Santa Clarita Training Update

The Santa Clarita Marathon is coming up a lot faster than I expected it to. My training volume has improved but not increased. Let me explain. I have continued to run and pace myself according to how I feel and my goal for that day. In the last few weeks my perceived effort, though unchanged, has yielded better faster mile splits and I these are encouraging signs. I feel like my slow build up is paying off. On the flip side, the mileage itself has not increased. This is good and bad.

My body is getting used to the amount of miles I run or particular courses, but I am not logging more miles. Part of the reason i have not been running longer is I am nervous to do so. I live in the city housing Disneyland, but outside that immediate circle there are some very unsavory parts to Anaheim, Ca. and a cursory look at OC Weekly or the OC CrimeBlog will paint a clearer picture.

I may also be spoiled. For a long time my night runs were in San Clemente, Ca; a small town where I felt comfortable running at night and refilling my water bottles at bars without thinking twice about it. Generally, the police were very accommodating and on one night run even offered to check back on me in a few hours to make sure I was ok (29 mile).

I guess what I am trying to say is I simply have to find a better way to get my mileage up in the safest possible way. Of course, my sinuses still cause me to lose balance at times and its always a concern especially when fatigue sets in. But, that is just the price we have to pay for the types of sports that we want to practice. I

am not certain what to expect at the marathon distance especially since it is on roads, a place a generally don’t run on. I do not have a specific race goal or time goal. I just want to finish and be comfortable enough to walk around without issues the next day. I certainly want to run a smart race, but a race nonetheless. For me this race represents the new bar. I dont know what my body can do but I know that in order to get used to my “new normal” I have to set bars and then plan goals to tear them down.