Breaking the Rules: The Lance Armstrong Program

I never imagined marathon training would be a bed of roses, but I also had hoped the will to compete and the potential shame of failing would cure me of my training irregularities.

Not quite.

The way things are going, I'm gonna have to defend myself by saying I'm in the Lance Armstrong program. Which might not sound like a bad program — if you're training for a bicycle race through the mountains of France. But Armstrong was notoriously ill-prepared when he ran his first marathon, the NYC in 2006. I was perched at 90th Street and Central Park for that race and saw him come around the bend, looking haggard with salty sweat caked on his face but still moving along.

Armstrong came in just under three hours, which was quite a feat considering that after the race his ex-wife revealed that his longest training run hadn't even been the distance of a half marathon and he hadn't really stuck to the program.

But a guy like Lance can pull off something like that. A mere mortal like myself keeps going over in my mind the list of missteps:

• Consistency is lacking. I've missed a few scheduled runs, including a long run and a tempo. Will I be able to keep up with more intense workouts down the stretch?

• They say you should get an extra minute of sleep for every mile you run a week. By that measure, I should be getting an extra 20-30 minutes a night. But with my crazy work schedule, I typically end up missing sleep rather than getting more.

• To be honest, I still haven't done any research on marathon nutrition. I've heard a runner needs more calories. And a well-balanced diet, high in carbohydrates and protein. It's the finer points that leave me puzzled. Were the two slices of pepperoni pizza I had for dinner on Tuesday a boost to or drag on my energy level? How much ice cream is allowed per week? Per day? Does a half bag of potato chips contain any health benefits? If I have an extra piece of fruit for breakfast, will it matter that I had to skip lunch?

• I don't really drink alcohol during the week. So if I choose to over-consume on the weekends, is that really going to slow me down? (I'm mostly sober by my Monday long run.)

So many questions, and only 11 weeks until the NYC Marathon. Maybe I should take a nap.