Train hard, recover hard, right? That’s my mantra as I approach the peak weeks of training for CIM. Week 12 of 18 included my first ever 20 mile long run. I followed the Hansons Marathon Method for my first marathon and capped out at 16 miles. Honestly, I wasn’t a fan of the Hansons plan for my own training and am enjoying these marathon training long runs. 

I’m self-coached (the perks of being a running coach!) so I make my training up a few weeks at time and am constantly tweaking it to fit the weather (because it’s rainy season in Seattle!) and the areas I need to work on before the race. I didn’t even plan on doing 20 this week until the weather was right and I decided it was the appropriate progression.

Monday:
8 miles: 2 mile warm up, 6 miles at marathon pace or slightly faster over gently rolling hills (8:06, 7:59, 7:43, 8:07, 7:44, 7:51)

Tuesday:
AM: 7 miles easy
PM: 20 minutes strength training: side step-ups, 3-way lunges, side planks, push ups, and lateral band walks

Wednesday:
AM: 10 miles: 2.5 mile warm up + 4 x 2K at tempo pace (7:20-7:25) with 3 minute recovery jog, 1.5 mile cool down
PM: 15 minutes core work + foam rolling

Thursday:
AM: 5 mile recovery run
PM: 25 minutes advanced Pilates

Friday:
AM: 20 mile long run at an easy pace – 8:58/mile. I negative split all of my long runs just by the fact that it takes me what feels like an hour to warm up on a long run.

Saturday & Sunday:
Rest! My husband and I decided to take ourselves and our dogs on an impromptu end-of-season camping trip. I was happy with my 50 miles of the week and glad to just kick back by a campfire and drink a beer.

Life has been an enjoyable whirlwind over the past couple weeks – flying from the Pacific Northwest to New England and back again, prepping my athletes for fall races – that my first official Salty training log will compile those two weeks.

Since I’m new to Salty running, I will catch you up on my training: I started training on August 1 for the California International Marathon, which will be my second marathon. Part of me wants to run a BQ, but another part of me doesn’t want to put that pressure on myself. I want to grit it out and on race day, give my best, and run a strong race – whether that ends up being a BQ time, a PR, or neither.

Week of September 26-October 2

This week I attended the Rise.Run.Retreat with nine other runners and bloggers/social media influencers. What an incredible experience! The hills of Vermont killed my West Coast butt, but I ran a strong half marathon at the end of the week even though I missed by PR by 9 minutes.

Monday: 8 miles easy – just your bread and butter marathon training easy day.

Tuesday: Usually running helps with stress, but sometimes the stress wins out. My breathing was all out of whack on what would normally be considered an “easier” tempo run – 2 mile warm up, 4 miles at half marathon pace, 1 mile cool down. I still managed to hit my paces – 7:30, 7:27, 7:28, and 7:16 – but I just felt off.

Pilates in the evening helped me chill out mentally – for me, it does for the mind and body what yoga does for others.

Wednesday: 8 miles easy again – this time split between 6 on my own and 2 with my Labraheeler, who is learning how to run.

Thursday: Does pacing nervously around the airport during flight delays count as cross-training?

Friday: 5.5 mile on some crazy, crazy Vermont hills.  Yes, I live in East Seattle – but my routes have rolling hills, not grueling mountain climbs. (Note to self: run more hills. Hills may kick your butt, but they are fun!)

Saturday: As part of the retreat, we had an instructor lead us through recovery yoga – or more accurately, the other nine women did yoga as I struggled with the simplest moves. To say that flying gives me tight hips is an understatement, but at least I felt better afterward.

Sunday: The Leaf Peeper Half Marathon! After a short warm up (3/4 of a mile?), I ran the hardest course of my running career so far. The first 3 miles gained approximately 800 feet (1000 total for the course!) and featured a grueling 17% incline. For the first 9 miles, I maintained a comfortable pace. But something clicked in my head and I drew from the support and inspiration of the women around me. I chiseled down to half marathon pace and clocked a 7:01 as my final full mile for a finish time of 1:47:55.

Week of October 3-9

Monday: Complete rest day. The combination of running a hard half marathon then hopping on a long flight back to Seattle took a toll on my body.

Tuesday: Back to the marathon grind! Another easy 8 mile run, split with the Labraheeler, followed by 25 minutes of Pilates in the evening.

Wednesday: I eased back in with one easy workout of the week – 9 miles with 6 miles at goal marathon pace over rolling hills. My miles ranged from 7:46 (oops! too fast on the flat) to 8:01, which I was quite pleased to see.

In the evening, I did a simple strength routine at home with the resistance band: clamshells, jump squats, regular squats, bridges, push ups, etc. The theme of this week was going a bit easy on my body after the race, before cranking it up hard for the final push of training.

Thursday: 7 miles easy. Can you see a theme here? I like those easy days right around 5-8 miles. CIM will only be my second marathon and I see no point in piling on crazy mileage at this point in my running.

Friday: 16 mile long run through the windiest weather I’ve experienced in a while. Running in 25 mph winds is no easy feat but I was proud of not wimping out and maintaining a decent pace on this run.

Saturday: 5 miles easy with my husband and our two dogs. We ran along gentle rolling hills at a very easy pace.

Sunday: 4.5 mile hike with moderate elevation gain. My husband and I are still training our new dog how to hike…and plus he has giardia (he’s a rescue so who knows what he got into before he came to us). So we kept our hike short and easy, but even then it still took us 3 hours with having to stop frequently and coax him over all the water crossings.

So now…it’s time to train hard for CIM. I’m ready to bump up to 50-55 mile weeks and put in the hard work of those 18-20 mile long runs.