For interested parties, Abe had a terrible race at the NAIA nationals. Poor kid, none of it was really his fault! His trip was a disaster: due to bad weather, his flight was rerouted to Chicago and didn't land until midnight; after attempting to sleep from 2 to 4 am on the floor of his teammate's family's living room (one other teammate qualified, and luckily her parents live in Chicago!), they got up to figure out travel plans. Coach found a megabus to Indianapolis, so they piled on. They arrived in the afternoon and still had to get a ride to pick up their rental car. By the time they reached Marion, Abe hadn't really slept in 45 hours or eaten in 24 (well, almost, he actually are his Gu stash on the drive back to Marion). The group attempted to eat before turning in, but apparently the food at Wesleyan is inedible... Abe couldn't stomach it. Unfortunately he didn't really recover from the trip ordeal in the day before the race - he had an upset stomach and just couldn't handle the food, plus he was trying to rehydrate and get rest. It didn't work...he awoke race day with a headache and feeling sluggish. In an attempt to rescue the race he chose his lightest - and newest - running shoes, a choice he later regretted. At the start he gave his teammate his watch, since she felt like she needed one, and Abe figured he could use time on the course. Except there wasn't any! The whole race was bad for him. He had had only water the morning of the race, and tried to catch up on calories with Gatorade, but it was a losing battle. By mile 8, he had blisters; by the half his feet were bleeding. His coach saw him and tried to pull him out because he was cramping all over his body, but Abe told him he'd take a Gu and be fine. Except he threw it up. This happened again at mile 20; by that time he was seeing stars and barely finished. He waited for his teammate; poor girl had such a rough race she nearly didn't make it but another runner helped her cross the finish line, where she promptly lost consciousness (she's ok now, but the dehydration and lack of food hurt her, too). This was easily Abe's worst time, running right at 3 hours, and he was ill the rest of the day - seeing stars, dizzy, cramped muscles. It took him awhile to recover enough to actually eat, which was really what he needed all along. I feel so bad that all this training culminated in such a mess!
He told me he's thinking he needs a break, anyway. He had to train for track and the marathon at once this semester, and it's burning him out on running. He's doing 130 miles a week and the two training plans conflict - a recipe for burn out, injury, and sub-par races. I agreed that he needs to focus on school and let running be fun again.
I'm not an expert, but I think his mileage is awfully high for a college freshman. Am I misinformed? I personally rarely break 40 miles a week, even during marathon season - maybe hitting 65 four or five times a year.
What's standard mileage for you?
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