Who Knew Running Was Hard?!?!?!

I’m not five weeks out from Grandma’s Marathon in Duluth. I’m excited for the event. I’m at least as excited as you can be to run 26.2 miles. The race route will run us from North (Two Harbors) to South (Duluth) along beautiful Lake Superior. I’ve never run this event so I am hoping for some wonderful views.

I decided to look at the route. It looks like we will run slightly downhill, 292 feet of decline and 162 feet of incline. Overall, that’s pretty flat. However, most of the decline is in the first 13 miles. Therefore, I am wondering if my strategy should be to come out of the gate a little more quickly than usual. I haven’t developed a strategy yet, but I will.

With only five weeks left, I only have one challenging weekend of running left and that will be in two weeks. Next weekend will be another “rest” weekend” backing down my mileage. Likely, no more than 10 miles on Saturday and 10 miles on Sunday. Based on how I felt after today’s run, I might back off even more than that. I didn’t feel good after today’s run and that may be a sign of over-training. The rest may do me more good than the miles.

I was feeling pretty good mentally after last weekend’s runs of 11 and 22 miles. I was experiencing a tight glute/hamstring and that was worrying me a bit throughout the week. It continues to be a bit of an issue, but I hope to keep it from getting worse. Mondays and Fridays are rest days and so there is no need to talk about them. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday were three-mile slow runs. I should be getting in more but with the tight glute/ham, I decided just to take it a bit easy.

That takes me to Saturday’s 10-mile run. Again, my weekend schedule is usually a pace run on Saturday that is at marathon pace followed by a longer run that is approximately one minute slower than marathon pace. Sunday’s run is typically twice the distance of Saturday.

I was pleased with Saturday. I didn’t really hit it too hard, but I still managed a 7:58 pace. This would be an IDEAL marathon pace! In reality, I only hope to hit that pace for the first 20 miles. After that, I expect to slow down a bit unless I have a superior running day. I can slow down a bit for each of the last six miles if I don’t hit the wall and start churning out 10-minute miles. That is a distinct possibility, but what I am hoping to avoid. Good strength training would help with this and that’s what makes me nervous. I haven’t been consistently getting that done, or the cross-training. These two areas could be my demise. However, with my current work schedule, I’ve just had a tough time managing this area.

I decided to take the same route for my Sunday 20-mile run that I took last week. It’s a very challenging route with lots of hills. When I began it was raining. I delayed my start for about one hour waiting for the rain to stop. It didn’t. However, it slowed down to a drizzle and so I hit the pavement. The drizzle was actually quite refreshing. The rain stopped after about three miles and it began to warm up a bit since I got a late start. My goal was to run comfortably. Time was not on my mind. Ultimately, a 9-minute pace would be ideal, but I really wasn’t even worried about that. I would just run for comfort.

Surprisingly, the first five miles were faster than I expected and around 8:40/mile. I could have slowed down but I wasn’t feeling tired and I said I was going to run comfortably. Maybe today was going to be a good day. The next five miles I was entering the hills. I expected to be a bit slower through that stretch. However, I stayed right at about 8:40. I was still feeling pretty good, but I did notice some fatigue setting in at about mile eight. However, mile ten was at 8:16 and my fastest mile of the day. I must have been going downhill on mile ten.

I noticed additional fatigue setting in a mile 14. But I did average a respectable 8:55 for miles 11-15. I was happy with this because I was still averaging below 9 minutes so far. At this point, I told myself to slow down a bit and just take the last five miles one mile at a time. The last five miles turned out to be a struggle. Each of the last five miles went like this: 9:19, 9:22, 9:41, 9:31, and 10:41. None of these concern me particularly other than mile 20 at 10:41. That is exactly the pace that I will have to avoid on race day.

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This training regimen is six miles short of a marathon. It is intended to be that way to save your body. The plan is to get your body somewhat fatigued with the 10-mile pace run on Saturday so that you don’t start fresh on Sunday. I generally compare the last six miles of my Sunday 20-mile run to the last six miles of the marathon. If that’s any indication, today’s run was problematic. I am hoping it was just a sign of overtraining and that with proper rest, I can be ready for Grandma’s in five weeks and be reasonably close to the goals that I have set for myself.

To reiterate my goals: 1.) Raise $15,000 for clean safe water for a project in Tanzania or Honduras. I’m leaning to Honduras. 2.) Complete the marathon in 3:50:00 which would be a Boston Marathon qualifying pace. 3.) Complete the marathon in 3:40:00 which would safely be a good enough time to actually run in the Boston Marathon (Successfully meeting the qualifying time does not ensure that you actually get to run in the marathon. Typically, you must run around 7:00 faster than the qualifying time). and 4.) Complete the marathon in 3:30:00 which would be a personal best. I know this is a longshot, but I will throw it out there just in case I am having a phenomenal day with perfect weather. Maybe I can even be so lucky as to have a tailwind at my back!

Stay tuned! It’s almost race day!