This past Sunday I finished my 4th Marine Corps Marathon. It wasn't my fastest and it wasn't my slowest. It did, however, have one of the lowest points I've had in a race in a very long time. My recap is super long, in part because I don't want to forget any of it. If you don't feel like reading the whole thing, my Facebook status from after the race pretty much covers it: "At mile 13.1, I was on pace for my goal race. At mile 15, I considered DNFing. At mile 16, I drank all the Gatorade and realized I could walk 10 miles if I needed to. In the end, it wasn't my worst race. 4:57 and change." Grab a coffee or a beer and come along for the ride... Marine Corps Marathon 2017 October 22, 2017 4:57:17 Temp: 55ish at the start, 75+ at … [Read more...]
Rating October: did my running pass or fail?
October has felt a bit like a roller coaster. The weather has been cold and hot and every where in between. That could pretty much describe my running as well. I kicked off the month with a long run with a "meh" half marathon in the middle. The distance and pace were fine, but the course surface left me with achy hips and general muscle soreness. I'm giving this run a Pass as it served its purpose. As soon as I finished that run, I overembraced the taper. Yeah, I dropped mileage faster than a politician changes their opinion. I was just OVER the Hansons Marathon Method. Don't get me wrong, I think it's a great plan. It's just a lot of miles and my body was ready to recover. I did get in 2 "long runs" of 10 and 8 miles as well as … [Read more...]
Marine Corps Marathon 2017: Mission Accomplished
Note that I chose MCM's wording of "Mission Accomplished" rather than "Goal Accomplished". Finish time: 4:57:17. I ran. I finished. I learned some lessons about myself and about running a marathon. Marine Corps Marathon #4 in the books. Marine Corps Marathon #5 next year will be a love run, not a redemption run. More on all of this in a day or two. … [Read more...]
Marine Corps Marathon 2017 Goals
If you've been reading my blog for any length of time, you already know that time goals are not my thing. I run because I need to run, so anything that takes away the enjoyment of running is something I don't do. Speed work is not my jam and tempo runs kind of suck. You also won't find me out there running for 4 hours on a training run (unless that training run happens to be a race). So my goals don't generally focus on pace. I run to finish. To have fun. To see my friends. To do a certain number of states in a row. But to actually hit a number on the clock? Nah, that hasn't been a huge priority in a while. But (you knew that was coming, right?) this year, I have some goals for the Marine Corps Marathon. I know I can finish (this … [Read more...]
If I wasn’t a runner, I would be…
... an overweight alcoholic. (afflilate link) I mostly jest, but running is my stress release, my anti-depressant, my coping mechanism, my "me time". I am also a huge stress eater. Running both keeps my stress levels down so I don't feel the need to eat an entire box of cookies (or a whole container of frosting or ice cream), but when I do, running helps burn off the calories. As far as the alcohol, despite my love of craft beer, I've never actually leaned on it to help me survive a stressful situation. (In fact, I often choose to have dessert instead of a beer if there aren't any good beers available. Yes, I'm a beer snob but I'll eat sugar in just about any form.) So, I run. Right now I'm a third of the way through my … [Read more...]
Some things I must runfess…
Here we are at the end of September, ready once again to head to the Runfessional. I have apparently run out of motivation before I've run out of training plan. This week was supposed to be a peak mileage week, but between the exhaustion from Ragnar, the remnants of my cold. and TWO Back to School nights, I've had a hard time even getting out the door. Heck, one day I didn't even get out the door - I ran on the treadmill because it took less thought and effort. *** But I did get out for a 10 mile run on Thursday! Which was totally awesome, until it wasn't. I had a slow warm up mile (mostly due to traffic lights) and then ran by feel for 5 miles. I hit within a few seconds of 10:30 pace each mile without checking my Garmin. What?!? … [Read more...]
