First, I owe you a Wednesday weigh-in - today's weight was 132, so I am flat from last week. It actually had come down to 130.8, but I've been extra hungry in the few days after the marathon so I've been eating a little above my calorie goal. I'm not really worried about it, but if it keeps going up I will have to reevaluate things!!
I mentioned yesterday that I would write up some of my thoughts on the marathon process. I had one big overall takeaway that I'll save for it's own post tomorrow. For today I'm going to answer what I assume would be the most frequently asked questions about my marathon experience (if you guys had asked haha).
What was the best part about the marathon experience?
First of all, of course finishing was the best part - seeing all of my hard work pay off! But I think in general the best part was constantly reaching a new milestone. Nearly every time I did a long run it was the farthest I had ever run before. Unless I go crazy and decide to run farther than 26 miles, I'll never have that feeling again, so I think getting to have that experience of being constantly amazed at what my body can do was the best part. And that all culminated in the race itself, which of course was a new 'longest distance ever run' for me.
What was the worst part about the marathon experience?
Beforehand, I would have expected that my answer would be the time required for the long runs. But I'll get to that in later section. The absolute worst part was dealing with the self doubt after my bad run. Maybe I need to get better at handling failure, but it took me longer to mentally recover from that than it probably should have. But I'm proud to say I was able to turn it around and think positive and the race went great even after all that worrying! I guess in general, the fear of the training not paying off was the worst part. Hopefully now that I've been through it once, if I decide to do another I can go in with more confidence and not be thrown off my game by one bad run.
What is one thing that you wish you knew before you started marathon training?
This is definitely where the time commitment factor comes into play. I knew before I started that training for a marathon meant 2-3 hour training runs for several weeks in a row. What I underestimated is that the weekend long run essentially takes up three days of your week. The day before the long run, you don't want to do anything too strenuous, need to get a good night of sleep and need to not eat anything to greasy, no alcohol, etc. Of course there are exceptions, but the run might be pretty brutal. Then, after the long run you are pretty wiped out. And the day after the long run you are sore, so you don't want to do too much then. Add that to running 7-8 miles on Wednesday's and it definitely becomes a big time commitment.
That's not to say that I wasn't able to maintain my normal life while training, but it did mean that I needed to do a lot of planning in advance (you guys know I love having a plan!) and be willing to sacrifice some things for my training. I don't say this to scare any of you off - it was unexpected but manageable!
Do you feel like your training plan worked?
I definitely thought my training plan was appropriate in terms of total mileage, how fast the mileage built up, etc. You definitely need to consider your starting point, but for me it worked out well. I essentially started training in June, and at the time I had completed a half marathon (in March) and was running around 3-4 miles on a routine basis. I used Hal Higdon's training plans after reviewing plans online, I think I picked them someone randomly, but I did like that it was usually 4 days a week of running, not 5 days.
6/11 - 8/19: Intermediate 5k Training Plan - I repeated weeks 7 & 8 to make a 10 week plan
8/20 - 10/14: Intermediate 10k Training Plan - Did not do strength training or cross training, oops.
10/15 - 2/17: Novice 2 Marathon Training Plan - Did not to do cross training, oops again.
So, as you can see, it was a long process! But I knew from previous running experience that it takes me a while to build up mileage, and I also wanted to work some on my speed. So it made sense to work through those 5k and 10k training plans first. I got faster, which helped me set and meet my goal for the Dallas Half Marathon (under 2 hours!), and by the time I finished the 10k plan, I could run 8 miles pretty easily, which was a great starting point for marathon training.
What would you do differently?
I think one thing that would have benefitted my training is to actually do the strength training and cross training that I left out of my training plans. It would have been hard to fit in strength training to my marathon plan, but if I had done some during the 5k and 10k time periods, when my distance was less and I had more time, then I would have been stronger for my marathon training. And stronger = less knee pain most likely! And I do think the cross training would have helped to keep my legs from wearing out towards the end of my training. In the last few weeks I definitely felt slower on my training runs and overall just more physically worn down. The cross training would have helped loosen up my muscles by working out using different muscle groups than running, and still would have been easier on the joints that running.
Will you do another marathon?
I think so, but I'm not sure when. I definitely will do a half marathon again next fall/winter and I want to work on improving my time event further. But I'm not sure if I'll be ready for another marathon next year - it probably depends on what is going on in the rest of my life. But I definitely think I will want to do another one in the next 2-3 years, and maybe even with a goal this time. Under 4 hours would be awesome!
What's next for you with running?
I have a few things coming up - first I am running a 5k here in Beaumont on March 9th - my brother is coming to visit and he is running it too. I would love to beat my previous 5k record, which was a 7:19 pace, but I don't know if that is in the cards since I am just coming off the marathon! But I did a fast run today and it felt pretty good so we will see. Since it is a small race, I probably have a chance of placing in my age group, which would be awesome, but it all depends on who is there that day! My time is fast, but not that fast!
After that we have the Texas Independence Relay, which is shaping up to be super fun since our good friends Declan & Christine decided to do it too. It will certainly be an experience as 12 of us cover 200 miles of Texas roads, running all through the night! Overall, we'll probably run about 16 miles each over 3 different legs, so not too bad compared to the marathon.
The after that, my last goal is to hit 1200 miles by my birthday on June 15th! I have to stay pretty active to get there, so right now I'm targeting about 25 miles/week. Then maybe I'll start all over again with the 5k and 10k training plans? We'll see!
I'm also looking forward to getting back to other forms of exercise - biking, and maybe some of that strength training I've been needing! We actually have a few fitness classes offered at the office gym now, so I'll try to take advantage of that some too.
We'll thats all of the made-up FAQs I can think of - if you guys have any other questions definitely let me know!!
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