Starting the New Year Right

Jacqueline Hansen
Special to the Mirror

   Did you make New Year’s resolutions? I’ve been harboring the fear that someone would solicit my help in fulfilling their resolution to run the LA Marathon with less than eight weeks to go. My fear came true, in the form of someone near and dear to me, though she’ll remain anonymous. She has been covertly doing some training – fortunately — and was capable of running 15 miles the day she revealed her secret. So all is not lost.
   My advice to her included increasing – as gradually as possible – her overall weekly mileage, supplemented by some moderate speed work. Most importantly, her one long weekly run needs to increase in steady increments to take her up to at least 20 miles, or preferably, 22. I believe in a “stair-step” progression: going up 2 miles, then back down by at least 2 miles on alternating weeks. My friend has these long runs to do in the remaining weeks (already having run a 15- and an 18-miler): 15, 20, 16, 22, 16, 10, and the marathon.
She also has to keep in mind my number one “key to success,” which is CONSISTENCY. There really is no time for any lapse or setback in training for injury or illness, but they do happen, so she should also have a backup plan to either run a different marathon later in the year, or to stick with LA and build in lots of walking breaks to enable her to cover the distance.
Browsing the web recently, I came across one runner’s explanation of why he does marathons. I suspect it will be a motivating factor for my friend, just as it has served to keep me coaching all these years. The runner was quoted as saying, that the “only way to do 26.2 miles is for charity. Knowing that my blistered bunions and knackered knees are helping [others] is balm for the soles.”
Jacqueline Hansen coaches “Team Diabetes,” a group that runs marathons all over the world to raise funds for the American Diabetes Association. If you have questions about marathon training, email Jacqueline at coachjqhansen@ aol.com, or write to her in care of the Mirror.