Endurance Run/Marathon Training; 5th in a Program Series.

Endurance Run/Marathon Training; 5th in a Program Series. UPDATED INFORMATION FOLLOWS: We are going to meet at the Robb Field Skateboard Park. Here is a map of how to get there. The meetup time is 6:45. You are welcome to join me for breakfast at the Old Town House Restaurant on Newport Avenue in Ocean Beach. "How to cover a marathon in a training session, and not get totally thrashed in the process." "It is one thing to run a marathon. It is another thing to have a decent handle on the distance." This program is geared toward those that hope to someday run multiple marathons/ultras in the future, and patiently and decidedly work, over multiple months/years, toward that goal, (because you should resolve to running more than one, if you want to run one well). Of course, if you're considering running just one so that you can check it off your 'life's lists', you are more than welcome to join us during these sessions. There may be more than one of you out there reading this that if you give this program a try, you consequently may end up moving out of the latter camp into the former. Is this Galloway's program? Yes and no. It deviates from it as much as you want (and there is no fee). There are nuggets of key training principles that Galloway has a cool method of exploring, which we will try to follow. In these particular endurance training sessions, participants will strongly be encouraged to specifically follow Galloway's run/walk method (regardless of whether they feel like "dropping the bomb" that day). The overall average pace for participants (including the walking time) will fall in the range of 9:30-11:30 min/mile, depending on the participant's objectives and level. In running group sessions, egos can get in the way of accomplishing the originally set-out objective, so I'm specifically scheduling these 4 to 5+ hour endurance sessions that will employ the run/walk method. Participants will be encouraged to explore, through an experiential learning experience, the following topics of discussion: nutrition, glycogen depletion, blood chemistry, ph and hormonal balance, injury, recovery, stress, brain glycogen, periodization, base, anaerobic, aerobic, capillary beds, mitochondria, DOMS, MAF, free radical damage, walk/run ratio versus distance, "hitting the wall", etc. Beginners will work up to eventually covering at least a marathon in distance during these sessions. Advanced participants will eventually work up to covering an ultra-marathon (50k+) during the sessions. Initially, participants--particularly novice and beginners (less than two years of semi-serious running)--are encouraged to fully fuel-up prior to, and during the run. Main emphasis of the initial sessions is physical strengthening without radical disruption in blood ph. Participants are encouraged to wear heart-rate monitors, a powerful tool that can be used to evaluate the development of the aerobic system over time (after weeks/months of training). Recommended reading material for this program is Galloway's book: Marathon: You Can Do It! (You can preview it at the above link.) The book is just a basic superficial covering of "developmental endurance running". Although it may be postured as just a "beginner's book, in reality, it elegantly and concisely lays out key principles and methods without going deep into detail or the explanation behind them, but it does follow the "KISS" principle. We can experientially (lol) explore the main topics in more detail during the sessions. On our message boards, I go into detail discussing this Galloway program. Hope to see you out there, -John- ------------------- P.S. For the forseeable future, I've scheduled these endurance run/walk sessions roughly every three weeks. The dates, leading up to the AFC Half-Marathon on August 17, are:April 26, 2008 May 24, 2008 June 14, 2008 July 5, 2008 (my 25th anniversary in San Diego) July 26, 2008 ------------------- P.S.S. As always, in the words of Mr. Galloway himself: "Before you start a strenuous training program, be sure to get clearance from a doctor who knows the benefits of exercise."