Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Marathon Training - Round Two

I'm training for another marathon. Yep, I said it. I plan on redeeming myself after my 2012 fail.

I've said it before in previous blog posts, my first marathon really ruined me emotionally. After some life changing events that took place at the beginning of this year, I couldn't think of a better way to heal myself emotionally and physically than to train for another marathon. That seems counter-intuitive right? To some, maybe.. but for me marathon training gives me something to focus on. Something to strive for. Something to be positive about.  

Post 15 km run - jumped right in
the lake following this photo
For anyone that knows me really well, they would know that I have an addictive personality. I need to be focused on some aspect of my life to feel a sense of normal. Whether that be dieting, planning a house project, running, crafting, blogging... I need to do something to feel purposeful. If I don't, I become one big emotional mess. Clearly, I have some type of personality disorder.  I just haven't quite figured it out yet. Anyway, that is besides the point.

After a rough winter here in the "north", I picked up my base training again in March. I started really slow and average around 15 kms per week for about a month. I tried to run a minimum of 3X per week and peaked at 4X per week. It was tough seeing my slower than before paces, but I got over that quickly. I was almost 15 lbs heavier than my previous marathon weight, so the slower pace was to be expected.

Since March, I've committed myself 99% to this training cycle:
  • I've dropped that 15 lbs and am now at my previous marathon weight. I did this all through healthy eating and good choices (NO weight watchers!)
  • I contacted my old marathon coach and he has been coaching me virtually. I believe god sent him here to me. I don't know how I would be doing this without his constant motivation and training.
  • I'm now running 6X per week and am following a high mileage training plan.

I've been following my new plan for 8 completed weeks now and I'm feeling really good. I'm currently running at 70 km per week (44 miles) and will be getting to 100 km (or 62 miles). This is quite the different approach from the Running Room plan I had followed previously. That plan I had peaked at 62 kms (plan had called for 66). Surprisingly my body is handling the high mileage quite well with no injury thus far. I chalk it up to the slow mileage build up and plan adjustments when needed.

Running 6X per week can present its challenges, but I've come to embrace it. I've pretty much deemed running to be my part-time job this year. Fortunately, I have a very loving and supportive husband that is 100% on board with this passion of mine. He has helped me find my balance of a full time work load, 3 "needy" puggies, volunteer jobs, house work, entertaining and wife duties. It's no longer a battle of figuring out when to get my run in, I just do it. It's now concrete in my schedule - I have to run each day before my day starts. End of story.


Of course there will be exceptions to this perfect schedule. I didn't get my run in one morning and had to run after work instead. To not cause fatigue by going back to my planned morning run schedule, I decided to run in the evenings all week. This presented a lot of challenges for me, because let's face it... lots of stuff can crop up in the evenings. I immediately switched back to morning running because there are less demands at 5:30 a.m.

Training aside, the most important part of all of this hard work is the two marathons I have planned:

Road2Hope in Hamilton, ON - November 3rd 2014
Walt Disney World Marathon in Orlando, FL - January 11th 2015

I can hardly wait for both race days to arrive. Seeing all my hard work shine through those medals will be priceless. Daniel and I have not been on vacation since 2011, so Disney is a big deal for us. I'm excited that we are planning an entire week vacation surrounding the race. The countdown is now on!

In a nutshell - that is what I've been up to these last 6 months. Oh, plus we bought and moved into our new home (which was 4 hours north of our previous house). That's all...


Who else is running a fall marathon this year? How is your training going? 

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