When I was training for Marine Corps, I started doing weekly workout updates. Although I’m working with Jess as my coach and log my workouts on DailyMile, an extra layer of accountability doesn’t hurt, and I like looking back at the narrative of how I fit my workouts in.
So, get used to these for the next 15 weeks as I train for the marathon I picked solely because I liked the name. Just kidding, I actually picked it because it is net downhill. All the better for massive PRs!
Monday: 4 miles. I feel like I can barely remember the beginning of the week already, but I think it was a nice day? Either way, I was super pumped for the first day of training, even though my legs definitely still felt the triathlon.
Tuesday: yoga. I really needed this both emotionally and physically on Tuesday, and as usual, Laughing Lotus delivered.
Wednesday:Al Gordon 5K with all of my favorite running buddies. No PR, but I felt really strong despite my tired legs.
Thursday: FINALLY met up with Jen! We’ve been blog buddies for a while, and we finally met up and ran together on Thursday morning. She’s a little faster than me, so it got me moving at a slightly faster pace than I would have done on my own for just a regular run. I also did yoga with Gia. I’m going to try really hard to stay consistent with my yoga through my training.
Friday: Crappy treadmill run of 3 miles. I’m about a mile either way from the West Side Highway or the East River, so running all the way out there to turn around after only 1.5 miles didn’t sound terribly appealing. But the treadmill sounded more appealing?! I got on and forgot how much I hate the treadmill.
Saturday: Ran 10 miles with Fiona. The company was lovely, but the run was kind of rough. We started kind of late, so it was hot, and we ran the park, and my legs were so unhappy with the hills. We split up after mile 8, and I was so tempted to call it a day there, but I just kept shuffling on home.
Mileage Total: 29
Not too shabby for my first week of training!
How was your week of workouts? What are you training for?
Bobbi had run the Boston Marathon, with a BQ time of 3:24 and Meghann had run 3 marathons, with a PR of 4:12. I wasn’t really sure how fast I could run Chicago, but all of their times sounded SO FAST to me. I’d never be able to run that fast.
I soaked up as much marathon knowledge from them as I could in the days before the race. Hopefully staying with these fast girls would rub off on me.
I finished that marathon in 4:59, and I was so happy with my time. It was a good 40-something minutes slower than the other girls’ times, but it was my first marathon. The former fat kid had just finished her first marathon.
In the year between that and the New York City Marathon, I trained and ran my heart out. I ran 5 more halfs that year and set a PR of 1:55:28.
I wanted so badly to break 4:30 at the New York City Marathon, and I did, running it in 4:19:56.
That’s a 40-minute PR. I knew I couldn’t do that between my second and third marathons, but I hoped I could take off just half as much time, and finish in 3:59.
I knew it was likely a stretch. I knew sub-4 was no joke, but I knew I needed an ambitious goal to aim for.
I read Dorothy’s post about figuring out a realistic goal time for a marathon. Based on my half PR, McMillan said I could do 4:03. In her post, Dorothy said “Often when deciding what goal you should have for a marathon it’s tempting to pick a number out of thin air.”
I’ll admit it. I totally picked 3:59 out of thin air. It was an aggressive goal, but I wanted an aggressive goal to push me. My body responds fairly well to marathon training, and so I wanted to reach for this. I so badly wanted to join that sub-4 club. For the bragging rights, sure, but because it would represent so much improvement over my first marathon. Because it would represent not only deciding to go for a healthier lifestyle, but putting my all into something and watching the payoff.
And watching Jocelyn come within three minutes of sub-4. Homegirl has gotten fast, and her just missing sub-4 honestly really freaked me out about my own ability to do the same. I’m not as fast as her. Who was I kidding? I couldn’t do this.
Last year I felt like my training was 100% spot-on, but last year I was also unemployed and had just a bit more time to train. This year, I have been really busy (maybe too busy?) and my training wasn’t where it was last year. Although I truly was satisfied with the amount of training I put in, I wasn’t sure it was enough for sub-4.
I’d read comments on posts on my own blog and others’ blogs about just missing sub-4 and knew how audacious a goal was, but I wasn’t prepared to back away from it. I was going to go into Sunday’s race in touch with reality but still reaching for the goal.
I started with Ericka, who’d said in a comment on my blog she was aiming for 3:50. Why the hell was I starting with her? Who was I kidding?
Before the race, I thought about how I’d feel if I missed it. I knew I’d be disappointed, but this marathon thing is still so new to me, that I knew unless I busted out a bunch of seven-minute miles at the beginning or ate a piece of pizza mid-race or something else equally dumb, I’d be proud of myself. I knew it might take a few tries.
Sure enough, I finished in 4:04:37. And I am happy with my time—truly, I’m incredibly happy with it. I ran hard for it and pushed through the discomfort for it.
But I have some unfinished business. I tasted that sub-4 (or maybe just my ponytail whipping my mouth? It’s pretty aggressive), and I’m not satisfied yet. I still want it.
After I finished the race, and even the day after, I thought it was too painful. I didn’t want to try again. I was plenty happy with my 4:04.
But since when do I give up that easily? Never. Edited-to-add-because-I-thought-of-this-after-I-hit-publish: I didn’t hit sub-2 for a half on my first try…or my second…or my third, but when I got it that fourth time I tried, it was so, so sweet.
Laura and I talked the other night, she offered to pace me to sub-4, and I am seriously considering taking her up on it before the end of this year. I always thought multiple marathons in a year, or even in a “training season” was nuts, but I’m starting to contemplate giving it another try since I’ve already put so much training in. Let’s just say I haven’t ruled it out.
I gots questions for ya:
Have you ever done back-to-back(ish) marathons? And tried to PR at both of them? How much time in between?
Any good marathons on the East Coast between Thanksgiving and Christmas I should know about? (I have plans the other weekends between now and Thanksgiving. And I have a race in mind with Laura but would love to hear what you know of.)
