This weekend I run my 5th marathon; MS Blues Marathon. It'll be my last marathon for a while. Gonna concentrate on getting my half marathon time below 2 hours. That'll be awesome. Plus, it's a lot more saner distance.
I may do a 50k this September on trails. I turned 31 last December so figured I might as well run 31 miles in the year of 31!
Anyway back to the marathon. I was doing great with this training. There were even two 20 mile runs planned. Never even attempted that before! I did the first one with my best time ever. Then when I started my second one, middle of December, it didn't go so well. It was a 10 mph west wind and 17 degree with a wind chill of 4. I bundled up, headed out there to a 4.3 mile loop that I was going to do 5 times. I did the first loop. I was fine heading east but when I got to heading back west, which was at the end of the loop, it was tough. I couldn't breathe well, my eyelashes were icing over. So I stopped. I was down & out. Beat up on myself. I was supposed to taper after that. I did my other 20 so many weeks prior! Would I be ready?
Some people on Twitter said I was tough. Suggested that if I do 13-15 miles the next week I could be good. I was supposed to do 12 in my first long run taper. So I decided on 15 in southern Illinois, the day before Christmas and lo-behold, it worked! Even in 4" of new snow! Snowed the entire hour drive from my brother's house to Rend Lake. Snowed the first hour of my run. Didn't snow the second hour, then started to snow again the last 30 minutes of my run. It was lovely.
So here I am. Trained for a deep winter marathon in northern Illinois. I did the majority of my weekday runs on the treadmill. With my long runs on Saturday outside on the trail. My 20 miler was at the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Seems so long ago. Will that be enough? Did I get spoiled by the treadmill?
I'm taking the train down tonight for Memphis out of Chicago. Drive from Memphis to Jackson. Will run the marathon at 7am on Saturday. Will take the train from Memphis again to Chicago that very night!
I'm using the Virtual Running Partner on my Garmin 405 again. I'm going to set him for 10:45 min/mi. I don't need to break any records. I'm comfortable finishing 4:30-5 hours. This time, I'm in it to finish it. I realise winter training is not exactly ideal in northern Illinois. I don't care how Polar Bearish you are. Plus, it's a rolling hill course. Just check out those hills!
So here I go.
I may do a 50k this September on trails. I turned 31 last December so figured I might as well run 31 miles in the year of 31!
Anyway back to the marathon. I was doing great with this training. There were even two 20 mile runs planned. Never even attempted that before! I did the first one with my best time ever. Then when I started my second one, middle of December, it didn't go so well. It was a 10 mph west wind and 17 degree with a wind chill of 4. I bundled up, headed out there to a 4.3 mile loop that I was going to do 5 times. I did the first loop. I was fine heading east but when I got to heading back west, which was at the end of the loop, it was tough. I couldn't breathe well, my eyelashes were icing over. So I stopped. I was down & out. Beat up on myself. I was supposed to taper after that. I did my other 20 so many weeks prior! Would I be ready?
Some people on Twitter said I was tough. Suggested that if I do 13-15 miles the next week I could be good. I was supposed to do 12 in my first long run taper. So I decided on 15 in southern Illinois, the day before Christmas and lo-behold, it worked! Even in 4" of new snow! Snowed the entire hour drive from my brother's house to Rend Lake. Snowed the first hour of my run. Didn't snow the second hour, then started to snow again the last 30 minutes of my run. It was lovely.
So here I am. Trained for a deep winter marathon in northern Illinois. I did the majority of my weekday runs on the treadmill. With my long runs on Saturday outside on the trail. My 20 miler was at the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Seems so long ago. Will that be enough? Did I get spoiled by the treadmill?
I'm taking the train down tonight for Memphis out of Chicago. Drive from Memphis to Jackson. Will run the marathon at 7am on Saturday. Will take the train from Memphis again to Chicago that very night!
I'm using the Virtual Running Partner on my Garmin 405 again. I'm going to set him for 10:45 min/mi. I don't need to break any records. I'm comfortable finishing 4:30-5 hours. This time, I'm in it to finish it. I realise winter training is not exactly ideal in northern Illinois. I don't care how Polar Bearish you are. Plus, it's a rolling hill course. Just check out those hills!
So here I go.
For my past training runs: http://connect.garmin.com/explore?owner=lindsaycb
2 comments:
Best of luck! I think you'll do just fine :-)
I hope you had a great time at the race! :)
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