Sunday, November 22, 2015

I unintentionally started marathon training this week, and other tales

Posted by Rachel

Today marks 12 weeks out from the LA Marathon. My plan was to begin a 12-week training plan tomorrow, but then this week I found out that I'm going to Switzerland for work the first week of December. This effectively eliminates a week of marathon training, so here I am on Wednesday of this week trying to figure out what to do. Realizing that I had already done a couple of quality runs in the week, I decided what the hell...this can be week 1!

I thought my fitness was doing alright, given the Ironman we did 4 months ago and the surprisingly good half last month, but week 1 of marathon training was a rude awakening. It kicked my ass, all 39 miles of it (and yes, I know that's not even that many miles compared to many plans). I would love to blame my cold but I'm pretty sure it's my shoddy fitness. To top it off, here are some things that went wrong:

1.) I body glided the wrong part of my inner thigh for my 14 mile "long" run yesterday (seriously? how do you miss?). Tons of chafing - ouch.
2.) I somehow lost a toenail already. WTF?
3.) Major stomach issues after my run Thursday and my Saturday. Macy's is not where you want to be when having stomach issues post-long run.

Granted, none of those things are that bad, but I feel like I have a long road ahead (in a short time) if I really want to PR in LA. This week a February PR felt like an impossibility, so but hopefully things start looking up as I get back into marathon shape (if that ever happens).

I haven't said much about my training plan, which is a hybrid of many things I read on the internet specifically designed for a sub-3:30 marathon. The main difference between what I'm doing this time versus previous plans is my use of the long run. Usually in the past, I just ran my long run at "whatever" pace. This time, I've designed my long runs to have a "purpose" based on this Asics plan:

http://www.runnersworld.co.uk/news/images/asics/ASICS_TRAININGPLANS_Sub%203.30.pdf

The 3 types of long runs are:
1.) Target 8:30 pace. This is pretty much the standard/straightforward long run.
2.) Easy long run 9:00 pace. I'm going to reserve these for weeks where I have a long/hard tempo run on Thursday, or when I want to add some hills into the LR.
3.) Half the run @ easy 9:00 pace, half the run @ 8:00 (marathon pace). These are going to hurt, but I think they'll help build confidence.

I'll check in sometime soon on marathon training progress (or lack thereof).

1 comment:

  1. I can't wait to follow your training. Lol to the "long" being in quotes regarding the 14 mile run. I would say that's pretty long although I'm probably not the best judge since I just considered a 5k a pretty decent distance. Chafing - the worst. I'm so sorry.

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