After three years of consistent running (the longest string of my life) I have finally come to terms with my first ‘injury’, a serious case of shin splints that has been bothering me for almost 4 weeks. I have not run really at all for the last 2 weeks, choosing to do bike rides to keep my cardiovascular fitness up. I have been icing it several times a day and yet, the problem does not seem to be getting better. Two days ago I finally got into my sports medicine Doctor and we established the most likely cause, a bad set of running shoes. Great, we solved the source problem, but now we have to get over the outcome of that source problem. Later today I will go in and have a bone scan to see what is going on.
      Why am I even writing about this? Well, mere hours after the bone scan (before we even get the results) I am leaving for my first ‘double’ marathon weekend. Yes,  I am going to Arkansas and Oklahoma for consecutive days of marathons. 52+ miles in two days. I could survive it just fine if I was 100% healthy, but I am not. My sports Doc did not say ‘don’t run’, but he did tell me to pay attention to it. I need to make sure it does not get significantly WORSE, meaning it turning into a real fracture. I will be going slow in the first race and doing a serious evaluation afterwards. If I can’t run the second one, I will volunteer for the race. Who knows, I might walk race #2 as the time cutoff is 7.5 hours. I honestly believe I could walk a marathon in that time. Point of information, the last run I did was two weeks ago. It was an 18 mile run at 7:10/mi pace and my shin felt no worse afterward than it did before or does now. It is because of THAT run I am even making the trip this weekend.
     The PR attempt in December is already out, which is a serious bummer. I need to survive this weekend, as best I can, then get this shin issue put to bed.

 So, now I am a marathon runner with 14 marathons under my belt in less than 2 years with a handful under 3 hours and a sub 2:50 to my credit. I have also tried a few different training schedules that all seem to have done a so-so job for me. I think I have earned a little bit of ’street cred’ regarding marathoning.
 In almost every training schedule there is that all-important ‘taper’, a 2-3 week time frame right before a race that you reduce your miles, rest a lot and eat a lot of carbs such that on race day, you body is in top shape, dying to go fast. Well, I have been burned on more than 1 occasion with such tapers. The 2006 Chicago Lakefront 50 miler, The 2007 Johnstown marathon, and the 2008 A1A marathon were all races where I did such a taper and in all cases I ended up getting horribly sick mere days before an important race. I have heard of this happening before to other runners, their immune systems getting weakened by the sever reduction in miles. In the two marathons mentioned above I was shooting for PR’s, getting myself psyched up for both and then running 20 minutes OFF my PR in both cases which did a number on my confidence. I started playing around with reducing my taper, if doing one really at all.
 Then I ran the Cape May marathon and everything changed.
 I had not tapered at all for that race, and only reduced my workouts for the last 4 days before the race, still running 4 miles 2 days before the race at a good clip. With no taper, I decided 10 minutes before the race that I was going to shoot to break 3 hours. I felt pretty good, and I have taken to waiting until the last minute to decide what pace I want to run. I then proceeded to run a nice 2:56:16 (46 seconds off my PR) but more importantly, I got the first win of my career.
 A light switch was flipped inside. After that race I feel like a completely different runner. I now brim with confidence and I think I can conquer the world. After a few short days of recovery (much less than a normal training schedule says I should recover) I am back out on the roads. When you run a marathon a month, marathon races are PART of your training. What is different this time is that when I go out for an ‘easy’ 8 miler, I am doing it in a 6:40/mile pace instead of a 7:10 pace as per usual. I feel ok, and continue to do all my runs faster than ‘usual’. I start doing 8 and 10 mile runs in back to back days in faster than marathon PR speed. My legs are tired and beaten down afterwards, but within 16 hours (in time for my next workout) I am mostly recovered.
 It is about this time I start thinking about my new training program, the race pace training program. You see, my ankles (and my job) don’t allow me to do much more than 55-60 miles a week. Since I cannot up my mileage to compete with the big boys, I need to improve the quality of my runs.
 Most marathon training programs have three ‘key’ workouts a week. One ‘speed’ workout doing things like 800 m repeats, one ‘tempo’ run of 6-8 miles at slightly faster than marathon pace, and one long run of 18-22 miles at a long steady pace, usually  about 1-1.5 min slower than your goal marathon pace. The other days in between these key workouts are supposed to be easy runs or cross training opportunities.
 So I am not good in the physiological department of racing, always thinking I can’t run as fast as I do. As I am now doing these faster than usual workouts I am training my body to work at this pace. Everyday. 8 miles at marathon pace. 10 miles at marathon pace the next day. 8 miles slightly slower (10 sec) than marathon pace the day after that. I gain immense confidence in being able to handle this pace for 26.2 miles.
 Well, after only 3 weeks of this new training program, I pull a 2:49:58, 4 weeks after a 2:56:16. Two of my best marathon times 4 weeks apart. No taper, no three key workout schedule. It was just me doing as many possible miles as possible (>40) at marathon goal pace, training my body and my mind for such conditions.
 This training schedule seems completely different than any I have seen before. I am not sure if it works great for me and only me, or that this in an indication that if I trained ‘normally’ for real I could really do some damage.
 I am writing this mere hours after my new marathon PR and I yet again ask myself ‘How fast can I really go?’. For a while I thought that 2:55:30 was going to be my PR for while, maybe forever. 2:50 is a rather fast time to beat now.
 In 2 days I start my 4 week prep for my next marathon. We will see what I can do this time…

So I do some REALLY long runs, and after a certain distance you need to eat whilst actually running. I came accross this site that was written for cyclists, which includes cheap alternatives to energy bars, gels, and re-hydration drinks.

HOMEMADE SNACK RECIPES AND IDEAS at Cycling Performance Tips