I have come up with a fun challenge for myself for 2024. My goal is to go for every Alabama age group state record from the mile to the marathon! I will turn 39 in August. This likely goes without saying, but any records I go for before my birthday will be based on the current 38 year old records and any records I go for after my birthday will be based on the current 39 year old records. This goal is perhaps better suited as a birth year vs. a calendar year thing, so my thinking is that once I turn 39, I will circle back and try to get any that I don’t have (i.e., the ones that I *hopefully* get when I am 38) before turning 40! Wowza. I can’t believe that 40 is so close on the horizon!
I had a lot of fun creating this schedule! I learned about several races that I had no clue even existed.
There are a lot of things to consider, such as timing, access to races, travel, feasibility of goals, etc. I will likely need to make multiple attempts at some of the distances and I haven’t accounted for that at this point. My projected times are based on my current VDOT score. The 5k, 10k, half marathon & full marathon records are all really, really close to what we think I am currently capable of, but the challenge will be maintaining, or ideally improving, my fitness throughout the year to achieve these goals. Also, if I get sick or injured, I will have to juggle and potentially scramble to find other race options. There are very few 4 mile, 8k & 15k races to choose from. I think this kinda adds to the fun of it! Granted, I am certainly not hoping to have to juggle things around too much, but I have a toddler … so … sickness is inevitable!
I realize that these goals are all more outcome than process oriented goals, but my process goals aren’t really changing with the turning of the calendar year. Here are some of the processes that I have been and continue to remain committed to in the new year:
Running 6-7x/week w/ 1-2 quality sessions/week (depending on where we are in the training cycle)
Pilates 1x/week
Strength training 1-2x/week
Cross training 1-2x/week (my primary forms of cross training are walking and the elliptical)
Sleep 8-9 hours/night
Bloodwork 1x/quarter (my current goals are to increase iron stores and decrease cortisol levels)
Daily supplementation (current rotation includes AG1, Vital Proteins collagen, Thorne adrenal cortex (for cortisol), Thorne iron bisglycinate, Ferrosom liposomal iron & Vega protein powder)
More attention to hydration needs, including electrolytes (mainly sodium, potassium and magnesium)
Less reliance on processed foods (protein bars, protein shakes, etc.)
I plan to continue documenting my training in some form here on the blog. I’m not sure if that will be weekly, biweekly, monthly, quarterly, etc. at this point, but I hope that it is on the more frequent than less frequent side of things. On that note, it is time for me to start on this week’s training log!
Well y’all … I did it! My first postpartum marathon (and first marathon in almost 4 years) is in the books. I ran the California International Marathon (CIM) in 2:55:48. Consider the band-aid ripped!
I find it a little tricky to dive headfirst into a race recap without some background. Let’s catch up on what life and training have looked like in the last 4 years! Kidding, kidding. No one has time for that! I actually did a decent job of recapping some of the more granular details of my training cycle, so I think I first want to take a step back and look at the training cycle as a whole.
The Training Cycle
I started my “base” building in mid-August and shifted more into an official marathon training cycle towards the end of September. I did six 20+ mile runs (more than in the past!). Within those six long runs there were 60 miles run at marathon pace. My tally comes up to about 60 miles with an average marathon pace of 6:40. I also did quite a bit of threshold work during this training cycle. My tally comes up to about 55 miles with an average threshold pace of 6:05. There were also several shorter, quicker one minute on, two minutes on, etc. type of workouts sprinkled in as well. I did not do any sort of tally on those. Such a slacker. I know.
One thing that stands out to me as I am doing this deeper dive into my training cycle is that there didn’t seem to be as much tangible progress throughout the cycle. For example, my first big threshold workout at the end of August was 8 X 1k and I averaged 5:59 pace. My last big threshold workout in the middle of December was 7 X 1 mile and I also averaged exactly 5:59 pace. Also, my first marathon pace workout at the end of August had 6 miles at marathon pace and I averaged 6:47 pace. My last marathon pace workout had 10 miles at marathon pace and I averaged 6:49. My fitness was in a really good spot at the beginning of the cycle, but typically you would still expect to see more progress throughout the training cycle.
I might’ve been overreaching a tad in my training. I know for sure that I felt more tired and more run down than I ever recall feeling during a marathon training cycle in the past. Granted my life looks a good bit different at this point than it has during past training cycles! Training for a marathon while working full time and being a mom is A LOT.
CIM is advertised as one of the fastest races in the country, but I will politely disagree. While there is technically a net downhill of approximately 300 feet, there is over 600 feet of uphill in there as well! According to one website, “The net downhill, point-to-point California International Marathon (CIM) course is one of the fastest courses in the country. It has long been a popular destination for runners seeking PRs and BQs. The fast course coupled with typically favorable weather, makes the California International Marathon one of the best races for PRs and BQs.” In my humble opinion, a “fast” course is a pancake flat course!
However, I have always known that CIM had rolling hills and I trained accordingly. My elevation gain for this year-to-date according to Strava is over 82k feet, so I definitely run on some hills. In my mind, I was training on way more intense hills than what I would encounter in the race. In reality, this was not the case and I wasn’t as prepared as I would’ve liked to have been. This is not to dismiss my training at all, because I put in a lot of work. Really what I needed was just more time. When I registered for CIM, I was taking a huge gamble on myself and holding on to the tiniest glimmer of hope that maybe, just maybe, I’d have the training cycle of a lifetime and somehow shave 12 minutes off of my personal best. Realistic? No. Have crazier things happened? Probably.
