Balancing Act

It's now just 10 weeks until my wife runs her qualifying race in preparation for her run in New York. It's not really a qualifying race as such, but it will serve as officially recorded evidence of a recent time in order to secure the right starting position in New York. Too near the front and people will tramp over her, too near the back and she'll be better off taking the bus. So that's the reason behind the qualifying run. As this will be her first 10km race, she's going to need someone with her to make sure that she gets the result she wants on the day. That is, in theory, where I come in. Normally it wouldn't be a problem as our goal time isn't overly demanding but it's turning into a bit of a problem for me. I changed my training a few months back to focus on distance and endurance with an eye towards the 30km Lidingöloppet race in September. A lot of hillwork and general plodding for hours on end. That's all fine but, as a result, I've lost most of  leg speed that I had last year. I can jog along quite happily for 2 hours, but no longer at a 10km race pace. I have been following a long term marathon training programme which consists of one run between 20/30km a week, together with 2 or 3 "shorter" runs of  around 10km. To try and build up a proper endurance base. That means I'm going to get stronger, but it also means that I'm getting slower. A lot slower. The reality is that, if I stick to my Lidingöloppet programme, I'll struggle even keep up with my wife over 10km, let alone help to pace her. The only option now (and it's going to be a bit iffy at best), is to park my Lidingöloppet training for now and dive into a 10 week 10km intensive programme. Just to try and get enough speed back into my legs. That will then give me 3 months to train for Lidingöloppet. It's not ideal but, touch wood, it's achieveable. I'll see how I feel about the challenge in 10 weeks time.