A mixed bag for the first 5 weeks of training for CIM 2010 leads to a reevaluation of my goals

A quick summary of the weeks since training officially started:

• Week 1 (June 7) – 5 days of running, 71 miles, 7:20 average pace, 18 mile long run
• Week 2 (June 14) – 6 days of running, 72 miles, 7:30 average pace, 20 mile long run
• Week 3 (June 21) – 5 days of running, 55 miles, 7:35 average pace, 8 mile long run
• Week 4 (June 28) – 3 days of running, 33 miles, 7:40 average pace, 15 mile long run
• Week 5 (July 5) – 5 days of running, 65 miles, 7:30 average pace, 20 mile long run

This is supposed to be the build phase but alas for me it’s been the decline phase. Week 3 is when I got sick.  It started the end of the week which is what left the long run at 8 miles; Asia had to pick me up in the car at the half way point. Since then it’s required some patience to let myself build back up slowly. If it wasn’t for travel I would have been at my 75 mile target for the week. Since getting sick I’ve adjusted by build from my original base phase plan by eliminating the added hill and pace work one week a day and also for the last two weeks favoring sleep over getting drills in before the 5:30 am runs. My log (below) has more red text in it than I would like to.

Training Log from First 5 Weeks for CIM 2010

When this season started I knew I had a lot going on and something may have to give. It looks like my health and running have already. What does this mean for the training for CIM, it’s too early to tell. I know I’m fitter than I have been before. What is uncertain is will I be able to sustain my training and other commitments? In the end the following could happen as far as running goes:

• I burn out and get slower
• I maintain my fitness
• I get a little faster

A little simplistic yes but that’s pretty much where things stand. I don’t think I’ll burn out from running, if I feel poorly I’ll just back off and drop my mileage. Then there’s maintaining my fitness or getting faster. Given the time and effort I’m putting into training I’m not sure if maintaining my fitness is an acceptable outcome for me. The return on my effort would be disappointing. Am I going to quit training right now? No.

It’ll be a couple of months before I’ll know how training and “life” are treating me. Mid September will be a decision making point for my CIM training. It’ll either be ALL IN if I feel I can PR at CIM or I’ll put training into cruise control. I hope the start-up a few friends and I are working on has some legs to it and that will need some attention and backing off of running a little for this is worth it to me. If things work out the push to CIM may be the last one for a while. Putting my training into cruise control may be difficult to mentally manage so there will be some tough introspection and soul searching in-store for me in a few months.