Now that I have sufficiently rambled on about my training, let’s get to the race … shall we?!
The Race Plan
My race plan was to start out at approximately 6:35 pace. Due to the rolling nature of the course, I was expecting to see splits anywhere plus or minus 10 seconds from this pace. The goal was to run relaxed and be patient in the first half. At halfway, I planned to run closer to 6:30 pace with less variation as the course flattens out somewhat. The goal was to run with purpose and be gritty in the second half. At mile 21 (after the last small incline), I planned to negative split each mile. Of course this is absolutely easier said than done! If I executed this plan with exact precision, I had a shot at a small PR (I needed to run faster than 2:49:16). That was my A goal.
I had a very specific fueling plan as well. I recently tried out the Gatorade Gx sweat patch. I’ve been running for 20+ years and never taken a sweat test! My sweat rate is low (this part didn’t surprise me), but my sodium concentration is moderate (30 mg per ounce), meaning that I need to take in more sodium than I previously realized. I estimated that I would lose 15 oz. of sweat per hour. Running for approximately 3 hours meant that I needed 45 oz. X 30 mg per ounce = 1,440 mg of sodium! Wowza. My fueling plan was to take 12 oz. of water each hour, which meant I needed to get at least 2 oz. of water at every aid station along the course. The plan was to alternate Huma and Maurten gels every 25 minutes, as this is what I trained with. Maurten gels have a negligible amount of sodium, so my salt intake was coming primarily from the Huma gels. I wish I had realized all of this sooner! Next time around, I will not be using Maurten gels at all. Give me all the salt!
The Actual Race
Race morning came with an early wake up of 3 a.m. PST (5 a.m. CST). We had to load the busses at 4:30 a.m. and had to walk a little less than a mile to get there. I ate a banana and a bagel and drank about 12 oz. of coffee in the room while we got ready. We arrived in Folsom about an hour and a half before the race started. We got off of the bus to go to the bathroom, then got back on the bus to stay warm and stay off of our feet. I ate graham crackers and drank 12 oz. of water with Nuun while we waited. Pro tip: make your Nuun the night before and put it in the fridge overnight to eliminate the carbonation on race morning!
The weather on race day left a little bit to be desired. It was mid fifties at the start and mid sixties by the end with high humidity. Granted, these are the exact conditions that I trained in most of the training cycle, so it wasn’t terrible! I was just really hoping for the as advertised “typically favorable weather.” I think it is usually in the low to mid forties with less humidity. But alas, this is not the hand we were dealt this year.
Let’s break this thing down into 5Ks!
1st 5K – 20:14 (6:30 pace): I was getting passed by a steady stream of runners and having a hard time settling in with a pack. I had a seeded bib, which put me in the corral with a bunch of really fast people. In hindsight, I really wished I had moved back into a regular corral.
2nd 5K – 19:47 (6:23 pace): I took my first Huma gel at about 25 minutes into the race and finally seemed to find a couple women to work with. One of them was of another McKirdy Trained athlete (shoutout to Kat!). We chatted briefly and discovered that we essentially had the same race plan. Her presence was very calming and we worked together for several miles. She’s in the green crop top and black shorts (same as me!).
3rd 5K – 20:42 (6:41 pace): I was running almost exactly what the race plan called for, but already knew that it felt harder than it should. I took a Maurten gel at 50 minutes in. I don’t know if it was because I was in my head about the sodium intake, but I distinctly remember feeling like the Maurten gel didn’t give me any sort of “boost.”
4th 5K – 20:25 (6:35 pace): I came through half with Kat exactly on pace at 1:25:31. I took my third gel a little bit early at 70 minutes (instead of at 75 minutes).
5th 5K – 20:25 (6:35 pace): The course flattened out a bit, but my energy also seemed to flatten out as well. I was scheduled to take a Maurten at an hour and forty minutes in, but ended up taking another Huma instead. Unfortunately this was my last Huma gel! I knew I was going to need more sodium, so I grabbed a Gu salted lime gel from one of the on-course fueling stations.
6th 5K – 21:33 (6:57 pace): Things started to kind of fall apart at this point. My splits were fading and I was working harder than I needed to be to maintain a slowing pace. My stomach also started to feel questionable. While it wasn’t an all out emergency, I decided to make a pit stop in hopes that I would feel more comfortable afterwards. I also took my next Maurten gel at two hours in, continuing with the theme of taking them a little earlier than planned.
7th 5K – 21:21 (6:53 pace): The original plan was to pick it up once I got to mile 20. This changed to just hold on for dear life and don’t let the wheels fall off completely. I took my last gel (the salted lime Gu) and prayed it would be enough to sustain me until the end.
8th 5K – 22:09 (7:09 pace): The last 5K felt like sweet, sweet relief. I knew I was *almost* there and I knew most of my wheels were still in tact (as opposed to falling off completely). My heart rate came back down a little bit during the last 5K as well. Looking back I feel like I could’ve pushed myself more in the last few miles, but in the moment I was doing everything I could!
