I’ve been getting a lot of questions about my marathon training lately, questions like “Are you still running that marathon?” or even “You’re running a marathon? Since when?” Oops. I guess that’s a fair thought since I haven’t mentioned this in months. Hopefully this will satisfy any questions.
For those of you who don’t know, I really like running and even ran a marathon last March. It wasn’t the marathon of my dreams, but I finished; getting over an injury and training in just 12 weeks made my original goal of a sub-4:00 marathon overambitious and while I proudly finished it was no picnic. I even told myself while I was still running “I’m never doing one of these again.” And then 5 days later I signed up for the Philadelphia marathon on the first day of registration. Here we go again.
From the National Marathon expo with Madeline and Holly
Since there were almost 8 months in between registration and race day, I didn’t think about training for most of the Summer. I decided that training would begin the day of a local half marathon I was running for fun. A week after that I went to Philadelphia for the Healthy Living Summit and to scope out the city to get a feel of what it would be like for the marathon.
Sun | Mon | Tues | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
13.1 | Fitness | 24 (Bike) | Rest | 10 | Rest | 10 |
Fitness | Fitness | 10 | Rest | Fitness | Rest | 16 |
Rest | Rest | 12 | Rest | 10 | Rest | 10 |
Fitness | 10 | Fitness | 25 (Bike) | 10 | 30 (Bike) | Fitness |
Rest | 10 | Fitness | 10 | Fitness | Fitness | 12 |
Fitness | 10 | Rest | Fitness | Rest | 17 | Rest |
Fitness | 10 | Rest | 10 | Rest | Fitness | 12 |
Fitness | 10 | Rest | Fitness | Rest | 20 | Fitness |
10 | Fitness | Rest | 10 | Rest | Fitness | 10 |
Fitness | 10 | Rest | Fitness | Rest | 20 | Fitness |
10 | Fitness | Rest | 10 | Rest | Fitness | 10 |
Fitness | 10 | Rest | Fitness | Rest | 20 | Fitness |
10 | Fitness | Rest | 10 | Rest | 13.1 | Fitness |
10 | Fitness | Rest | 10 | Rest | 10 | Fitness |
8 | Fitness | Rest | Fitness | Rest | Rest | Rest |
26.2 |
I wouldn’t say I’ve really been following a training “plan” since then, though here’s what my routine has looked like. I knew I wanted to fit 3 20-mile runs into this training cycle and built the rest of it around that and to fit my schedule. Besides the long runs I do, the rest of my workouts are pretty standard. As anyone can see from looking at this I love running 10 miles and easily fall into a routine.
So what is “Fitness”? Since I’ve been trying to burn fat and build muscle over the past 8 months or so, I’ve been doing more cross-training with weights. When I didn’t have a gym over the Summer, I got accustomed to doing Jillian’s Shred(which I highly recommend) followed by a 25-minute yoga routine with plenty of lifting. Now that I have a gym membership again, I usually do 20 minutes of HIIT on the elliptical and 30 minutes of free weight exercises which I basically stole from all 3 levels of Jillian’s Shred so I won’t go into describing them.
The runs this time around have been nothing but stellar—a complete 180 from my last training cycle. Since my goal is a sub-4:00 marathon, I’ll need to run at or below a 9:00 pace, which has been no problem as of lately. The one 20-miler I’ve done so far I finished almost 30 minutes faster than the 20-miler I ran back in March in preparation for my first marathon. Where is this speed coming from? I don’t really know.
With the marathon 6 weeks from today I’m feeling confident, maybe even a little cocky. My first 20-miler was a breeze and I’m hoping #2 and #3 will be even faster. My pace has quickened significantly lately even on the days I’m feeling “off” and I have no clue why. Maybe it’s the cooler temperatures, maybe I’m getting faster, or maybe the cross-training is working.
One speed bump I have hit lately is eating healthy in the month of September. In between moving back to Providence and new stresses appearing there were a lot of times last month where I wasn’t making the best decisions. Even though my runs have gotten faster, a lot of the muscle definition I built up over the Summer went away over night(or over 30 nights). Since last weekend I’ve made changes to try and eat better to burn fat but still fuel well for workouts which has been nothing if not a learning process. But that can wait for another post.
If you want to stalk follow my training more closely, friend me on Dailymile. I’m also happy to answer any further questions below in the comments.
First comment??? nice.
Running a marathon is definitely on my bucket list – I’ve only ever done a 1/2. Just can’t imagine being away for 3-4 hours training with small children. Maybe when they get older?
That’s totally understandable, and not at all a problem I’ve run into during any of my training(obviously).
Woop woooop! Thanks for sharing your plan/reflections. I think it’s pretty cool actually that you do a few 10 milers during the week and then a long on the weekend. It makes more sense to do it that way, rather than very short runs during the week (3-8 miles) many times a la Hal Higdon.
You’re gunna rock Philly out! I’ll see you there– I’m running the half and hopefully (?) will go sub-2hr.
Also 30 day shred is fantastic.
Wow, a whole marathon is awesome! Still debating if I’ll ever go for a whole, I’ve been sticking to half marathons lately and plenty popped up in work and personal life to interfere with training for my last one. Thanks for sharing the training plan, making time for a 10-miler during the week is a huge problem with my work schedule, so I’m impressed that you can fit one in and a longer weekend run!
I definitely think my running improves the more yoga & strength training I do. I really like both of them, but I often struggle to “fit” them into my schedule. I hope you’ll figure out how healthy eating, etc fits into your school schedule and stuff, that’s always a toughie for me.
You are running a marathon??
I love the pic of you with Madeline and Holly. And good luck on your big race goal!
Maybe the speed is coming from kickass strength training. Enjoy the rest of the training cycle. Oh, and I obviously already stalk you on daily mile.
Sounds like this marathon is going to be so much better! You’re doing a great job! It’s even making me reconsider never doing another marathon ever again…hrm…The first one was just so bad though…haha
You know how I’ve often said that I think you look a bit like my brother Evan? Well, he just ran his first full marathon yesterday! The synchronicities continue 😀
Way to go, Evan! And yes, this is getting kind of creepy.
I think the creepiest was when I made a joke comment about wanting to marry you. 😛
I love the first picture! I just finished my first marathon this morning and saw some super funny posters. One of my favorites was…’it sounded like a good idea 6 months ago’. Isn’t that always the case : ) Good luck with training and enjoy everything about the race!
i love the pictures! good luck with your training!
Good luck with the rest of your training and your marathon! And way to find the time to fit in some cross training, that usually falls to the wayside when I train for marathons.