Like I mentioned in my last post, things did not go according to my best laid plans, so I need to make some changes and come up with a new and improved marathon training program that worked in conjunction with my personal training schedule.  Now, that doesn’t mean that I am going to throw everything that I did out the window, it just means that I need to make a few modifications to my original marathon training program, after all, I am not just doing a marathon, but four races in four days!

Marathon Training:

So I realized pretty quickly that I wasn’t just preparing for a marathon, but four races in a row…

And after talking to a few veteran marathoners (who think I’m crazy) I realized that I was not going to be able to prepare for a standard marathon and be ready for the Dopey Challenge.  So I created a new marathon training schedule.

I dropped the two running days on Tuesday and Thursday and put one running day in on Wednesday, and then (this is the important part) I added one distance training day on Saturday.  So I now have two timed, long distance training days in a row.  I feel that this is going to prepare me for the Dopey Challenge more so than any other program would have.

Training this way is almost always frowned upon, even by people who have done this race before, and although I am not a runner by trade, I am extremely knowledgeable about nutrition, anatomy and physiology, and I am confident that this is the only way to prepare for such a grueling race.

Adding in the second marathon training day, I was clearly going to have to change my weight training schedule as well, so I saw how I felt after the first weekend and went from there.  On Saturday, I did eight miles at a pretty quick pace for me, averaging 12.52 minutes per mile, I came home, rested, ate some food, and by 3:00 pm I was feeling pretty good, so I went to the gym and had a great chest workout.

When I woke up on Sunday morning, my legs were a little stiff (as they usually are after a long training day), and even thought I was thinking, “maybe I should just go back to bed”, I grabbed my stuff and headed out to the beach.

Today I noticed that I was a little slower on the first mile, it was taking my legs longer than normal to warm up, but by the start of mile two, I was feeling pretty good.  

So I continued, but at a slightly slower pace than on Saturday, and finished 10 miles with an average time of 14.18 minutes per mile.  Again I went back to the house, ate a pretty big breakfast of fruit and eggs, then rested.  For the rest of the day I was pretty wiped out, so at that point I made a decision to weight train on Saturday but not Sunday.  I also decided that I would take Monday off completely for a rest day, no cardio and no weights, just rest, which ended up being a great idea because my legs were sore on Monday, and I also felt pretty fatigued.

By Tuesday I was back to normal, so I did 45 minutes on the elliptical in the morning and weight trained in the afternoon.

This new plan was going to work!

My Food:

This part of my training is going great!  I have been able to stick to my diet almost perfectly and the results are showing.  I have managed to drop over 12 pounds of body fat while maintaining my muscle mass.  My energy level has been stellar and I have been feeling pretty good about most of it.  I do have to admit that I miss throwing a couple burgers on the grill and loading them up with cheese on Saturday night, but I am enjoying the results of my diet much more than I would be those burgers.  My diet is actually going so well that I am incorporating more calories into my day, I have been dropping body fat very quickly, and unless I want to start losing muscle mass, then I need to slow my loss.  Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean that I can start eating a bowl of ice cream every night, but instead I will be adding more avocado, nuts, seeds, and a bit more carbohydrates into my diet.

The most significant change in my diet has happened on my longest training day, Sunday.  Right after I wake up I take a scoop of whey protein, drink some water, grab my stuff and head down to the beach.  I take the whey protein as it gives my body all of the amino acids that it needs to prevent muscle breakdown during my training.  That is all well and good, but that only works for about an hour, and since my training is now lasting more than two hours, I need to do something else.  So I am putting a protein bar into my running belt, then after about an hour I take a bite or two every 30 minutes until I finish.   I am in the process of trying different protein bars, I am looking for something with a good combination of protein, carbohydrates, and fat.  I have found a few good ones, and will review them and give you a winner in an upcoming post.

After I finish, I head back to the house, drink a ton of water, and get started with breakfast.  Since I just went through such a grueling workout, I am going to eat a lot more food then I do on a normal day.  So I poach or fry a dozen eggs (yes 12), and eat them with approximately four cups of fruit.  I know, this sounds like a lot of food, and yes it is, but I just finished almost three hours of cardio, so I need it.  For the rest of the day, I go on as usual, resting and eating my normal meals.

So there you have it, all of the updates to my new and improved marathon training program.  And while I’m sure that I will have to modify it again, I am very pleased with what I have come up with.