My finishing time was 2:55:48 (6:39 pace!). Remember what my marathon pace miles averaged out to be in training? Yep! 6:40. I guess you might say that I ran exactly what my training indicated I was capable of! While I didn’t hit my A goal, in the back of my mind, I knew going into the race that I wasn’t in the best shape of my life. When I ran 2:49 in Indy, I was consistently able to run 17:20 in the 5K. I haven’t run faster than 18:20 in the 5K since becoming a mom. The shorter distance stuff is typically my stronger suit (I realize that this may change a tad with age). My shorter distance races typically predict a much faster marathon than I am able to run. This training cycle, I was holding out hope that my shorter distance races predicted exactly what I would be able to run. For some people, this might be the case, but I am not one of those people.
Random Takeaways
The marathon is hard. It’s also not my favorite distance to race!
Travelling to races is overrated. Local races are underrated.
CIM is overrated (hot take!).
Humidity is dumb and I am a salty sweater.
Rebecca is an awesome friend! I am so thankful that she travelled with me!
I should not be in charge of booking airline travel.
Strength training can be fun!
It is difficult to keep a marathon race recap very concise! My apologies.
Whew. It is time to get back to some shorter distance races! Stay tuned!
Coming at you today with a recap of week 14 of CIM training as well as a recap of the Battleship 12k.
Week of November 6 – November 12
Monday: Rest Tuesday: 6.25 miles easy (56° w/ dew point of 50°) Wednesday: 6 miles easy (62° w/ dew point of 59°) Thursday: 11 miles w/ quality (treadmill) Friday: 5 miles easy (60° w/ dew point of 54°) Saturday: 5 miles easy (60℉ w/ dew point of 54°) Sunday: 17 miles w/ Battleship 12k! (53℉ w/ dew point of 43°)
Wednesday’s workout was a two mile warm up, 8-12 X 1k (depending on how I felt) and a two mile cool down. The goal pace for the kilometer repeats was 6:04. I ended up doing 8 X 1k at 5:59 average and then one mile also at 5:59.
Race Recap – Battleship 12k
The Battleship 12k is a patriotic event [typically on] Veterans Day weekend honoring those who serve our country. I’ve run this race several times in the past (2016, 2017 & 2021 (with baby on board!)). It’s a great race that supports a great cause! The race starts on the Eastern Shore of Mobile Bay, runs across the Bay on the Causeway and finishes at the USS Alabama Battleship Memorial Park.
We couldn’t have asked for better weather! It was a crisp 50℉ when I started my warm up and it only rose to 60℉ by the end of the race. The humidity and wind were low, making for very favorable running conditions. I got to the race at 7 a.m. for an 8 a.m. start time. Technically bib pick up was from 6 to 7 a.m., but I didn’t have any issues getting my bib. After three warm up miles and a couple of strides, it was time to get rolling!
The race starts at an elevation of 110 feet and drops to 25 feet within the first mile. After that, it is relatively flat with the exception of two small bridges (approximately 15 feet of climbing each) and one slightly larger bridge (approximately 40 feet of climbing). The larger bridge happens to be in the last mile of the race, so it feels a bit more noticeable at that point than it otherwise would.
I planned to start at 6:20 pace and hopefully drop it down to 6:00 pace (or slightly under) by the end. The pacing plan was very similar to my strategy at Turkey 10 the weekend before. Seeing as how I was not able to execute said strategy at Turkey 10, I was really hoping for a more favorable result this time around. The Battleship 12k was basically the last major training stimulus before CIM. As I head into the taper, mentally, I needed a win.
I ran the first mile very relaxed. My split was 6:11, but the grade-adjusted pace was 6:23, meaning that the effort was perfect! I was able to chat with a couple people here and there. At that point in the race there were a lot of people to run with, which was so nice. I got to see my family at the first mile marker. Richard was holding Ward and they gave me a high-five as I passed. My mom and dad were there as well! Having my loved ones at a race makes it so much more special these days!
I was probably in about 5th or so for the females after the first mile and maybe 50th or so overall. You can kind of tell from the picture below that there was a steady string of people ahead of me (I’m in the blue singlet and blue shorts).
After that I made it my mission to steadily reel in the other runners. I stayed side by side with the man in the orange shorts for about 4 miles of the race. Our second mile split was 6:08, our third mile was 6:00 and our fourth mile was 5:57. We never really spoke, but I felt like we were working together with a common goal of catching as many people as possible. I later found out that he ran the course before the race, so the actual race was his second go-around! I did the opposite and ran the course again afterwards. His way was definitely harder and more impressive!
I worked my way up to second female after we crossed the fourth mile marker. I was steadily reeling in the first place girl and I was loving every second. I saw my mom and dad several more times along the route and my dad was encouraging me to “growl” (i.e., dig deep) and catch her. At one point I told him it was a little too early to growl, but that it was in the plan. Ha. The course is actually very spectator friendly as your loved ones can just drive along the Causeway, stopping wherever they want to cheer you on. It reminds me of a Ragnar Relay where you leapfrog your runner along the route.
