In the long run...

On September 10th, Scott and the Brotherhood Ride arrived in
NYC!  I was seeing him for the first time in 22 days when
this photo was taken.  Crying my eyes out!

Nearly two months have gone by (again) since I've blogged.  If I keep this trend up, it will be Christmas time before you hear from me again.

The last time I wrote, I mentioned that I was in full-on marathon mode.  Nothing has changed, but I have hit some major running milestones.

1.  Prior to embarking on marathon training, the longest run that I ever completed was 15 miles.  I am now the proud owner of more 15+ mile runs than I can count.


2.  I used to say that I liked to maintain a 10-miler as my long run base year-round.  Now, a 10-mile run is my mid-week staple... and I truly believe that it's this run that makes my longer weekend run tolerable.

3. I'm holding about 45 miles per week right now and I can't believe that my body is still in one piece.  Oddly enough, once I got up over 40 mpw for a few weeks, the minor aches and fatigue that I was feeling disappeared.  I ran 19 miles yesterday (the most I've ever run at one time) and today, I feel like a normal girl.  Sure, I would like to take a nap, but nothing is sore, nothing is stiff.  I feel pretty darn good!  

4.  I did a lot of 14, 15 and 16 milers before I decided that I was ready to play around with the longer stuff.  So far I have completed two extra long runs and both have gone perfectly! I did a 17.5 mile run while I was up in NJ two weeks ago (in 50F weather-- glorious) and a 19 miler here at home in Florida yesterday (in 68F weather-- again, glorious).

5.  Right now I am running extra long every other week.  So between the 17.5 mile run and the 19 mile run, I did 13 miles.  Between the 19 miler that I did yesterday and my first 20 mile run (scheduled for October 16th), I will be doing 12 miles with some of those miles done at marathon pace for neuromuscular specificity.  I have done this for most of this training cycle and it seems to be working very well for me.  I'm actually able to closely maintain overall mileage for each week despite cutting back on the long run.  When one run shrinks, another run grows... or I run 6 days instead of 5.  Always alternating an easy run with a hard run.  Again, I really feel like my mid-week, mid-distane runs (10 milers) are my bread and butter training runs.  They make the jump to the long run feel well... not so long.  I'm not injured, I feel good, my motivation is high and with only 7 weeks to go, I'd say that's a good sign.

6.  Pilates continues to be a lifesaver for me.  During July & August I was taking twice per week private sessions-- a jump start so to speak.  Currently, I am taking duet sessions with my mom and doing some extra work on my own at home.  I feel so stable in my core when I run now.  When I begin to feel any sort of fatigue during a training session or if I feel my form starting to fall apart, I think... CORE!  Everything sharpens right up! 

Getting in a little hill work while in NJ.

7.  The Philly marathon is 7 weeks away.  SEVEN WEEKS!  Since three of those weeks will be devoted to tapering, that leaves me with four weeks left for quality training.  I was very lucky to have been able to spend a week in NJ during mid-September.  Being able to run in significantly cooler weather allowed me to truly see where I was at.  Things can be quite deceiving (and emotionally taxing) when most every run that I've done in the past 4 months has been in 85F-90F heat index with 99% humidity.  A baby cool front also moved into South Florida a few days ago, so I feel that the results of my 19-miler are a good training indicator as well.  I feel confident in my training and I know that I will cross the finish line in an upright position.

8.  Race day goals... we love to talk about them.  They scare us and excite us at the same time.  Philadelphia will be my first marathon, so the only goal that I should have would be to finish, right?  Well, wrong.  I don't think I've truly had "finish" as my only goal for any race that I've ever done except for maybe my very first triathlon.  And ya know... I'm not even certain about that one.  I have always, always had a time goal.  That's just the way that I roll. Type "A" to the core.   Have I been disappointed a few times?  Yes, more than once, but not once have I ever had regrets about wanting to do more than just finish.

So, I'm gonna just put it out there.  My race history and training indicate that it's a very realistic goal.  If I don't meet the goal exactly on race day, I trust that my world will not end (ok, maybe it will end for a little while).

Here's the Florida crap-shoot.  I have no recent race results to go on.  Nobody and I mean nobody, can race in Florida during the months of May through the end of September and pump out times that truly mean anything.  Maybe they would mean something if this marathon was being held in Florida, but it's not.  It's being held in the Northeast in weather that will be 35-40F cooler than what I've been training in.  So, I have based my training and overall goal off of a half marathon that I ran in January (on an average of 20 training miles per week) and an 8k that I ran in March (on about the same amount of training as the half).  

The on-line calculators like to tell me that based on January's half, I could run a 3:48 if properly trained; based on the 8k, I could run a 3:37 if properly trained.  Well, let's just toss these out the window.  These are all absurd right now because I'm not "properly" trained.  This is my first ever marathon and experience plays a HUGE part in the outcome, just like any distance race.  However, if I am able to properly pace myself (and not dart out of the starting chute with a fire under my ass), I feel that realistically I can run somewhere around 3:55 to 4 hours.  So, I'm setting my sites on a 4 hour goal.  Anything right around that 4 hour mark will make me a very happy girl.  Actually, I will be cool with anything under 4:20 (as in I will still celebrate at the finish line and not mope around for weeks afterwards).  Anything over 4:20 and Scott may have to divorce me.

9.  A few weeks ago I attended a RRCA coaching certification class in Harrisburg, PA.  It was awesome, awesome, awesome!  I was familiar with a lot of the information, but I also learned a great deal... especially about physiology.  It's one thing to "know" that endurance is built via progressive overload and LSD training (the long run, the long ride, the epic swims), but do most of us know "why" this is so?  I will admit that I did not totally understand the "why" and I bet there are a lot of athletes out there just like me.  There is a lot of physiology behind aerobic base building, but one thing that really hit home for me is that long, slow training teaches our bodies how to tap into our fat stores, while sparing some of our precious glycogen.  Our body requires glycogen in order to utilize our fat stores.  If we do not train properly, overestimate our pace and/or do a myriad of other things, we use up every drop of that glycogen and then we... hit the wall!  When I run long these days, I actually visualize my body tapping into my fat stores and morphing me into an efficient fat-burning beast with a limitless supply of calories for fuel!  Heck...it beats thinking about how hot it is, right?  It also reminds me not to overshoot my training pace.  There's a lot more to endurance training, but for me, knowing how it improves fuel efficiency was enough to get me to slooooow down and be patient.

10.  Last but not least, triathlon may have lost me to running.  I am in love.  I keep saying that if my body would hold up, I would run 10 miles every day.  Who knows, maybe through time it will.  Lately I've been telling people that I am a "triathlete turned runner."  A bit unconventional, 'eh?  There's just something about running... a sweet, special, simplistic something.