plan to assure this result is not so easy. I don't think my achilles will be ready to handle the stress of marathon training this fall. Base building appears in order.
2) Keep my speed. I ran a 2:06:29 at the 25k. McMillan's predictor translates this into a 3:41 marathon. We lose speed as we get older. I just need to offset the age loss over the next three years.
3) Improve my endurance. I'll need to find the training, nutrition and hydration strategy to get me through the full deal, not just 25k.
4) Lose more weight. I'm down about 10 pounds from where I was for the 25k. I'd like to get down 10 more pounds to have a run at a 3:45. Carrying all this weight around long distances just gets one slow times, injuries and bonks.