I passed the first female during the fifth mile. She was running with a couple other guys as well and at the point that we passed them, I also lost my other “friend” that I had been running with. I didn’t necessarily speed up, but I quickly put a pretty big gap on the rest of the pack. My split for mile 5 was 5:57. From then on, I ran solo. I am totally used to this, so it didn’t bother me, but it sure was nice to have people to work with during the first half of the race.
I passed another runner or two along the way, eventually making my way into ninth overall. My split for mile 6 was 6:02 and my split for mile 7 was 6:06 (grade-adjusted pace was 5:59). I am happy with the way that I ran on the bridge. I have run SO MANY hills in my training for CIM! I focused on keeping my effort steady and thought back about all the hills that I have run, reminding myself that I was more than prepared for this one.
Shortly after you come off of the bridge, you make a left turn into Battleship Park and there are volunteers at the last water stop handing out American flags. This is one of my favorite things about the race. It’s so cool to carry the American flag across the finish line!
I finished with a time of 45:09 and a slight negative split!
First 4 Miles
24:19.73
6:05
Last 3.456 Miles
20:49.56
6:02
After the race I finished up my long run for the day by running the course backwards, back across the bay towards home. I wasn’t anticipating having company for this part of the run, but as it turned out, I was not the only one with this plan. It would’ve been a long solo cool down, so I was very thankful to have a buddy!
All in all, this race was EXACTLY what I needed. If you live close by (or not!), you need to add this race to your list!
Hi! Coming at you today with a recap of week 13 of CIM training as well as a recap of Turkey 10, a ten mile race in Creola, Alabama. Oddly enough, I ran a Thanksgiving themed race on Veteran’s Day weekend and am running a Veteran’s Day themed race the weekend before Thanksgiving. Very odd indeed.
Week of November 6 – November 12
Monday: 6.5 miles easy (63° w/ dew point of 58°) Tuesday: 8 miles easy (59° w/ dew point of 59°) Wednesday: 9.3 miles w/ quality (80° w/ dew point of 64°) + 30 minutes of strength + 30 minutes of Pilates Thursday: 6.5 miles easy (75° w/ dew point of 65°) Friday: 4 miles easy (69° w/ dew point of 66°) Saturday: 15.75 miles w/ Turkey 10! (64℉ w/ dew point of 62°) Sunday: Rest
Wednesday’s workout was a pretty simple one with a three mile warm up, 10 X 1:00 “on” with 1:00 jogging recovery and a three mile cool down. The goal pace for the minutes on was 5:56 and I averaged 5:32, so a little too hot there, but nothing crazy by any means! The rest of the week was pretty chill as I was gearing up for Saturday’s race.
Race Recap – Turkey 10 Mile
I was using this race as a dress rehearsal of sorts for CIM. The idea was to hone in on the pre-race routine, which included a mini carb load the day before. The goal was to get 400 grams of carbs on Friday. This honestly didn’t feel too hard, but for the marathon I will need to do this for at least three days in a row. I can imagine that by the third day it will feel a bit uncomfortable. I am sharing what I did here, not as nutritional advice by any means, but rather just to document this as part of my pre-race routine.
Breakfast: 2 pieces of toast w/ 4 oz. cottage cheese, banana, 32 oz. water w/ Liquid IV & Nuun Snack: Smoothie w/ 1 cup of strawberries, banana, 1 cup of spinach + 4 oz. Greek yogurt, 2 pieces of toast Lunch: 2 mini bagels w/ 4 oz. Greek yogurt, 12 oz. juice Snack: 12 oz. water w/ Scratch recovery, 20 oz. water w/ Nuun Dinner: 3 cups of cereal w/ 4 oz. Greek yogurt & PB2, 2 pieces of toast w/ butter
When I woke up on Saturday morning, my stomach was a wreck. So yeah, probably going to try a slightly different strategy for this weekend’s race. I am also rethinking some of my overall nutrition strategies. To make a long story short, I’ve been having major GI issues on the run (you can just ask Rebecca (or not, really please don’t)). I [inadvertently] cut out some of the more nutrient dense foods from my diet in favor of easier to digest alternatives to solve the GI issues. However, it seems to have turned into a cyclical pattern of [unintentional] under fueling, which is in turn making the digestive issues worse. I am also experimenting with iron supplementation, which also may explain some of the digestive issues. My Ferritin is 24, which is low, but not at a critical level. The goal is to get this number up though!
So anyways, back to the race … this is a super low-key race. It is a flat, out and back course with a couple turns to break up the monotony. I always enjoy out and back races because I love feeding off of the energy of other runners after the turnaround. The race starts at 8:00 a.m. in Creola, Alabama. I got to the race about 45 minutes before the start. I did the usual pre-race stuff such as the picking up of the bib, the hitting of the bathroom (a couple times) and the running the warm up miles. I took a gel (Maurten) about 10 minutes before the start.
The conditions were less than ideal, but not *terrible*. It was 64℉ with a dew point of 62℉. It wasn’t raining per say, but it was misting. I debated whether or not to wear a hat, but decided not to. If it had been raining harder, I would have gone with the hat. The race plan was to start a bit conservatively and try to pick it up as I went. I planned to ease into it by running at approximately marathon pace for the first few miles, to then drop it down to closer to half marathon pace for a few miles and to finish up at closer to threshold effort. This was a very solid plan that unfortunately I was just not able to execute.
