just run

Recently, all I’ve been doing is working, running and reading. Oh and occasionally hanging out with friends and catching up on Grey’s Anatomy (I finally made it to the latest season).

Running has always been a priority, but with my marathon a few short months away, I decided I needed to ramp up the training. Now I wasn’t too optimistic in these last few months. After I ran a good race in April—the Kentucky Derby ½ marathon—things went downhill a bit. The week before I ran the Vermont City Marathon, I noticed that my hamstring bothering me. I didn’t think anything of it until I got to mile 11 in the race. All of a sudden, I had to stop because of all this terrible pain in my leg. I wouldn’t quit. Especially since my partner was waiting for me at mile 13.1. But I had to go slowly, and after a couple of more stops, I finished.

I took a few days off, but had a few shorter races lined up. So I persisted through the pain by going slowly on my regular runs and taking more days off in between. In June, I ran the Mini 10k, the Corporate Challenge 3.5 miler, and the Pride 5 miler. None of them went to plan. I ran a slower pace than when I ran 13.1 miles in April. Also, my hamstring acted up after 2 of the 3 races. I felt sluggish and got tired quickly. I tried to not get down on myself, but the results were not good. I get that people may think my times are relatively quick, but i wasn't too pleased. And I didn't feel good.

I took a bit more time off, so my hamstring would bother me less. At this point, I was about a week or so behind my marathon training, so I had to get right into it. There was a training plan in the July issue of Runner’s World, so I started to follow that. The article was authored by a runner who was finally able to break the 3:10 barrier. I know I’m not doing that, but am serious about breaking 3:35. However, I'm not convinced that plan was his exact training plan.

A few weeks ago, I was scouring the Chicago Marathon website and found a few training plans. One was specific to getting a PR, so I switched over to that one. Every day, I’ve been closely following what’s highlighted in my 3-page PDF. My daily runs consist of easier runs, track workouts, tempos, and long runs. I’ve been averaging 40 miles a week. I’m pretty sure this is more than I’ve ever done before at this early stage in training. Especially since I’m now doing around 7 miles a day, whereas in years past I’d range from 3-5 miles/day.

It’s too early to determine whether this plan is going to work. I’m determined to BQ, so I will follow this as close as possible. However, there are a few differences in this plan than I’ve done in the past. Like only doing one 18-miler and nothing above it, taking a full week off from a long run, and running 12 miles the week before the big race. I may make some adjustments to the plan, but it’ll be a good test to see how this year’s marathon goes.

So here goes nothing. To trying my best.

Assuming the weather cooperates.