2 Weeks Until Columbus Marathon

 

 

     2 Weeks or 14 days, it doesn't matter how you say it but the Columbus Marathon is upon us.  Today I was asked if I am nervous or excited. The answer is both. I am nervous when I go into any race, if you aren't nervous than you aren't normal. However I am more excited than anything. I feel like this race is going to be a defining race for me. Every race is a learning experience and we are supposed to take our mishaps from each race and use them to better ourselves for our next race.  Well I have ran a few marathons and some things I had no control over, but others I did poorly because I wasn't ready or I planned poorly. I am hoping with Columbus I can really use everything I have learned from my own experience's and the lessons taught to me from other runners and run my best race.  The ultimate goals are to run a safe and smart race.  A personal best time would be nice and so would a Boston qualifying time.  



     This week is what I call my get back week for training.  I just came off of 2 weeks of tapering and this week my goal was to start slowly introducing the miles until the week of the marathon would be a week in which I do a very long run at marathon speed. 

MONDAY:  4.5 miles at a 8:30 pace.  It is crazy how when I started this training session a few months ago to now how much easier the runs have became.  I hardly broke a sweat on this run and I almost didn't even feel like I was warmed up yet.  All good signs with a big race coming up.

TUESDAY: 4 miles at 8:05 pace.  I started this run going fairly slow and each mile I just picking up speed.  I did not intend to run negative splits but when I finished and looked at my Garmin and went over the mile splits I realized I did it without trying.  This is what I want to see this close to a race. I want to be able to pick up the speed and feel like I am still running a comfortable pace. 

WEDNESDAY:  CROSS TRAINING:  Instead of going to the gym for my cross training I stayed home and did burpees with some crunches, throwing in a few arm exercises as well . After talking to some obstacle runners, it was suggested that I do a burpee challenge in order to get usedd to them.  In any obstacle race there is a good chance you will be doing burpees.  Next season I plan on doing just as many obstacle races as road races and I want to be ready.  My goal for next season is to qualify again for the National Championship race. 

THURSDAY: REST DAY:  The only thing I did on this day was some burpees in order to keep up on my challenge, rather than that it was a rest day.

FRIDAY: I did a 2 mile speed workout on the treadmill at the gym followed by a leg workout.  This is about the time I will start to make sure my legs are loose for the race.  When I am at the gym I will be making sure to do some sort of leg or hip workout. In previous marathons I have gotten to mile 18 and then my leg muscles will start to spasm.  I think it was from going at a speed faster than I trained at for that far of a distance.  This time around I tried to do some race pace runs of long distance and I have worked on building the muscle in my upper legs.

SATURDAY: I woke up early and headed out for a 15 miler. It was only 42 degrees when I started my run.  Normally I would bitch about the temperature but I will take 42 degrees on race day anytime.  I decided not to look at my Garmin until I was finished. I wanted to run a comfortable pace and not worry about trying to pick up or drop speed.  I was amazed when I finished and looked at the Garmin and saw a pace of 8:58.  I felt so good and I thought I was going much slower.  A huge confidence booster for my last long run over 10 miles. 

SUNDAY: TODAY:  CROSS TRAINING:  I will be heading to the gym later tonight to do some chest and shoulder exercise's.  I will also be doing my burpees in order to stay on track with my challenge.  If there is some time I will use a few machines to loosen my hips. 
      This morning Amanda and I went to Soergel's Orchard in Wexford to pick some apples and buy some things in their market.  I came across some pasta noodles that they had for Halloween. The noodles were in the shape of pumpkins and cats.  I then found more noodles that they had for every sport basically.  I laughed and thought to myself I highly doubt they will have anything running related. Wrong!!!  they actually have a running pasta.  Noodles in the shape of little shoes and a person in stride. 

 

 

Next week's training will be a lot like this week. The runs during the week will be a little longer but the long run will only be a 10 miler. I am ready for this race and hope these last 2 weeks fly by.

 

 

How is your training coming?