I started out at close to marathon effort, but when it came time to pick it up … nothing actually happened! The problem is that I felt like I had indeed picked it up. The effort was getting harder. I didn’t look at my watch at all during the race, as this has worked well for me in the past. I am really trying to learn what certain efforts feel like as opposed to interpreting in my brain whether or not the pace the watch tells me *should* feel harder, easier, etc.
My time at the turnaround was 32:00 on the dot and my final time was 64:20. The actual splits were 6:23, 6:16, 6:20, 6:29, 6:24, 6:19, 6:20, 6:25, 6:35, 6:39. While this is not a crash and burn by any means, it also just wasn’t at all what I was attempting to do. After the race I was very dizzy and had a massive headache. I’m assuming the GI issues before the race contributed to those feelings. The weirdest thing of the day was that I was unable to complete my cool down because it felt as if my entire core was completely seized up! It almost felt like I had strained all my ab muscles. I still to this day am not entirely sure what was going on, but it was very bizarre!
Smiling on the outside. Dying on the inside!
There are some lessons to learn from this race and I don’t think I even know exactly what all they are at this point. One for sure is that it is not recommended to start the race with headphones around your neck if you are wearing a necklace. That was a tangled mess that I spent an unnecessary amount of energy fooling with mid-race. I think we’ll just nix the headphones altogether for future races (I enjoy training with them (highly recommend the “guilty pleasure” playlist on Spotify)).
Overall I am just feeling very bummed about the result. Part of the disappointment is related to the fact that if I had been able to execute the plan, I would’ve potentially been able to run both a PR & a state record. Part of me knows that it is completely unrealistic to expect to PR and|or run a state record at every race, but another part of me still kinda feels like a failure when it doesn’t happen. I was also really hoping that this race would give me some solid “proof” of where my fitness was and that the proof would indicate that there was a potential of a marathon PR at CIM. The result I got does not point in that direction. However, I know that you can’t judge an entire training cycle by one race! Especially when the race wasn’t a goal race and was run in the peak weeks of the marathon training block.
I think the biggest takeaway from this race is just going to be the fact that it caused me to take a step back and reevaluate whether or not I was actually doing the right things from a fueling perspective. I felt so crummy after the race that it was a bit of a wake up call! I’ve put a lot of focus on that during this training cycle, but in some ways I think I am still missing the boat. Thankfully there are still a few weeks to adjust and learn!
Monday: 6.4 miles easy (82° w/ dew point of 64°) + 30 minutes of strength Tuesday: 8 miles easy (61° w/ dew point of 51°) Wednesday: 6 miles easy (60° w/ dew point of 53°) Thursday: 12.2 miles w/ quality (treadmill) Friday: 7 miles easy (62° w/ dew point of 60°) Saturday: 7 miles easy (80° w/ dew point of 64°) + 2.5 mile stroller walk Sunday: 20 miles w/ quality (70° w/ dew point of 57°)
Thursday’s workout was originally written as a two mile warm up, 15 X 2:00 at critical velocity effort with 1:30 jogging recoveries and a two mile cool down. I was out of town for work and decided that the treadmill was likely my best option, so we adjusted the workout portion to 6 X 4:00 + 3 X 2:00. The total volume of work remained the same, but I didn’t have to adjust the speed up and down nearly as much. This ended up being a good thing too because you had to manually adjust the speed with the up and down arrows (as opposed to some treadmills that have actual preset speeds). I averaged 5:46 for the 6 X 4:00 portion and 5:23 for the 3 X 2:00 portion. I will say, however, that these paces are not entirely accurate (given the nature of treadmill running). I would say add 10-15 seconds or so, not that it really matters. I felt AMAZING during this run! It was one of my best workouts of the training cycle!
Sunday’s workout was a doozy! It was a three mile warm up, 2 X 6 miles at marathon pace with two miles between sets and a three mile cool down. The workouts itself was a big one, but it was made MUCH more difficult by the terrain (partially on dirt roads and rolling hills the entire way!). You know how when a race course is described as rolling that they basically mean it is hilly as heck? Yeah. That’s the way this was too. I climbed 1,100 feet throughout this run! During the workout portion, I averaged 6:46 for the first six miles and 7:00 for the second six miles. I didn’t go back and calculate this until just now, but the grade adjusted paces were 6:40 for the first set and 6:50 for the second set. On paper this one doesn’t really appear to be anything stellar, but it was actually a massive effort and a really good training stimulus! My coach was VERY pleased!
Total – 66.7 miles running + 2.5 miles walking + 30 minutes strength training
Week of October 30 – November 5
Monday: 6.5 miles easy (81° w/ dew point of 71°) + 30 minutes of strength Tuesday: 8 miles easy (51° w/ dew point of 44°) Wednesday: 7 miles easy (54° w/ dew point of 22°) Thursday: 12.3 miles w/ quality (treadmill) + 30 minutes of strength + 30 minutes of Pilates Friday: 6 miles easy (51° w/ dew point of 41°) + 3 mile stroller walk Saturday: 6.5 miles easy (59° w/ dew point of 50°) + 3 mile stroller walk Sunday: 21 miles w/ quality (66° w/ dew point of 52°)
Thursday’s workout was originally written as a two mile warm up, 12 X 1k with 1:00 standing recoveries and a two mile cool down. We woke up to temperatures in the low thirties and I took the easy way out by running on the treadmill. Running in below freezing temperatures seemed like more of a risk than I was willing to take. I feel like the trickiest part of the next month is going to be trying to stay well! I tweaked the workout slightly to 7 X 1 mile with 2:00 jogging recoveries. Again, I did this just so that I didn’t have to adjust the speed up and down quite as much. I averaged 5:56 for the seven mile repeats. And again, I will say that the paces are not entirely accurate, as I ran between 9.8 and 9.9 mph on the treadmill. Either way, I was really happy with this one! If nothing else the workouts on the treadmill give me a lot of confidence. While I definitely don’t want to be overly confident, I don’t think that a little bit of a confidence boost ever really hurts anyone!
