Training for the Mississippi Blues Marathon
At the beginning of each training cycle, I set out my plan for the workouts I hope to do each week. But I’ve never looked back after the fact to see what workouts I actually completed. Until now! (Since I’m in taper mode for the Asheville Marathon, I had a little time on my hands.)
View from Sunday’s long run
Did anyone do RnR New Orleans this weekend? I did that marathon a few years ago and it was pretty fun! Check out my recap here.
This week was do-or-die for me, given that my longest run in this training cycle was 11.4 miles until this week. Yikes!!!! I usually like to get to 17 or 18 miles, if not 20. Last week I stepped it up with three Orangetheory sessions and two longer runs, and this week I wanted to keep the momentum and finish this training cycle strong. Oh, and do a true long run. Here’s how I did…
Per my 2015 recap, I got married last year! And I’ve spent the past 10 days taking a mini break from life (and from serious training for the Asheville Marathon) so that I could take my belated honeymoon in Maui and Kauai, Hawaii! We did some great activities (fitness related and less so) and restaurants (healthy and unhealthy) so this post will outline some of our favorites, plus it will serve as a training recap for the past two weeks.
This was my last week before taking a little break for my honeymoon in Hawaii (!!!!!). I really wanted to get in a lot of core work while I was thawing out from the snow storm and while my legs were getting back into distance-shape. But I also was really hoping to (finally) get myself out for a long run, especially given my new goal…
Friends,
I’ve previously documented my struggle (mental and physical) to qualify for the Boston Marathon. The closest I got was 3:45:47, about 10 minutes slower than the Boston application cutoff (but more like 15 minutes from what I’d actually need to get in). I’m several years older and wiser… although unfortunately still in the same age bracket for BQ qualifying times. And in the intervening years, I backed off the pressure, refocused my goals (hello, 50 states!), gained some weight, lost some weight, explored new workouts, changed jobs, gotten married, bought a home, and ultimately ended up with my marathon times back in the same range as they were in 2011.
So naturally, my mind wanders back to the BQ. Am I finally ready to tackle this challenge? At 30 years old, healthy, and childless, is this potentially my last, best chance? Or would I just be setting myself up for frustration and disappointment, and worst of all, would I be taking the joy out of running? So I have a plan.
According to my training plan, I was supposed to be spending the first two weeks of Asheville Marathon training doing a ton of Orangetheory and running 10 and 15 mile long runs respectively. As I wrote last week, I really needed a second week of recovery after the Mississippi Blues Marathon. That trend continued this week, until Snowzilla hit and then my options were really limited. I cannot bring myself to get on a treadmill except during an Orangetheory class, so the idea of doing a long run indoors had about as much *traction* as my feet out on the ice. But I tried to make the most of the snowy weather!
Here’s my recap…
So two Saturdays ago I ran the Mississippi Blues Marathon. I asked a fellow runner there — who had run like 136 marathons or something absurd — what he recommended for the spring. His first suggestion was the Asheville Marathon. I haven’t run a marathon in North Carolina, so that sounded good to me. Last Monday I registered and mapped out my training plan. This first week was a recovery week, of course, with lots of rest and extra protein in my smoothies (I used the usual Vega All in One plus Wild Foods whey protein). But I didn’t want to completely let myself go and become one with the couch because there’s another race around the corner. I’ll spend these first few weeks getting back to fighting weight, strength training, and doing shorter long runs. Here’s a recap of this past week.
OK, now that I’ve wrapped up the Mississippi Blues Marathon (recap here), I’ve decided to get serious about picking some spring races. As I mentioned in my Mississippi recap, I ran a good portion of that race with a very friendly and seasoned 3:50 pacer. I asked him his suggestions for spring marathons and…
I first started running regularly in 2005, when I was in college. I slowly built up my mileage and confidence, and I ran my first marathon in 2007. Running made me happy and greatly improved my fitness.
But in early 2011, I had what can only be described as a running awakening. My times starting improving way more than I had expected, and I felt like a real athlete and a real runner for the first time in my life. I was setting PRs and decided I was ready to think about getting that much- coveted BQ.
Unfortunately, by the end of 2012, that BQ looked out of reach, and my times were slipping slower and slower. My running had awakened, and then it apparently went back to sleep. Here’s my story of how I got faster, how I got slower, and what I learned.
athlettuce 