After a 4-year hiatus, I finally found my training groove again and completed my 9th full marathon! What I am proud about the most with this one is how I kept up with 20+ weeks of structured training. I was so great with this before 2020, but had the hardest time getting in the mood to stay dedicated to this type of training these last few years. The real question I ask myself is: what exactly was the turning point this time?
I have to say what turned the light switch on in my brain last summer in pretty much an instant was TIME. And by ‘time’ I mean I realized the older I get the harder it will be to reach these insane running goals I have for myself. Not that older women runners can’t get faster—it’s just a fact that injury risk increases and energy levels decrease as we age. It is what it is. So, after reading about and seeing so many social media friends crush their races last year, it inspired me to get back on the marathon horse.
What always worked for me in the past was a high mileage run program, so I was a little nervous doing this again since I was now 4 years older than the last time I trained that way. I decided to plan out a super long training block—24 weeks. That way I was able to gradually increase (most weeks was less than 10% increase) AND add in a recovery week every 4-5 weeks. Thankfully I had already been good at strength training, so keeping this on the schedule was a MUST. I was able to keep 5 days of heavy weight lifting in my weekly routine up until it was time for tapering.
I had already been running around 40 miles per week from April to August, so I had a decent base to build from. My highest mileage week was 80. This isn’t even close to the usual 100-105 I was doing back in 2019—I really don’t know if I can ever do that again. My energy limit has tanked since then haha! I’ll report back once I’m training for my Fall races and let you all know if I’m back to being a 100-miler by then.
Now on to the actual recap of my race…
In typical Miami fashion, the day was a warm one, mid-70s and pretty high humidity. I almost let everyone who was complaining about this leading up to the race get to me, but I kept reminding myself that this is what I train in every single day, and it’s actually comfortable weather for me. I was fine the entire race. Did the heat likely limit my overall average pace? Yeah, probably. But this is the race I chose to do, and that was uncontrollable. At least I know my finish time equates to a little faster in other more ideal race settings, like where I want to race this Fall.
For once I stuck with my pace plan, starting in the 7:10-7:15 zone for 3-4 miles and then settling into my goal pace of sub 7:10. I felt amazing for the first half so I did have a few ‘too fast’ miles in the upper 6:50s, which I think kinda affected my ability to speed up in the last 10k (that + the increasing heat throughout the race). I also stuck with my strict fuel plan of one gel every 5k—honestly I put this on the top of the list of why I never “bonk” in races! Since I knew it would be a hot day, I brought 5 salt tabs with me to have every 30-40 minutes. This went well up until I was going to take the second-to-last one around mile 17 and noticed I actually only had one left. I must have dropped one and not realized it. My strategy is to use a tiny ziplock baggie (like the kind used for extra buttons that come with new clothes lol), and it really just gets hard to open when your hands are sweaty and you’re trying to run fast. If you have any other ideas of how to carry these, please let me know! Anyways..I had to save that last salt tab for later in the race, which I then ended up putting in my mouth too early before I got to a water station and it exploded. It was horrible! It felt like a cup of salt sitting in my mouth, I almost puked. An extra cup of water fixed the problem, but it was a tough mile!
My original goal for this race back in September when I started training was 3:15. I know this is far away from my current PR of 3:03, but I knew I was and am still NOT in PR shape, and I’m okay with that! It’s been 4 whole years since I’ve ran anything faster than an easy pace, so I know it will take me a little more time to get back there. As it got closer to race day, especially after my half marathon in December, I felt like I could run faster—sub 3:10 was now the goal, and 3:08 was the time I was thinking about throughout the race. Sure enough, that’s what I clocked in— 3:08:34!
What’s my next goal? Of course I want to PR, but should I aim for sub-3 again?! It seems like it’s so close to a PR goal anyway, but still so far away if you know what I mean. We’ll see! I’ll be entering a new season of running now, where I’ll be working on speed and strength, and then I’ll decide once it’s time to train for the Fall. I do have a race already on the schedule though, so I’ll be sharing soon. Stay tuned!