Jan. 3-9

Monday - 9 (65 min.)

Tuesday - 12 with 5 quarter-mile accelerations mixed in

Wednesday - Workout at BCC - 6 by 1200 with 400 jog rest: 3:54, 3:51, 3:48, 3:49, 3:41, 3:41. 11 for day.

Thursday - easy 10. Not as sore as I expected to be.

Friday - Workout on grass in West Potomac Park. Two times 15 min. at tempo effort. Covered exactly 2.65 miles on both. 11 for day

Saturday - easy 11

Sunday - 16 with team on Millennium Trail in Rockville. DATA.

Total - 80

Comments: Consider this something of a blueprint for my training in prep for races this spring. I have a fast 5K in Baltimore March 13, the National Half Marathon March 26, Cherry Blossom 10-miler the following weekend and Pikes Peek 10K April 17. I don't expect to do much doubling, and I doubt my mileage will get higher than 90 MPW. In fact, once a new grad course starts up again next weekend, I will be lucky if I can keep it where it is now. Gary Cohen published a long skim-worthy interview this week with Jeff Galloway, a runner who became an Olympian in 1972 via working his ass off and in recent years has published books for beginners that have advocated walking breaks to improve marathon times.

Galloway on his training progression:

"In high school by my senior year my maximum mileage was 35 miles per week, though most weeks were 30 miles. In college I increased to 40-45 miles per week on average. When I went to train in Florida I was up to 80 miles per week. I had had a series of marathons where I hit ‘the wall’ so when I asked other runners why, they said my mileage wasn’t high enough. So I upped my mileage from 80 to 100 miles a week over a six month period and still hit the wall in my next marathon. So then I upped it to 120 per week for six months and finally up to 140 for six months leading up to the 1971 Pan American Games Trails marathon. After that race there was a party among the finishers and we were discussing and arguing about training. Well, I was proud to be the highest mileage runner in my corner of the room and discussion. One guy heard me talking about running and said, ‘I’ve never run a 100 mile week in my life,’ which was low for national class runners. I looked to see who it was and it was Kenny Moore who had finished second and had qualified for the Pan Am Games while I had finished eleventh. I went over and was giving Kenny the third degree about what he was doing since he wasn’t doing high mileage. It was obvious quickly what the big difference was – Kenny was running 30-milers every two or three weeks and my longest runs were 20 or 21 miles. No wonder I hit the wall and he didn’t."

Translation: There are no shortcuts.

Now - just for the hell of it - let's add a quote from Jon Parker's classic novel "Once a Runner".

Quenton Cassidy: "...The thing is that in track we are painfully and constantly aware of how we stack up, not just with our counterparts but with our historical counterparts as well. ... A basketball player can go out and have a great day and tell himself he's the greatest rebounding forward ever to hit the hardwood, but he'll never be troubled with the actual truth, will he? ... In track it's all there in black-and-white ... We all carry our little credentials around with us ..."

Translation: We all know our place. And, we all know what it takes.

Not everyone can make - or even wants to make - this commitment. I, for one, see the ability to make it slipping away. These days there is too much at stake - the family, the career - and running, even hard training, can feel as if I am granting myself some sort of luxury I don't deserve.

Ultimately, you have to believe in the journey. You have to acknowledge, too, how personal it is.

In 2011 I suppose I am trying to get the balance right. The running is something I really enjoy ... But I will be honest: I would not be doing this if I did not believe the future offers more PBs to claim.

Dec. 27 - Jan. 2

Monday - 0 - Travel, work

Tuesday - 13.5 (4,9.5)

Wednesday - 14 (3,11) PM - BCC - Mile cutdowns, lap jog for rest: 5:22, 5:18, 5:17, 5:05, 4:59. Felt comfortable.

Thursday - 10 (6,4) AM sore, 8-minute pace PM still easy

Friday - 10 - team run from Line

Saturday - PM 7

Sunday - Long run with team from Riley's Lock on C&O Towpath. Good group. Natural surfaces. Cool weather, some rain. ~16 miles (6:48 avg.) Got a Garmin watch for Christmas! Check out the data.

Total - 70

Comments: As far as running goes, 2010 was not a good year for me. I got injured in January, missed 5 weeks. When I started training again in February, I came back feeling surprisingly strong - but a warm day nixed any chance I had of running well at the Broad Street 10 Miler. Just to confirm that I was in decent shape, the following week I ventured home to New Jersey to run my hometown race, where I managed to run 26 and some seconds for five miles, solo, amidst huge winds. After that, I basically started cranking it in preparation for the Chicago Marathon; I put together a 20-week plan ... It fell apart 10 days before the race, when I came down with an odd case of sciatica I wasn't quite able to shake. DNF. In 2009 I won a marathon, ran my fastest marathon since 2006 and ran a personal best in the half marathon. 2010 brought no such luck, but I'm hopeful about 2011 ... With it, pretend training now comes to an end.