Lessons Learned: Second Marathon

I wish I could say that I learned a lot from my first marathon, but I still had a lot more to learn (and still do!). It took me two years after my first to gain the courage to sign up for my second 26.2. To be honest, I really missed the training aspect of the marathon (and it’s still one of my favorite parts of the race)! I loved going out for Saturday or Sunday morning long runs and mid-week miles and having a ‘training plan’. I also dealt with an Achilles injury between my first and second marathons, which is why my approach to my second one wasn’t too different from my first (because I didn’t want to risk being injured again)!

I learned, once again, do not go out too fast! *Sigh* I won’t have actually learned this lesson for many marathons to come! Yeah, remember that time I come through the halfway point in 1:50 something? Not too smart…

Downhill races are great, but they can also completely trash your legs. I, once again, hit the wall early- this time at mile 18ish.

Fuel is real important. That means you probably shouldn’t skip a few fueling points along the race.

Sometimes having no expectations is the best. I shaved over 30 minutes off my first marathon time, trained less, focused on my nutrition during training a bit more, and honestly went into the race with no time goals other than to finish feeling better than I did after my first one.

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What important lessons did you learn from your first to second marathon?

Anyone else come away with a big PR between your first and second race distances?

Lessons Learned: First Marathon

I thought it would be fun to look back on my past 7 marathons as I’m prepping for my 8th one next month! I don’t always love when others compare their lives to their ‘past lives’ because changing, maturing, moving, growing is a part of life, but I love to reflect on the lessons that we have learned along our journey!

When I look back on my first marathon the first thing that comes to mind is hard. It was so unbelievably challenging covering that distance. I was totally unprepared for how much it was actually going to hurt those later miles of the race. I remember getting to mile 14 and honestly wondering how am I going to cover 12 more miles when my legs already feel completely spent?!? In all honesty- I also went out way too fast the first half. We’re talking sub 10 minute miles (it was downhill!), when I should have been going more like 11 minute miles. No wonder my legs felt like lead.

I also remember thinking how beautiful the course was. I signed up for this race because I needed a goal to work towards when I first moved to Steamboat. I had no friends there at the time and wanted motivation to get out the door. I saw the ad in the paper for the local marathon (and a discount code) in December and just signed up on a whim. I had no idea what I was doing or how I would train through the winter, but that didn’t stop me!

TBT to my first hike when I arrived in Colorado in November! Yes, there was already snow…

I also remember how challenging it was training through the winter months. I had never run longer than 14 miles, so having to get in 16,18, 20 mile runs with the insane amount of snow we got that winter was pretty challenging. I remember walking A LOT during my training runs and wondering how people got in this training when working full-time, having families, having any sort of life. My life basically revolved around marathon training and working part-time at the ice arena.

Carbo-loading become the center of my life. I ate way too many carbs and thought that before every long run, I needed to have a lavish (very heavy) pasta meal. Ha. Oh, how far we’ve come!

The biggest takeaway that I took from my first marathon was how surprised I was when I crossed that finish line. I really did not think I would get there come mile 14, so to cross that finish line in 4 hours and 45 minutes was really special. I also was really surprised with how much it hurt walking down stairs post-race. Living in a three-story condo= I really planned out my trips to go upstairs to use the kitchen or laundry because I did NOT want to go back down those stairs more than once.

There’s nothing like your first marathon.

What lessons did you learn from your first race?

Anyone else consume way too many carbs during training/ before your race?

Do you remember what you had as a post-race meal? I’m pretty sure I had macaroni and cheese because I was way too exhausted to do anything besides lie on the couch and watch TV. Ha.

Training Tuesday: What I Ate The Day Before A Marathon

Happy Tuesday! It’s funny how when you go back to school, you’re immediately thinking (or well… at least I am) ‘ HOW did I ever find the time to do all this and somehow have a social life?!?’ Ha. My classes this summer are shortened, so they are REALLY intense (for the most part), so it seems normal to be a bit well - shocked - , but then I just remind myself that I only have 6 more weeks to go of them ; ) It’s all about perspective right?!

I’ve been wanting to do this post for A WHILE now, but honestly just haven’t had the time ((or internet!)). Eugene feels like a million years ago, but in reality - it was only 3 weeks ago? Crazy how fast time flies ( especially when you move!). So, here we go:

-Went out for a shakeout run

Came back to have a mini bagel, honey, and a banana (I knew it would be at least another hour or more before we were able to get breakfast).

We went to Panera for breakfast (it’s always so hard to know what works for your stomach before a race & I think that Panera is still an OK thing ((even though I had some major GI distress during the second half of the race)).

I grabbed a cinnamon sugar bagel with butter from there as well to have as a snack on the drive to Eugene from Portland

Snacked on pretzels throughout the day!

Chipotle for lunch after visiting the expo. I think this is where my GI distress may have come from. I didn’t get anything with cheese, but it was just heavy. I also think that -generally- I had too many carbs (I don’t normally eat THIS much carb-centered foods), but honestly nutrition is still such a foreign thing to me!

Some pasta with butter for dinner (we ate relatively early - before 6pm - to hopefully let our food settle. Spoiler: mine did not ha. ).

Still got through the marathon and managed even splits and a 1 minute PR. You can find my full race recap here!

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-Anyone else go back to school to get a degree. Tips?!?

-Favorite things to eat before a marathon?! I”M SO CONFUSED ON CARBO-LOADING still. HELP!

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?