I got a call at 4:40 AM on Monday August 15th. It was a wake-up call in many ways. While it was not about sport, it somehow motivated me to do something drastic to save my fall marathon season and 2011 as a matter of fact. You could argue that with 8 weeks to go until Chicago and 12 until NY there is not much to do. I am out of shape. I have run 30 miles in the past 2 weeks. I have been getting slower race after race; I could barely break 1h25 at my last half marathon. What is there to do in a few weeks? Well, probably not much but if there is one thing I love is a challenge. So let’s see what we can do about it. What’s the worst that can happen really?

If I want to achieve anything, I have to break most of the rules of marathon training. I don’t have the luxury of time therefore I will use choc therapy instead.

Here is my 10 point choc therapy marathon training program:

1/ Immediately increase weekly mileage by a factor of 4 to reach 50-55 miles and then increase mileage to 70-75 within 3 weeks

2/ Shoehorn a 20 mile run within a week at 7’30’’ per mile pace if possible but with the main priority of finishing the 20 miles

3/ Race the Bronx half marathon on August 28 aiming at 1h22 and then add 7 miles easy to reach 20 miles

4/ Run the 18 mile tune up race on September 25th at 3h marathon pace

5/ Race the Greet Great Gallop Half marathon on October 01 aiming at a sub 1h20

6/ Forget all ambition for Chicago on October 9th and make it a training run aiming at 3h00

7/ Take a full resting week after the Chicago

8/ Resume training for the last 3 weeks cutting down volume while keeping intensity

9/ Aim at breaking my NYC marathon PR of 2h49’21’’

10/ I will keep the last one a secret just in case…

Let’s see how well that will go! I will keep you posted.

Pascal,