recovering LRC poster wrote:
Hey mang,
I've always thought the same thing myself. I always have those really good long runs in the middle of my training where I feel like things are coming together, and I'm ready to pop a good marathon. Then, like you, with about 6 weeks to go, I start to get flat with anticipation. Maybe I try to force the pace a little more, but I have been under the ethos that I should just train like a marathoner for a longer period of time and just enter a marathon when I feel like things are clicking rather than try to meet the expectation of some artificial date. It is a little more organic to race when things are going well.
You sum it up exactly.
And when life stress comes in (principally, work/extensive travels or similar) it's not just a few workouts that can get difficult to fit in, but rather week(s) at a time. So I like the idea of "racing organic" as we have that luxury as recreational runners (pros have to abite by Olympics/Worlds/Schedule and peaking is an art...but running is their job and they build their life around it...while we build our running around our life, hence the idea of being almost always ready, most of the year, and popping a good one with minimal tweaks/stress and some sharpening + taper).
If I can build a base of 80 mpw, perhaps I can get to that state which would make future marathon prep much less hectic. Right now, I travel a bunch and once back, want to live like a running hermit/monk to catch up, which royally annoys my significant other to the max!