Day 401 - going into overtime

Overtime it is. 400 days weren’t enough. Or perhaps too much. If there had been a longer rest period between the spring competitions and before the fall preparations, perhaps the muscle would not have suffered the injury? But “if” and “perhaps” don’t really help, do they?

So, how much overtime should there be?

Quite a number of variables out there that have significant impact on the answer.

The injury keeps me off the streets for a while. This variable already can be assigned a value range. It’s 3-4 weeks of rest, no running at all. The swelling has to go away and the torn part of the muscle needs to grow together again. After that another 3-4 weeks of gradual build by careful running has to follow. By mid November training level should go back to normal again. A marathon run would need after such a break a preparation period of 5-6 weeks the least. Preferably I’d do the standard 10-12 weeks to avoid over-training as perhaps happened in the spring and of course another injury like this on now.

The family: although tried up to now, the integration of family life into this additional part of the project needs to be better. In effect I guess this translates to more runs at past 9pm to be able to come home earlier from work more often during the week, swimming instead of running on Sunday afternoons or simply one training less during the week. And of course, there should be an end to this project at some point and this point should be earlier than only in a year’s time.

The job: might not stay in Helsinki Finland, but go somewhere else. This hasn’t been decided yet, but might be so in the next 3-4 weeks. So the location range for a project finishing marathon and the training for it is beyond (Northern) Europe. Training during the fall and winter season is in most places better possible than in Helsinki, that’s good, ok, perhaps excluding Beijing or Singapore. Which ones are the fast marathons in North America and what about China/Asia?

The marathons, their dates are of course a defining factor, when this final race could be. It should be one that has a fast course, ok weather conditions and a sufficient field of runners in the 2:20 - 2:50 area.

All in all I guess next year from February to end of April is the range that we look at. That makes another 150 to 200 days. Quite an overtime period…

Tags: project