So take this with a grain of salt: I haven't raced a marathon in nearly three years, and of the two that I've finished neither have been particularly noteworthy.
When I was in college, the 10,000m folks on Xavier's team had a saying about the 10k on the track: "controlled aggression released over 25 laps." For those who've never had the distinct pleasure of racing the track 10,000, you're not really missing out. On a bad (or even mediocre) day, it consists of a special kind of hell involving monotonous, mind-numbing misery. When you're off your game, the laps drag by. When you're on, they fly.
Keeping that attitude ("controlled aggression released over 25 laps") helped keep us present in the race. Staying patient, racing in the moment, not thinking too far ahead (don't think about the finish before the final mile...) combine to create a positive experience. You focus on the race at hand -- not the finish -- and the results will take care of themselves.
The marathon, then, is the same premise, just taken to the extreme. Race it with controlled aggression released over the course of 26 miles.
No one wins a marathon in the first 10k, but plenty of people have lost them there. Go out too fast, and you'll burn up all your glycogen stores, leaving for a final 10k riding the struggle bus (believe me, I've been there).
The race, as they say, begins after 20 miles. Are you glycogen depleted or not? How much do you have left in the tank?
That's what makes the marathon such a challenging race: to do well, you have to strike a perfect balance between patience and performance, ease-of-effort and go-for-broke, control and aggression. Go too early and you'll pay for it later. Go too late and you'll leave time (and place) out on the course.
So there it is, controlled aggression released over the course of 26 miles. That's the plan, anyway. Let's see how it goes on Saturday.
__________________________________________________________________________
Don't forget to tune into the US Olympic Marathon Trials this Saturday, Feb. 13th LIVE on NBC at 1pm Eastern (10am Pacific). Not that I'm actually going to make it in the broadcast at all, but it's still an awesome event.
When I was in college, the 10,000m folks on Xavier's team had a saying about the 10k on the track: "controlled aggression released over 25 laps." For those who've never had the distinct pleasure of racing the track 10,000, you're not really missing out. On a bad (or even mediocre) day, it consists of a special kind of hell involving monotonous, mind-numbing misery. When you're off your game, the laps drag by. When you're on, they fly.
Keeping that attitude ("controlled aggression released over 25 laps") helped keep us present in the race. Staying patient, racing in the moment, not thinking too far ahead (don't think about the finish before the final mile...) combine to create a positive experience. You focus on the race at hand -- not the finish -- and the results will take care of themselves.
The marathon, then, is the same premise, just taken to the extreme. Race it with controlled aggression released over the course of 26 miles.
No one wins a marathon in the first 10k, but plenty of people have lost them there. Go out too fast, and you'll burn up all your glycogen stores, leaving for a final 10k riding the struggle bus (believe me, I've been there).
The race, as they say, begins after 20 miles. Are you glycogen depleted or not? How much do you have left in the tank?
That's what makes the marathon such a challenging race: to do well, you have to strike a perfect balance between patience and performance, ease-of-effort and go-for-broke, control and aggression. Go too early and you'll pay for it later. Go too late and you'll leave time (and place) out on the course.
So there it is, controlled aggression released over the course of 26 miles. That's the plan, anyway. Let's see how it goes on Saturday.
__________________________________________________________________________
Don't forget to tune into the US Olympic Marathon Trials this Saturday, Feb. 13th LIVE on NBC at 1pm Eastern (10am Pacific). Not that I'm actually going to make it in the broadcast at all, but it's still an awesome event.
Good luck!
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