Marathon Training Thoughts

I began training for my first Marathon on January 4, 2010. I originally planned on running a marathon on May 2, 3010. I followed a Higdon based plan with my own tweaks.

January: I was in physical therapy the majority of this month for shin splints. Luckily, I was able to run fine for the majority of my runs despite the shin and calf problems I was having. My long runs were 13 miles, 8 miles, 12 miles, 14 miles. I ran 126.6 total miles.

February: In February, I went gluten free for Lent and noticed an improvement in my running. I used to deal with numbness in my feet, mostly my left foot and it didn't happen while I was GF. I ran a 10K on February 7th and PRed by 3 minutes, in 47:35. I then ran a half marathon on February 28th and PRed with a 1:49:02 (previous PR was 1:56:23). I felt pretty good then and after my half I really began to focus on marathon training.

My long runs in February were: 7.2, 15, 11 and 13.1. My total mileage was 96 miles.

March: In March, I decided to push back my marathon from May 2, 2010 to May 30, 2010. My long runs this month were: 10, 16, 17, 11. I ran 133.6 miles in March which was a new mileage PR.

April: A big month of training. I dealt with one week of being injured this month too. I feared a stress fracture but luckily it was not. I'm still not sure what it was but it was definitely metatarsal pain that ended up just going away. It was close to a neuroma location, so that's possible too. My long runs were: 19, 20, 12 and 22. 155.9 total miles for the month.

May: May was an up and down month. I ran a 5K PR on May 8th - 22:53. But maybe I shouldn't have pushed it during the 5K because I paid for it the next few weeks. My long run the day after was my worst ever, it should have been 20 miles but ended up being 17.7 miles. I hurt all over and was so slow. Then the week after my knee started giving me fits and I had to basically take the week off, two weeks before my marathon. Ugh. Was not good but I pushed through. Ran 17.7 and 8 miles as the two long runs I managed for the month. Then it was time to taper. My taper was pretty extreme because of the knee. May mileage before the marathon was 73.1

Total mileage for the 5 months was: 585.2. I ran 85 times, for an average of 6.88 miles per run. It was a total of 22 weeks of training for the half marathon followed by the marathon. I averaged 26.6 miles a week for those 22 weeks.

What will I do different next time?

I'm running a goal half marathon in October 2010. Then I'm hoping to run the Houston Marathon in January 2010 but it's gone to a lottery system so hopefully I get in. For my half marathon cycle I'll be following a Hudson half marathon plan. I'm debating between Hudson or Pfitzinger for the marathon training cycle. I'll definitely be running more miles, more speedwork. I also plan on being more diligent with cross training (weights, core and stretching). I'm starting Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred today and will continue doing it when HM training starts. I'll also do the core and flexibility workouts from Advanced Marathoning 2x/week each. I'm also scheduling in yoga and bike rides. After 30 Day Shred, I'll do a strength training routine 2x/week.

Also, I'm going to be focusing on my nutrition and recovery for the upcoming cycles. I'd like to lose 10-15lbs and eat much healthier. I also need to get more sleep and spend more time focusing on recovery. Luckily I will only be working 25 hours a week and mostly from home, so I should be able to get more sleep than I was at my last job which required a commute and long hours.

So we will see how the next cycle goes!