A Minimalist (or Lazy) Approach to Marathoning

This weekend I will find out if my minimalist approach to marathon training worked .... or not. I'm heading to the Hatfield-Mccoy Marathon in West Virginia. I think I maxed out at about 31 or 32 miles per week and my longest run was 17.5 instead of the traditional 20. I did two 16 milers, a few 14 and 15's, and that crazy trail half marathon. I did strength training via Crossfit once or twice a week until these last couple of weeks when I backed off. In theory, that strength training should make up for some of the lack of miles. We shall see.

It's going to be a hot one. Starting temp will be about 68 and 90% humidity according weather.com. It starts at 7:00 a.m. The high that day is supposed to be between 88 and 91 with a "real feel" of 102. I'm hoping to finish by noonish or 12:30, so maybe I'll be done before it feels like 102!

This is a hilly course, but much of it is shaded. There is a mountain at mile 7. Literally. It is called Blackberry Mountain. We run up it for a mile. The downhill is really, really steep. I talked to a runner who broke his foot on the downhill last year. He was running the trail half and we were talking in the port-o-potty line. He said the Hatfield Mccoy isn't that bad compared to trail races. That was before I'd seen the conditions of the trail half!

I'm missing Crossfit this week and last to allow some good recovery time. I've been very careful to avoid anything that might cause injury.

I am excited about the possibility of a few trail races in the fall. I'm still searching for just the right trail shoes.

Well, that is all. I'll let you know how it goes. My first marathon was 5:17 and my second was 4:45. It'll be interesting to see where this one falls. It might be 6 hours!