Sunday’s workout was a three mile warm up, six miles at a moderate pace, six miles at the upper end of my marathon pace range, four miles at the lower end of the my marathon pace range and a two mile cool down. Whew. I *think* this is my last 20+ mile long run before CIM, as I’m doing races the next two weekends (WOO X TWO!). I didn’t shy away from the hills on my route (total climbing was about 850 feet). I’ve heard that while CIM is a net downhill, it’s basically rolling the entire way and I think a lot of people neglect to train on hills. I’m doing my best to make all of my long run routes decently hilly. This is something I have never really done in the past … even when training for NYC in 2015 and when training for that ultra I did in Colorado in 2017 (as it turns out the “easiest” 50k in Colorado is still FAIRLY challenging when you don’t train on trails or hills)). I averaged 6:49 for the 10 marathon pace miles (6:58 for six the upper end of MP miles and 6:35 for the four lower end of MP miles). I’m hoping to run a bit faster than this on race day, but we shall see. One thing I definitely know for certain is that I will absolutely not be going out with the OTQ pack. I honestly don’t think people are quite comprehending how fast a 2:37 marathon really is. Running under 6 minute pace for an entire marathon is INTENSE!
Total – 67.4 miles running + 6 miles walking + 60 minutes strength training + 30 minutes of Pilates
Monday: 5.1 miles easy (56° w/ dew point of 51°) Tuesday: 8 miles easy (60° w/ dew point of 57°) + 3 mile stroller walk Wednesday: 8 miles w/ some quality (treadmill) + 30 minutes of strength + 30 minutes of Pilates Thursday: 8.2 miles easy (70° w/ dew point of 61°) Friday: 8 miles easy (64° w/ dew point of 57°) Saturday: 7.1 miles easy (64° w/ dew point of 63°) Sunday: 21 miles w/ quality (60° w/ dew point of 54°)
Wednesday’s workout was supposed to be 20 X 200. For a myriad of reasons (i.e., lack of track access, bad weather, sick child, etc.), I ended up on the treadmill for this one. I ended up doing a progression run of sorts. I started at 7 mph & worked my way up (or perhaps down?) to 10 mph. My silly Garmin thinks that the fastest split I ran was 7:55. False! Unfortunately my treadmill calibration is off as well, so I honestly have no idea what I even ran. Oh well. No biggie!
Sunday’s workout was a 3 mile warm up, 3 X 4 miles at marathon effort (6:30) with 1.5 miles between sets and a 3 mile cool down. This workout was a little bit bigger than the 3 X 3 miles at marathon effort that I had a couple weeks ago. I chose a flatter route this week, which really seemed to help (hello Captain Obvious). My splits were 6:34, 6:23, 6:22, 6:31 for the first set, 6:30, 6:25, 6:21, 6:26 for the second set and 6:22, 6:22, 6:35, 6:20 for the third set. Phew. I was super happy with how this one went, but even more so happy about how I felt after the run! I felt great afterwards, whereas when I had 9 miles at marathon effort a couple weeks ago, I was destroyed afterwards. Progress!
Total – 65.6 miles running + 3 miles walking + 30 minutes strength training + 30 minutes Pilates
Week of October 16 – October 22
Monday: 5.1 miles easy (51° w/ dew point of 48°) Tuesday: 8 miles easy (47° w/ dew point of 38°) + 3 mile stroller walk Wednesday: 7 miles easy (54° w/ dew point of 52°) Thursday: 13.7 miles w/ quality (57° w/ dew point of 56°) + 30 minutes of strength + 30 minutes of Pilates Friday: 6.5 miles easy (68° w/ dew point of 66°) Saturday: 5.5 miles easy (60° w/ dew point of 57°) + 3 mile stroller walk Sunday: 22 miles w/ quality (69° w/ dew point of 67°)
Wednesday’s workout was a 2 mile warm up, 4 X 2 miles at threshold pace (6:10-6:20) with 2:00 walking recoveries, 6 X 30 seconds at repetition pace (5:20) and a 2 mile cool down. My average paces for the 2 mile intervals were 6:18, 6:15, 6:20, 6:22 and average pace for the 30 second intervals was 5:22.
