Marathon weekend

Before I ran the Malta marathon last March, I had decided to dedicate this year following that event to shorter races instead of concentrating on another marathon. But I did so well in the Malta marathon, and enjoyed it so much, that I quickly found a way to include a training schedule for another one, tomorrow's Brussels marathon, along with the various races that I would do throughout the year.

The combined shorter races plus marathon schedule went extremely well, even during the three weeks in the peak of summer in Malta, when I managed two runs, each at 2h45m, very early on Sunday mornings. Those two runs were quite an adventure, and were chronicled in this blog last July. The build up also included a half marathon on 15 August, on a hot afternoon this time in Belgium, three 3hr runs and another 3h15m run, all according to schedule. I was quite confident of achieving a result comparable to the 3h26m marathon in Malta.

But on 13 September, the day after the longest run exactly three weeks before the event, I received a nasty birthday gift in the shape of a cold. I was lucky, in a way. Any earlier and I wouldn't have managed to complete the build-up. Any later and it would have been too late to recover in time. As it turned out, I barely managed to recover, and my carefully planned tapering phase was turned literally upside-down. I had to be very careful if I didn't want all the hard training and preparations to go to waste. If I waited until I was fully recovered, I would enter the marathon with barely any running at all in the previous three weeks, or with sore muscles due to having resumed running after a long break - not a good idea. On the other hand, if I trained too hard while still not recovered I would remain sick.

So I had to look for a compromise somewhere, and kicked off after one week without any running, a fortnight ago when the worst seemed to be over. A short easy 6k on Sunday (in the afternoon to avoid the chill air of the morning), then a 10k on Monday, and a long run of two hours in an extended mid-day break on Wednesday. This was another compromise between the originally planned 2h30m at minus 2 weeks and 1h30m one week before the marathon, the two long runs of the tapering phase rolled into one. I did suffer some consequences after this effort - sore muscles and renewed coughing - but it was necessary to prevent my leg muscles from becoming too lazy... Two days' complete rest after that, then easy 10k's on alternate days, with slow but sure improvement in fitness and a decreasing urge to cough.

I now estimate my fitness to be at 90% of the ideal. Will it be enough for tomorrow?

My forecast is this. I'll manage to complete my 11th marathon tomorrow, which is what really matters in the end. Any less would be a huge disappointment, but it certainly wouldn't be through any lack of effort of mine. I won't try to compete with anyone, although I hope I'll still manage to run at 5 minutes per kilometre to beat the 3h30m target. I also expect a tough final thirty minutes, probably involving cramps in one or both calves, due to the missing 10% from my ideal level of fitness.

Two years ago, I ran the Brussels marathon without expecting to finish it. I just hope that tomorrow it won't be the opposite case. Maybe one day I'll take part, and I won't get a cold just a few weeks before the event.