Resolutions, goals, trying to do better, re-evaluating, making adjustments, whatever you want to call it...many of us spend some time thinking about these things in our lives that might improve our quality of life every year around the days surrounding the transition into a new calendar year. As a runner, I have sometimes contemplated races or various goals I have wanted to accomplish. Sometimes those goals are thwarted by injury, mishap, or deficiencies in training, or as in my case age related degradation of my capabilities along with accumulated injuries to joints that will never heal.
There have been three things I have wanted to accomplish over the past 11 or 12 years, but realizing that I am well past my prime physically, I might not be able to see them happen. One of these things was run a 100 mile mountain ultra marathon race. I was able to do that twice. First in 2014 along with many other ultra marathons, and a couple personal best times that year on 50 k courses I had run before, and a couple very good times (for me at age 58 at the time) at the North Face DC 50 miler, and the Hellgate 100k ++ and some epic mountain training runs with good friends that year.
The other two things I have wanted to accomplish are run a marathon in each of the 50 States of the U.S.A., and run a Boston Marathon qualification time on at least one of those marathons. I have been very close (7, 6, and 5 minutes away) to the qualification standard several times in the 2007 to 2012 era. Now that the qualification standards for Boston have been made faster at least twice recently, and I can't seem to stay healthy and uninjured enough to maintain long time periods of intense training, that goal might well be out of reach for me.
I can still cover the 26.2 mile distance without too much difficulty though, with the proper training, so I will keep chipping away at my 50 states goal as time and money will allow. I have 14 States now, and contemplating marathons I might do over the course of 2019. Current limiting factors are my right knee (cartilage damage to the medial meniscus that won't heal and surgery won't help). Multiple accumulated hip and low back muscle tears and a chronic weakness with the L4 / L5 spinal joint that have left scar tissue that seems to get inflamed easily. Lastly, just the natural slowing down that occurs with age, arthritis, and decreased cardio capacity.
Not to say that I wont attempt to train into BQ condition...but I think my window of opportunity might be gone, and I don't know how much more strenuous training my body can take without throwing an all out revolt. Last winter was really hard on me. I was under trained, but attempted the very tough Mountain Masochist Trail Run 50 mile race anyway in November '17 and was over the time limit at 38 miles, so was not allowed to finish. That caused more trauma to my already problematic right knee, so I took most of last winter to try to rehab that. Then in late February '18 I got a real bad dose of the flu that took 2 weeks out of my life. This winter, I got a flu shot, so hopefully won't get that again. Anyway, I had lots of just over all soreness and inflammation that has hampered my training this past year and has made me exponentially slower as a runner than I should be. Back in August I travelled to Issaquah, Washington to run a mostly downhill marathon hoping the downhill would give me the few minutes I need to run a BQ. With all the difficulty I was having getting the training in, I knew I would not be fast enough, but did finish, so got Washington done in my 50 states quest. Beautiful course. Check out the Tunnel Marathons. There are 4 marathons on the same course there from Snoqualmie Pass in the Cascade Mountains, run on smooth pea gravel / old railroad grade trails, down into the Snoqualmie River Valley.
This fall I was able to continue training from my summer build up and was doing well up till around Thanksgiving. Back and hip injuries flared up again. Work and family responsibilities seemed to increase, and of course less daylight and more cold, wet weather didn't help, so not much running and fitness in December.
So...new year, new adventures. Hopefully I can get my base training built back up, then start working on the three main things most distance running programs and coaches will incorporate into a training season. 1) long easy paced runs from half to 3/4ths the race distance once a week, that would be 13 to 20 miles for a marathoner, usually on weekends. Sprinkle in a few faster sections once in awhile in these long runs. 2) tempo runs of anywhere from 3 up to 10 miles at about 90% race effort for that distance or something close to 10k or half marathon pace adjusted for the planned distance that day. 3) speed intervals, usually run on a measured course like a track or smooth trail with markers, or your own course if you want, but it needs to be a surface you can run nearly all out effort without obstacles. Usually this is the kind of work that has potential injury risk, but great reward if continued on a regular basis over a 3 or 4 month period of time. I hope to be able to get back to it soon.
One thing I definitely should do is more effort on core strength, especially abdominal wall and hip / low back mobility, flexibility and strength. When I have done that I have noticed the injuries stay away, or are less severe and don't take away from the training build up by making me take multiple days in a row off from running.
So, here is to the New Year (sip of coffee), following a training plan, not giving up, and staying healthy. Now to sit down with a calendar and plan out the next 4 months of training, and pick a goal race. Wishing you all the best. Hope to see my running friends out on the roads or trails, remember... working toward goals is great, but it should be fun! Give it your all while you still have it all to give.
...Mike Mitchell