Sunday’s workout was a 10 mile “warm up,” 10 miles “moderate” (6:45-6:50 pace) and a 2 mile cool down. Theoretically, 6:50 pace should be equal to marathon pace + about 20 seconds at this point, but it felt much harder! I would say that I was controlled the entire run, but never really comfortable (even on the first 10 miles). I’m thinking the whole 69° w/ a dew point of 67° part didn’t do me any favors. The first ten miles were also fairly hilly. Anywho … lots of “excuses,” but really the bottom line is that I got it done. My average pace for the entire run was 7:31 and my average pace for the moderate miles was 6:57. I’m calling it a win, especially on the mental side, because I truly thought about abandoning the workout multiple times during the warm up. The pace wasn’t perfect, but the work was done. My coach said, “Work is all that we need right now. Work is the starting point for more growth.” I like that outlook!
Total – 68.0 miles running + 6 miles walking + 30 minutes strength training + 30 minutes Pilates
Alright, alright, alright. We are getting into the nitty gritty phase of marathon training at this point. The mileage is high. The tiredness is real. But thankfully, the weather is cooling off!
Week of September 25 – October 1
Monday: 6.2 miles easy (74° w/ dew point of 69°) Tuesday: 8.2 miles easy (70° w/ dew point of 65°) + 45 minutes of Pilates Wednesday: 10 miles w/ quality (77° w/ dew point of 67°) + 30 minutes of strength + 30 minutes of Pilates Thursday: 8.2 miles easy (71° w/ dew point of 66°) Friday: 8.7 miles easy (66° w/ dew point of 59°) Saturday: 6.5 miles easy (68° w/ dew point of 64°) + 3 mile stroller walk Sunday: 19.5 miles w/ quality (71° w/ dew point of 60°) + 30 minutes of strength
Wednesday’s workout was a 2 mile warm up, 8 X 3:00 at threshold pace (6:10) with 2:00 jogging recoveries and a 2 mile cool down. Most workouts feel a bit intimidating on paper, but this one was different. After racing a 5k the weekend before at a 5:50 average pace, I felt good going into this one. 3 minutes didn’t seem too long and the pace didn’t seem too fast. I averaged 5:55 pace and felt really smooth!
Sunday’s workout was a 4 mile warm up, 3 X 3 miles at marathon effort (6:30) with 1.5 miles between sets and a 3 mile cool down. I wasn’t super worried going into this one and even thought I might be able to progressively get a bit faster on each set (how cute!). As it turned out, this one was TOUGH! I didn’t do myself any favors on the route, as there were some decent hills, especially in the second set. The hills humbled me for sure! The first set was relatively flat and the splits were 6:36, 6:33, 6:24. The second set had mostly uphill and the splits were 6:44, 6:53, 6:40 (the Strava grade adjusted paces for that set were 6:23, 6:43, 6:42). The third set had some downhill and the splits were 6:22, 6:14, 6:11. Oddly enough, my average pace across all three sets was exactly what it was supposed to be, but I just took a round about way of getting there. The combination of uphill and downhill running fried my legs and I was TOAST at the end of this run. My understanding is that CIM has some rolling hills, so I know that I need to continue to put in work on the hills!
Total – 67.6 miles running + 3 miles walking + 60 minutes strength training + 30 minutes Pilates
Week of October 2 – October 8
Monday: 7.1 miles easy (80° w/ dew point of 63°) Tuesday: 8 miles easy (67° w/ dew point of 57°) Wednesday: 6.8 miles easy (65° w/ dew point of 55°) Thursday: 12.1 miles w/ quality (69° w/ dew point of 63°) + 30 minutes of strength Friday: 8 miles easy (72° w/ dew point of 64°) + 3 mile stroller walk Saturday: 6.8 miles easy (66° w/ dew point of 60°) Sunday: 21 miles w/ quality (60° w/ dew point of 45°) + 30 minutes of strength
Thursday’s workout was a 2 mile warm up, 5 X 1.5 miles at threshold pace (6:10) with 2:00 walking recoveries and a 2 mile cool down. After 9 miles at marathon effort about did me in the weekend before, 7.5 miles at threshold effort was daunting. I chose a route that wasn’t nearly as hilly and ended up feeling surprisingly strong, averaging 6:11 pace for the reps! Side note: when you are running 12 miles on a random morning before work, you know that marathon training is in full effect! Whew.
Sunday’s workout was two and a half hours of running at marathon pace + 30-45 seconds. I don’t do much running in this pace range, as it would typically be a bit of a gray zone for me. Definitely too fast for an easy run, but not really fast enough for speed work. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I settled into a good rhythm and the miles flew by! I ran on the same route as the week before, but the hills didn’t bother me nearly as much. The miles ranged from 6:36 to 8:16, but averaged out to 7:12 (the goal was 7:10). Boom!
Total – 70.0 miles running + 3 miles walking + 60 minutes strength training
Last weekend I ran the Satsuma 2 Miler with a goal of breaking the two mile Alabama state record for 38 year old females! I’ve got my eye on several state records this year!
I feel like I’ve gotten a little rusty on race day logistics as I’ve not been racing nearly as much as I used to. Racing is definitely a skill that must be used in order to stay sharp! A two mile race was a nice way to ease back into things. I got to the race about 45 minutes before the start in order to register, go to the bathroom, do a quick warm up, change clothes and (hopefully!) make it to the start line on time. I cut it a little closer than I meant to!
