LA Marathon Training (October 2007)

I can officially declare that I’m in Marathon training. This year my twin boys (they are 19 now), will be doing the LA Marathon with me. Their exuberance and youth is obvious as we train together. We have done a total twenty-five miles so far (in increments of course), and the count will go up this weekend.

I’m being careful about not increasing the mileage too soon. My sons want to go farther and faster but I know better. You can hurt yourself training for these events if not done properly (especially me). We’ll do eight plus miles on Friday October 19, 2007 and increase mileage every couple of weeks. Last week we did seven miles (6.9 to be exact), with eight ten second repeats, going fast up hill. My kids dropped me on every single repeat. The experience was invigorating, and much fun. But just so you know, I can sprint, is past the thirty yard mark where you see the difference…. All right, you can see the difference in speed by the second yard, there… I admit it. This workout will make us faster, we’ll see how much faster. To be sure, I’m counting on the workouts improving my speed!

What I like about the training is the time spent chatting and joking with my sons. I wish I would have done this with my older ones (we did more biking with my daughter and son than running). Yes that’s right; I’m a father of four. The whole affair is only sustainable because of my wonderful wife (Rachel), who puts up with all my wining after the predictable sore muscles on long runs (this I believe, means another bouquet of flowers). If I could only get her to do this with us….hmmm! Maybe not, there is only room for one big baby in our home.

Some friends of ours will also be joining the fray. Others from past runs will not be there, I’ll be thinking of them as we move along. As for the current group, we’ll stay together as long as possible during training and throughout the event. At some point everyone will have to settle on their on pace. As training progresses, we will apply more of the training tips given by Runners World and others; if my sons listen to this advice (if they listen), they will finish unscathed.

No world records are in danger but I’m sure many wonderful memories await us.

Going long! Onward!