Exploring And Eugene Marathon Race Recap

You can find my Eugene Marathon Race Recap HERE.

You know when you’re on vacation and are thoroughly confused as to what day it is? Yeah. That’s me. Writing this on a Tuesday, but it kinda feels like a Friday? IDK. At least we have this lovely view to look out at (no matter what day it is).

We also visited the Sea Lion Caves and they were so AMAZING. It was pretty incredible to be able to see the Sea Lions in their natural habitat as opposed to being in a zoo. I thought that the entire area was really well-done and didn’t seem to be disrupting the natural environment of the coastline.

I’m bridging my training from marathon to 50-miler and it’s been really nice to just throw paces out the window. As long as I get the mileage in, I’m not too worried about how long it took me. I’ve been doing a run/walk to transition and allow my body to recover from the race (alternating 3 min run with 2 min walk) and will probably continue to do some version of this through the rest of this week. Also doing some more incline walking on the treadmill to get my Glutes ready for the Mt. Washington Road Race next month!

Don’t forget to check out my Eugene Marathon Race Recap HERE.

Eugene/50 Miler Training RUNdown Week 18: 4/22-4/28

I’m having so much fun adventuring along the Oregon coast! It is SO beautiful here.

BUT I’m equally missing these two cuties and can’t wait to give them a good squeeze tomorrow.

I will have my race recap up for you tomorrow and can’t wait to share it all with you (with no details left out ; ) ….). BUT for now, here is last weeks’ RUNdown of what I did leading UP to the marathon. I kept everything the same, except I did one less strength training session and all of my miles did not go above 6 and were all at a very easy pace. I did notice that I had a really challenging time keeping my legs at a slower speed because they were just so excited to RACE! I also felt oddly calm towards the marathon and never really had any sort of pre-race anxiety or nervousness like I usually do.

Monday, 4/22: 6.11 mi EZ 9:53 113’ up , 10 min on the stairclimber (37 floors climbed), & 20 min strength

Tuesday, 4/23: 6.29 for 29th birthday miles easy @ 9:46 131’ up

Wednesday, 4/24: 6.02 miles EZ 9:58 118’ up & 15 min strength

Thursday, 4/25: 6 miles EZ 9:55 339’ & 10 min soak in the hot springs

Friday, 4/26: Flight to Oregon!

Saturday, 4/27: 3.76 miles to shakeout 9:49 pace 6’ up

Sunday, 4/28: Race Day! 26.31 miles 8:47 pace 311’ up

Total Mileage: 54.48 miles

Total Elevation: 1,018’

760.22 miles. 36, 821' up. Eugene Marathon Training Recap

I am off to Eugene TODAY!!! I cannot believe it. I started training for this race 22 weeks ago. I logged 760.22 miles (as of yesterday when I wrote this) and gained 36, 821’.

When I put my training plan together, I decided that I wanted to blend this plan with Hanson’s Marathon Method. I knew it would be challenging to try to train for both a marathon PR AND my first 50-miler within 5 weeks of each other. I normally would not recommend it, but I knew that the marathon PR that I had in mind could be done through just maintenance speed rather than gaining more speed (because I’ve ran at that pace - not considered ‘pushing it’ - during the last 3 half marathons I’ve done AND trained specifically for that marathon time goal last Spring as well).

So, I combined the two programs. I hit more weekly mileage to be in-line with my 50-miler training, kept in my marathon-paced medium distance runs (Hanson’s) to maintain speed for my marathon training, kept up with 3 solid strength training sessions a week, yoga one time a week to stretch it all out, and kept my easy runs real easy (I don’t think any were faster than 10:00 pace and many were in the 11:00 pace). When I had long, long runs I left pace leave my mind and focused on nutrition and running form. When I had speed, I focused on turnover, running form, and pushing through it. I power hiked and added in a whole lotta HILLS.

I ran through so many snowstorms, I’d like to forget them all. I also ran on ice and indoors so many times. I didn’t always hit my goal speed paces, but still worked through them mentally to achieve my ‘something is better than nothing’ goal. I gave myself grace when things weren’t working out AND I didn’t get sick. ONCE.

I took a rest day early or switched around my schedule if I wasn’t feeling a workout or run that day and stretched/foam rolled A LOT. It’s also a nice thing when your garmin watch tells you that your goals aren’t really that crazy.