I warmed up in a different top and different shoes than I planned to race in. My plan was to wear my heaviest trainers (looking at you Brooks Glycerin!) for the warm up and then to switch to my “fast shoes” (the Saucony Endorphin Pros in this case) for the race. With temperatures in the mid eighties and a dew point in the mid seventies, it was … sticky! I took a gel approximately 30 minutes out from the start and headed out for a two mile warm up. Afterwards, I changed into my crop top and ate some crushed ice as I walked over to the start line. Nothing cools me down more than chewing on some ice, so this seemed like a reasonable pre-race cooling strategy. I also put a couple handfuls into my sports bra as well. I think I’ll likely do this again if I run another race on the face of the sun. Seriously?! This is bananas.
I lined up at the very front of the corral. I planned to go out close to 5:40 pace and hoped that I’d be able to sustain that. I definitely did not want to not crash and burn in a two mile race. There were several high-school runners in the race, so the pace started out a bit hotter than I wanted it to. I knew this would probably happen and I tried to hold myself back in the first half mile and have some patience (which is so hard for me (both in running and in life in general)).
My splits per 800 were 2:52, 2:49, 2:56, 2:49, so I ended up with a slight positive split, but not a crash and burn by any means. I was in about 15th place or so at half a mile in. I steadily reeled in a few runners I’ve the next half mile and was in the top 10 for sure as we came to the turnaround. I tried to pick it up slightly (which in hindsight didn’t actually happen) and told myself that I had less than 6 minutes to go! I find it really helpful to think in terms of only a certain amount of time or only a certain distance left to go. With half a mile to go, I made a more conscious decision to pick it up. At this point, I was hurting and just wanted this thing to be done!
I finished in 11:34 as fifth overall and first female! I got the state record by about 30 seconds, so … mission accomplished! For whatever it is worth, the “dewme” app on Strava says that my adjusted pace was 5:22 per mile. Granted, I don’t think I’ll ever race in “perfect conditions,” but I do like to think that my fitness is at that point. If you haven’t used that app, I’d highly recommend it! If nothing else, it’s a nice little confidence boost and reminder that you don’t *actually* suck. Ha!
This week kicks off my “official” summer of speed training block! I am going to be focusing on some shorter distance training over the next few months and then planning to shift to marathon specific work in the fall. I’ve got my sights set on the California International Marathon in December, but (obviously) that’s over 6 months away so we’ll see how it all plays out (i.e., it feels like I can’t plan my life more than about 24 hours in advance at this point, so anything 6 months away is totally up in the air).
We’ve changed up my training schedule a tad to have workouts on Tuesdays and Fridays instead of Wednesdays and Saturdays. All of the other days are easy, including the long run on Sunday.
Here is what training looked like the week of 05/29/23 to 06/04/23:
Monday AM – Easy: 8.5 miles (8:15 pace)+ PM – Stroller Walk: 3 miles
Tuesday – Quality: 2.5 mile WU + 8 X 400 w/ 200 float + 2.5 mile CD
400s were 86, 86, 85, 85, 85, 85, 86, 85 (goal was 85) 200s were 49, 50, 52, 52, 55, 58, 61, 65 (goal was 55)
Wednesday AM – Easy: 6.0 miles (8:20 pace)+ PM – 45 minutes of Pilates
Thursday – Easy: 8.5 miles (8:25 pace)
Friday – Quality: 2 mile WU + 2 X 1.5 mile tempo + 2 X 1:30 + 2 mile CD
Tempo miles averaged 6:15 (goal was 6:05-6:10) 90 second intervals averaged 6:00 (there was no pace goal assigned to these)
Saturday AM – Easy: 8.5 miles (8:34 pace) + PM – Stroller Walk: 3 miles
Sunday AM – Easy: 11 miles (8:59 pace) + PM – Stroller Walk: 3 miles
Total – 60 miles running, 9 miles walking + 45 minutes of Pilates
I registered for a marathon! I was trying to give that a Garth Brooks, “blame it all on my roots, I showed up in boots,” sort of vibe, but I don’t think it worked. Oh well. You win some, you lose some!
I sat down to write a post about how I’m ready to go ALL IN for a season and see what happens. I want to do all of the elusive things that you are supposed to do and yet somehow those things seem to never quite materialize. And then it hit me! I’ve written this post before. It was the summer of 1969 2018 and I was about to embark on a similar journey.
The destination deviated wildly that year and yet here I am 5 years later wanting to do basically the same exact thing. I don’t know whether to be comforted or troubled by this realization. What have I been doing for the last 5 years?! There is definitely not a simple answer to that question and a lot of LIFE happened, but running … well, running had to take the backseat for a couple of years.
Why now you ask? I think the better question is why not now? We are all one swift kick of the vacuum cleaner away from being sidelined for 6 weeks, or for 6 months or for even longer … so training starts now! I’m going to spend the summer focused on speedwork and turnover and then gradually build into a marathon specific training block in the early fall.
I’ve got several races picked out to do along the way. I’d like to add another 5k & a 10k in the fall, but for now a tentative schedule looks like this:
06/17/23: Hot Trot 5k 07/04/23: Shark Run (4 Mile) 08/12/23: Satsuma 2 Miler 10/08/23: Northshore 10 Miler 11/19/23: Battleship 12k 12/03/23: CALIFORNIA INTERNATIONAL MARATHON!
