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As you’ve been reading along these past few months, I’m training for the Illinois Marathon on April 28th. I began my training on November 27 (just realized it will be 5 months of training). I joined an online coaching group with Mary and Rochelle where they’re coaching a group of women training for the Boston Marathon. We had our last Facebook Live call yesterday in which Mary talked about the course. It was interesting and one day I will be there!
This has been a hard and wonderful training experience. It felt hard because of the weather and some of the runs. I did most of my training outside and there were so many COLD days. I did 4 runs on the treadmill. Surprised I didn’t do more since I don’t mind too much running on it. However, I did tell myself that I would try to do my runs outside and only on the treadmill when I really and absolutely had do. <<Nothing wrong with it but a personal preference.
My training began with mostly easy runs. Those felt good. Sometimes it was hard to run “slow”. That wasn’t a problem later in the training when the runs got more intense and my body could only run “slow”. Sometimes I even ran slower than the “slow” pace and I was OK with it. I did miss a few runs – I was too tired or didn’t feel like running outside or the treadmill.
I had some awful and great runs. Awful because the pace felt hard or the weather conditions simply didn’t help (this has been a LONG winter). Some great runs because the weather was decent and/or I nailed the required paces. Those were GREAT confidence boosters and just what I needed when I had a run that didn’t go well. All about balance, right? Marathon training isn’t easy. We have our good and bad runs.
My last long run was this Sunday – 3 hours. Ugh, I was cold and tired at the end. I will admit that I had my doubts (again) about how I would complete a marathon when I had no desire to run after 3 hours (and this marathon will take me more than 3 hours).
So let me tell you about my goals for this marathon. I still have 3 weeks of training and a few more “long” runs. Nothing crazy like 3 hours but yet more like an 1 hour or so.
After the marathon I will take some time off. I signed up for the Marine Corps Marathon (October 28) and I know Mary and Rochelle will have another coaching group training for that marathon. For sure I will be a part of it!
I do have 2 races that I signed up for in May. I am doing the Chicago Spring Half Marathon/10K (I signed up for the 10K) on May 20 and the Soldier Field 10 Mile on May 28. While I would love to PR in those races (it’s been years since I’ve PR in those distances), I have to see how my body recovers and feels after the marathon. It will feel weird not running 5 days a week but I am sure my body will love the time off.
If you’re in the Chicago area and would like to join me, below are two codes you can use.
Use code “BRSoldierField” to score some bonus RAM Racing sunglasses for the Soldier Field 10 Mile.
How is YOUR Spring Training coming along? Does it feel like Spring where you live? Not here. We had snow yesterday. 🙁
Linking up with Marcia, Patti, and Erika for Tuesdays on the Run.
