As any of you who have read my previous blogs have probably figured out, my marathon training to this point has been a bit unorthodox. Each week I have tried to focus on a topic or two that commonly comes up when I am discussing training with other athletes or patients. Before I go into this week’s theme however, I’d like to back up a bit and explain some of my overall strategy.

My season was based on trying to qualify for Hawaii at Half Vineman, and despite my best efforts, Kona was not in the cards for this year. As a result, I had to come up with some new goals for the season. I decided to do the Portland Marathon as a way to get a qualifying time for Boston next spring. A goal many of you may want to attain as the US Women’s Olympic Marathon Trials will take place the day before the great race and will be a multi-loop course through downtown Boston. Anyway, I digress, my training for the Portland marathon has been admittedly somewhat haphazard, but there is a method to my madness.

The basic tenet I, and most endurance athletes I know, follow is the periodization format. What this means is that we break our season into segments, both macro and micro cycles. We can talk about this in greater detail in future weeks, but suffice it to say, it involves larger chunks of time working on specific aspects of fitness, and within those periods are scheduled 3 week building periods followed by recovery weeks.

That being said, I am currently in the phase of training that focuses on sharpening racing skills. This phase usually proceeds a peak phase, which is the final phase that is then followed by recovery. But for now, back to the present. This week marks week 2 of 3 of my current build cycle. Since I have been enduring a long season with many interval workouts and long efforts, I have begun to change things up a bit to quell the boredom. One thing I find fun and effective is racing in place of workouts. Strategically placing a few races on the schedule that are not your key races can add some spark to the training. The benefits are almost too many to count. For example, on Sunday this week, after my long Saturday ride. I raced in the annual pier to pier swim that is part of the annual international surf festival in Hermosa/Manhattan Beach CA. After the 2 mile swim race, some buddies and I ran for about an hour including a couple repeats up the famous Manhattan Beach sand dune (90 seconds of pure hell). Once we were done, we relaxed and watched the annual 6-man Volleyball Tourney. On Thursday, the LA tri club put on a swim-run race (1000M – 5K) and we all went to the local pizza shack afterwards. Since I’ve been enjoying myself so much, I went ahead and registered for the City of Portland Triathlon (there are plenty of spots left for those of you considering it). The key thing to remember is that there is no need to go all out or feel nervous because these are not your key races.

So, for those of you doing the Portland Marathon, consider some shorter races as part of the training process. There is no pressure, and you can learn from any mistakes you make as well as practice your nutrition and hydration strategies. Above all, though, it is about having fun and making friends. After all, were not at this to make a living, we do it because it’s fun, right?