I read a lot of running-related and mental-toughness books and implemented those into my runs. I PR’d the half marathon by 4 minutes during a workout run (I ran 7 miles easy before the half and had the goal of just maintaining marathon effort - which turned out to be about :20 faster per mile thanks to the lower elevation & downhill nature of the course).

Overall, it was NOT a PERFECT training cycle. I took real big down weeks to help my body adjust to the higher mileage of ultra training. BUT I persevered through some really tough runs when I wasn’t in it mentally. When things get tough during the race I will remind myself of everything I’ve gone through to get to this POINT. I’ve been envisioning the race and myself conquering those tough times the last few months and I’m really excited to challenge myself. Especially mentally. I love how Meb puts it in his book, 26 marathons.

I always set a bunch of goals for races and ultimately, the biggest one that I always want to accomplish is to have FUN. I love to run, challenge myself during training, and see where my potential lies come race day. SO, here are a few of my goals for the race on Sunday:

-A. Sub 3:40 marathon

-B. Negative-split

-C. PR

-D. Have a TON of FUN.

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-Favorite mantras come race day?

-Do you have a favorite race outfit? If so, what is it?

Eugene/50 Miler Training RUNdown Week 17: 4/15-4/21

Monday, 4/15: 6.04 miles easy 10:51 894’ up, 1.92 miles easy to & from the gym, & strength

Tuesday, 4/16: 7. 5 miles with 1.17 warm-up/ 4 x 1 mile (400 R) @ 8:41, 8:17, 8:15, 8:09 / 1.25 cool down. Originally had 6 x 1 mile repeats, but I took more time to foam roll & stretch in the morning rather than run. Focusing more on warming my body up before putting it through a hard workout.

Wednesday, 4/17: 6.1 miles easy at 9:55 123’ & strength. I brought my ultimate direction backpack, picked up a book from the library, ran to the gym & did some strength, picked up probably 5 Ibs worth of mail, and ran back to work. It was beautiful out there, but my backpack sure was heavy on the way back —> extra cross-training for my 50 miler ; )

Thursday, 4/18: 1.5 mile warmup, 3.03 miles @ goal marathon effort (8:30) - taught skating for 30 minutes - finished up my run with 7 miles @ goal marathon effort (8:30) with some strong headwind in sections (I swear it changed directions on me even when I hit the turnaround point) , 1.57 miles cool down. Felt strong, relaxed, and focused on my form (mainly engaging my core & knee drive UP to the sky) during the run. I didn’t really want to stop running at the end!

Friday, 4/19: 8.15 total miles. Started on one trail and pretty quickly hit super slush. Switched to another trail and got in a bit longer run before I hit slush, so finished it up on the roads. It was so nice to get out on the trails though! 682’ up 10:44 pace

Saturday, 4/20: 8.01 miles easy 10:37 574’ & yoga. I kept wondering what I would do if a Mountain Lion popped out in front of me. I still have no idea what I would do. Also ate a meatball sub & ice cream before this run. It wasn’t nearly as terrible as I anticipated it to be, but will probably not make it a habit of eating that before running. Ha. Some recovery yoga post-run rather than strength because that is what my body was telling me it wanted.

Sunday, 4/21: REST DAY

Total Mileage: 50.72 miles

Total Elevation: 2, 464’ up

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Eugene/50 Miler Training Week 16 RUNdown: 4/8-4/14

Ok, so if you say my post yesterday then you know that things did NOT go as planned last week. BUT I’m moving on and not dwelling on it. We can only do so much and sometimes, it’s our bodies way of communicating that we need to slow down before injury or illness happens (and I definitely DO NOT want a repeat of Vegas Half 2018 where I had bronchitis leading up to/at the race!).

Monday, 4/8: 7.55 easy miles at 10:24 157’ up

Tuesday, 4/9: Rest Day/ Yoga

Wednesday, 4/10: 10 miles with 7.52 at goal marathon pace (8:35 I believe today?) & lotsa strength

Thursday, 4/11: 8.5 miles easy at i’m not sure what pace with 480’ up

Friday, 4/12: 5 miles easy @ 9:58 and lotsa strength

Saturday, 4/13: Rest day. 9.5 hours in the car….fun!

Sunday, 4/14: Another rest day!

Total Mileage: 31.05 miles

Total Elevation: 637’ up