Hi all,
After much consideration, and with equally the same amount of reluctance, I have decided to withdraw from the Helsinki marathon in mid-August. The event is six weeks out from my target event and to run Helsinki, even at a very leisurely pace, would put me at risk of not being at my very best for Berlin and reaching the Breaking Three Hours goal.
When I started to map the road to Breaking Three Hours, I initially thought that I would be okay to run Helsinki and be fully fit for Berlin, despite having some minor concerns that Helsinki and Berlin were six weeks apart. So, needing to get in early, I registered for both events.
However, after running two marathons this year, listening to feedback, and having just started the 16 week programme designed by the FP Run Club, these concerns have escalated recently and I was forced to rethink my training strategy for the next 3 months.
Initially I intended these lead-up marathons to be like"glorified long runs", in that I do my weekend long run at marathon distance and in a marathon setting. It sounded like a good idea at the time. However, doing these regularly does put a lot of stress on you physically and mentally, and it does take some time to recover from these efforts.
Case in point, after Rotterdam and Copenhagen I didn't run for a week. After a typical long run, I'd normally take one or two days off and get back into training. Even though I felt like I was able to run and having little soreness in my legs, I was still pretty tired and it took some time for me to get back into quality training. I never struggled at any point in these lead-up marathons and kept them as easy as possible, but the amount of time spent on my feet started to become a game of diminishing returns, which led to a case of a long and slow recovery period. Erring on the side of caution, I tend to recover slower than I would like.
I've also started the 16-week, sub-3 hour training programme designed by the FP Run Club. When I studied the first week of the programme to see what I was getting myself into I got a really big shock. 8 training runs in 6 days! I've never done anything like this before. While the majority of runs have been easy and the hard days prescribed were manageable, the amount of running needed and the tough demands of the programme will only get higher as the weeks progress.
Having not seen the entire programme, I imagine that weeks 9-13, which also coincides with the Helsinki marathon, is the time where the demands placed on me to produce quality mileage and speed will be at the highest. Running the Helsinki marathon, regardless of completing it in under 4:00 or over 5:00, would be highly detrimental and would affect my output in that critical period. Moreover, the subsequent couple of weeks after Helsinki would most likely be spent on the long and slow recovery process, effectively stalling any progress I could make towards Berlin.
Last year, when training for the Berlin marathon, I did my final long run 2 weeks prior to the event. From a naive view, it was a great run - 37 km in 2:57:41. In hindsight I probably made a big mistake. On race day, I finished in 3:22:45, which meant that my marathon pace was just slightly faster than my long run pace. But I felt the difference should've been greater. Two possible reasons were:
- My long run was way too fast.
- Doing the long run two weeks out didn't allow enough time to recover and be at 100% on race day.
This year, I've gained a bit more experience and I believe that withdrawing from Helsinki would give me a much better shot at a faster time at Berlin. Ultimately in order to run a sub-3 hour time, it comes down to being physically and mentally prepared (as well as having many things go your way on the day!). Having Helsinki thrown in the mix isn't really going to help my preparation and may even go as far as hurting it.
The goal of running a sub-3 hour marathon is really important to me, and I've learned that in order to achieve an objective that you've firmly set your sights on for nearly half a year, you must be willing to make a few tough choices along the way. Withdrawing from Helsinki was a tough decision since I was intent on running it, but pulling out of Helsinki is going to allow me to focus on the real goal - to break three hours.
Having already registered, this is my first event where I will get a DNS, a Did Not Start in running parlance. It's a shame that there isn't a shorter alternative race at Helsinki on that day, such as a half marathon or even a 10K, otherwise I'd probably still participate knowing that the demands of running a reasonably fast 10K or a half marathon doesn't really compare to running a marathon, regardless of your time. It does hurt not to have a time next to your name in a race that you have registered and prepared for (a black mark in a runner's long distance career), but in the bigger picture it will pay dividends when it matters the most. For now, rather than viewing the DNS as Did Not Start, I'll look at it as Did Nothing Stupid.
Cheers!
Aaron
