Philadelphia Marathon Update

Funny Encouragement Ecard: Good luck not hitting the wall and shitting your pants in public.

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.

232323232-fp73396-nu=338;-347-476-WSNRCG=3377--977;343nu0mrj

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.

Capture

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.

Funny Seasonal Ecard: The arrival of sweater season has coincided perfectly with my new habit of eating every carb I can possibly wedge inside my body.

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.

 

 

 

Print Friendly, PDF & Email
15 Responses to Philadelphia Marathon Update
  1. Lindsay @ Lindsay's List
    October 9, 2011 | 9:05 am

    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?

    • Wannabe Chef
      October 9, 2011 | 10:01 am

      That’s totally understandable, and not at all a problem I’ve run into during any of my training(obviously).

  2. Kaitlin
    October 9, 2011 | 10:38 am

    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.

  3. Christine (The Raw Project)
    October 9, 2011 | 11:00 am

    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!

  4. Errign
    October 9, 2011 | 12:34 pm

    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.

  5. Sana
    October 9, 2011 | 1:20 pm

    You are running a marathon??

  6. Averie @ Love Veggies and Yoga
    October 9, 2011 | 2:27 pm

    I love the pic of you with Madeline and Holly. And good luck on your big race goal!

  7. Victoria (District Chocoholic)
    October 9, 2011 | 6:06 pm

    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.

  8. Melissa @TryingtoHeal
    October 9, 2011 | 7:45 pm

    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

  9. Hannah
    October 9, 2011 | 10:11 pm

    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 😀

    • Wannabe Chef
      October 9, 2011 | 10:15 pm

      Way to go, Evan! And yes, this is getting kind of creepy.

      • Hannah
        October 9, 2011 | 10:23 pm

        I think the creepiest was when I made a joke comment about wanting to marry you. 😛

  10. Luv What You Do
    October 9, 2011 | 11:00 pm

    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!

  11. ChocolatePBCups
    October 10, 2011 | 12:31 am

    i love the pictures! good luck with your training!

  12. Kierstan @ Life {and running} in Iowa
    October 10, 2011 | 5:49 am

    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.