Marathoner? Run your own training route!

A marathoner often hears this advice:

Run your own race!

I blogged about the same advice for any marathoner after I completed the 2009 Rock ‘n’ Roll San Antonio Marathon.

I had trained for most of the season leading up to that race by using the “1:1” form of micro-level pacing. But I ran the first 15 kilometers (some 9.3 miles) without walking. And this mistake of not “running my own race” hurt my chip-time tremendously.

In summary: I ran too much of the race because I did not run my own race!

Last Saturday morning, as a four-time marathoner in preparation for my fifth one, I had a 21.6-mile route to cover.

Because I started the marathoner training session with walkers but not runners and wanted some “conversational company” starting at 5 in the morning, I ended up walking the first 13.4 miles with a marathoner before I switched to the 1:1 method.

• I was not surprised that my total time was much longer than what it would have been with nothing but the 1:1 method.
• I was surprised — at least in the first several hours afterward — that I developed a back ache from that session, given that I had not gotten a similar back ache from an 18-miler a few Saturdays earlier.

But then I thought about it some more and realized that I have trained my “running muscles” and “walking muscles” to alternately be engaged every other minute.

I know: This is not scientific, but you get the idea. I have trained for several months to constantly mix my running and walking.

So walking the first 13.4 miles last Saturday in my 21.6-miler was analogous to running the first 9.3 miles in the aforementioned marathon.

And this leads me to a corollary piece of advice to any marathoner to “Run your own race!”:

Run your own training route!

Have you had a similar experience? Please leave a comment here. Thanks!