Where to celebrate the Marine Corps Marathon with a beer
It's Friday, Frr Frr Frr Friday! This week has kicked my butt. The kids had their first day of school on Tuesday. I've run about a billion miles (ok, only 29 in 4 days, but still...) I've been to a million stores looking for supplies (the high school and middle school here give us supply lists in each class on the first day, oy.) And I'm getting nowhere near enough sleep. Thank goodness I have nowhere I need to be on Saturday morning. Of course, seeing as how it's Friday, it's time for Friday Five 2.0 and the topic is "Post-Race Meals/Snacks". Well, is it any surprise that my favorite post- race meal involves beer? Beer Geek and I always stop at the same restaurant post MCM, both because it's on the way home and because they have a … [Read more...]
First day of school means fall training has begun
Here we go! Another school year is about to begin. I'm kind of in denial that I no longer have a kid in elementary school, but the big change this brings is that everyone is out of the house before 7:30am now. We'll see if that means I get out the door to run earlier or not. Fall is my favorite time of year. It's also prime marathon training time. My training plan calls for multiple double digit runs per week, starting this week. Gulp! Thankfully, the weather tends to start cooling down and the return to school gets me back on a running schedule. Know what else changes about my training? Races! I've got a lot coming up and will talk about that soon. I don't race a lot during the summer. Between vacations and the weather and the … [Read more...]
Lessons Learned from Summer Training
In the month of August, I ran 148.9 miles total. Yes, it did pain me not to run 1.1 more miles, but I also knew I was doing a long run on September 1, so didn't feel like pushing past my training plan. Anyways, I've only run more miles in a month 6 times before- and only one of those was during a summer month. I'm just thankful that while I've had some really awful hot runs, much of August has not been as hot as the typical Virginia summer. Here are my lessons learned from this summer. Some of them are not new, but I always need a reminder... Humidity WILL slow you down. How much depends on the humidity level, the temperature, and how much you personally are affected by it. If I look up what a certain heat and humidity are going … [Read more...]
August running by the numbers
It's that time of month again - the last Tuesday of the month. It's the one where we evaluate how our running/training went for the month. Join Marcia and Patty and me as we talk about the ups and downs of running through August. I'm going to take a little different approach this month. What do the numbers show this month? Number of states I ran in: 3 (Wisconsin, Virginia, and South Carolina. I just missed running in 4 as I ran in Colorado on July 30. Maybe I should make sure to hit DC in the next few days...) Number of total miles: 131 and counting. I have 3 more runs yet this month. This is the highest mileage I've run since May 2016 when I ran 7 half marathons in 7 days. In fact, I haven't run more than 110 miles in any … [Read more...]
Runfessions of a Marathon Runner
Here we are, two months out from the Marine Corps Marathon. As seems to happen every August, I'm a little bit fixated on my training. Unlike last year, I actually feel like I'm doing a decent job on following my training plan. I'm not 100% on it, but I'm closer than I've ever been. So, I'm joining Marcia for some marathon training runfessions... I runfess that today is my birthday and I don't plan to run 47 miles to commemorate it. I'm not even sure I'll hit 47 miles for the week (although it may be close.) Instead, I'll run my 10 planned miles, spend all my birthday money on new Skirt Sports items, and then head out for dinner and beer with Beer Geek. I runfess that I have fallen in love with the Altra Escalante. They have even … [Read more...]
Fueling my way through the Marine Corps Marathon
For today's Friday Five, the topic is running/fitness fuel. I tend to train up to about 10 miles without fuel. In fact, often, I haven't eaten since about 7pm the night before a pre-noon run. But once I start going longer than 10 miles, my strategy changes. Since I'm about to run my first longer than 10 mile run (15 miles, eek!), this topic has been on my mind anyways. I have to confess that I don't have any idea what I'll take with me on the 15 miles, but I do know my marathon plan. How I Fuel a Marathon Pre-Race Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwich - This is my go to for any long race. It's cheap, extremely portable, and tastes good. Even better, I find that it's easy to digest, sits well in my stomach, and keeps me fueled for lots of … [Read more...]
