Viet’s Blog

Race Summary: The goal was sub 4 hours. The actual time was 5:26. Obviously not what I had in mind when I started. Here's what happened: Background:   I didn’t know if we were traveling in the fall, so once I knew for sure I’d be local in October, I signed up for PDX Marathon. Training had been put together with duct tape. I maintained about 40km/week of volume, peaking at 60km. My longest run was 16 miles. I had planned a 20 miler the week after the 16 miler but due to some smoke due to forest fires nearby, I figured it'd hurt my lungs more than help if I were to be outside for 3 hours in terrible air. Instead I did a 20 mile row session inside.  The following week I did 13 miler, tapering down to 10k for the last week, then finally some random 3-4k dog walk/runs and a 5k shakeout the Saturday before the race. Still, I felt like I could rely on the conditioning I had built for Eugene in April-- I hoped I could at least maintain it during the summer. I felt more conditioned fo...

  This past training block has been kept together with duct tape. From cross training for almost a month to heal a minor injury, to the medium-hard-effort-turned Death March that was Hood to Coast, to even the timing of the race itself — I didn’t know if we were going to be out of town that weekend! When it turned out that Oct 2 was available, I signed up the Marathon somewhat late in the game.  Nonetheless, the training has already been baked in and I’ll have to go into the race with my current fitness.  I feel that I was better conditioned for Eugene, but for Portland I’m going to go into this with a better strategy.  On the eve of the race, I’ve written a pre-mortem— things that could talk me on race day and what I’m going to do to prevent them.  let’s get into it: My expectations The first thing I’m doing is setting my expectations and goals. I’m gunning for a sub 4 hour marathon so that means I have to really control my pace right from the first mile. Doing...