Only one month remains for J.R. in his preparation for the ING NYC marathon and his training load has definitely ramped up. We have added a mid-week long run to his program and backed off his tempo workouts. Many athletes try to increase the intensity of their programs while adding volume too quickly, which inevitably leads to overuse injuries. You simply cannot increase volume and speed at the same time because you start burning the candle at both ends. The body will eventually not have enough time to recover between sessions. Consistency with training trumps any singular “big” or “fast” training session.

J.R.’s strength training and tempo workouts have taken a back seat to endurance training right now because we need to make sure he is adequately prepared to run 26.2 miles. Through the use of his Timex GPS Run trainer downloads we can see his pace has dropped considerably in the last couple weeks while he maintains the same heart rate parameters that keep him in the “aerobic endurance” zone. This is measured progress and we can see this in the diagram thanks to Timex GPS technology.

For the remainder of his training leading up to the race we will continue building endurance while still maintaining some solid race pace type tempo efforts. We want to get him running his goal race pace at least a couple times a week in his training.

Thanks for reading!