I’ve thought a lot about the training that went into this race. Once I got toward the end of my plan, I knew, given I had a good day at the race, I had a PR in the bag.

I had in my head that I was going sub 3:20 even if I had a not so good day, sub 3:15 if I was on my game and sub 3:10 if all of the stars aligned and I was on my game.

Glenn put together a really great training plan for me. He served as my coach for the most part. (at the very least, he listened to me babble nonstop about all the details of almost every workout… every day… while he was injured and frustrated that he couldn’t run.) He did a phenomenal job.He’s a good listener, a better listener than me.

Beyond listening to me, he made be believe I am strong. If I needed an unscheduled day off, he supported it and reminded me that missing a run would never make or break my goal. His favorite phrase is: work, works. And it does. 

Below are a few factors that helped me get some speed and take my marathon from a 3:24 to a 3:13. 

• More Miles
• The plan called for more miles than I’ve ever ran. I see a lot of women out there running 80-90 mile weeks, I’d like to do that for a training session at some point, but didn’t want to jump in that deep this time. I ran between 45-60 miles a week this training. I had never run a 60 mile week before this cycle. Heck, I don’t even know if I’d ever run much more than a 50 mile week. 

• Purpose to the Long Run
• We added big purpose to my long runs. In the past I participated in the whole long slow run most of the time. I would speed up at the end of them if I felt good, but no actual workout inside that run. This time around, unless it was a recovery week, there was always progression or marathon pace miles in the run. I wrote about this a little in a post before one of my long runs- “When a long run was just a long run“. The marathon pace miles taught me what it would feel like on race day. Why should I go into it blindly?

• Faster and Longer Tempo Runs:
• I used to be scared of tempo runs. They are hard and there’s no break. The first tempo run of this training session was horrible. The pace wasn’t even very fast and I felt out of control the whole time. Seriously, this run had me completely doubting myself and the goal I wanted to accomplish for this race. BUT, it slowly got better every week. When I realized that my prescribed tempo pace wasn’t challenging enough, I made myself commit to a faster pace. Every time. I wrote about a few of my tempo runs- here’s a post about putting the work in.

• Better Easy/Recovery Runs:
• In the past, my easy and recovery runs were shorter and slower. It’s important to run easy and recover, but they don’t have to be 2 minutes per mile slower than my tempo pace.This session, my recovery runs were anywhere from 6-10 miles at 7:30-8:30 pace. If I felt good, I would keep it closer to 7:30, if I felt extra tired, I would keep it closer to 8:30. The majority of these runs were around 7:50-8:10 pace.

• Confidence:
• I am married to a man with confidence. He is strong, he is ambitious and when he puts his mind to something he gets it done. Last year at the Mercedes Marathon when he broke 3 hrs for the first time, he went into the race knowing he trained properly and there wasn’t a doubt in his mind that he couldn’t and wouldn’t break 3 hrs. Confidence in my abilities is something I’ve struggled with since I started running years ago. Glenn has helped me realize my potential and pushes me to believe in myself.

• I got Tough:
• This goes hand in hand with the confidence. I had to be confident to get tough. When the tempo runs felt hard at mile 4, I dug deep and worked hard mentally and physically. When my long runs with marathon pace miles hurt, I embraced it and pushed harder. And on race day when I was at mile 14 and it seemed hopeless that I could keep pace for 12 more miles, I remembered those days when I pushed harder when it hurt. And I got tough. If you want to get faster, you have to get tough. 

I have thoughts of racing another marathon sooner than later, but then I remind myself that I need and really want a break. I’ve decided I’ll race one again in the fall. Sure, you can PR twice in one season, but in all reality, racing a marathon does take a lot out of you and if I want to race it to my full potential I should rest for a bit.

What now, what now. I took last week really easy and am left feeling like I need a plan. I’m not good at just winging it, I like to have some sort of schedule to follow. I think most people do. I’m ready for my sprint triathlon training plan. Ironman husband… get that together for me please?! And, although the long run makes me nervous week after week, and I’ve looked forward to not having to do one, I kind of think I don’t know how to not run long on the weekends.

Ever since I was cleared to run in early August, after having Marshall, I started training. At first it was just training (9 weeks post baby, 3 weeks of training) to build the distance for the Indy Women’s half and then (4 months post baby) the Monumental Marathon. I wanted to run those races to complete them in a time I felt was challenging but not real racing. I bounced right off Monumental to Rehoboth Beach in December, the goal was a negative split to get mentally strong for Shamrock.

The real race was Shamrock and right after Rehoboth was when the hard training began. There’s been no real break from the long run. My long run gets me excited about life and although sometimes leading up to it and while enduring it I want to be done, it fuels me to be a better person.

Beyond that, I want to keep in long run shape. I assume, for now, I’ll cap then around 15 miles, but will keep them closer to 10-12 consistently. Long, but not stressful. It’s much easier to start training for a marathon, when your base is already set. I like to keep a base year round really.

I started adding to this post all of my afterthoughts of Shamrock, but it was getting crazy long and I think it’s better to break it up. Tomorrow I’ll post a bit about my thoughts on the training plan I used and why I think it worked so well.

I’m super excited to virtually cheer for everyone at Boston this year and am hoping it’s great weather!

What course is your PR on?

Also…. Go Hoosiers!

Old School IU Windbreaker. Marshall has swagger.

I was a nervous mess all weekend but trying hard to be calm and have a good time.

I re-read my pre race posts a couple of times to remind myself to be mentally strong during the race. I laid out the positive words I would say and what I would think about during the race so I made sure to hold myself to it.

Race morning was great- I had gone to bed by 9:30, slept pretty well for night before a race and didn’t get up until 6:15. I liked the whole 8:30 start time, it was nice to not have to be up at 4:00 for a race.

My 3:13 marathon:

The Start:

I jumped in the corral about 10 minutes before the start. Earlier than I normally like, but had too much nervous energy and just wanted to get going. Didn’t help that the race was on a 5 minute start delay! I found my twitter & daily mile friend Mark (The Cranberry Kid!) right away and chatted a bit. I was anxious so wasn’t quite as bubbly as my normal self.

As soon as I crossed the start line and hit start on my watch, it told me it was full. All of my files were full and I couldn’t even start a new one. This has never happened before and I had no clue how to delete any of the files. I wasn’t about to waste energy or concern on it. Fortunately it was still reading my pace so when I looked down I could see what I was running 20 seconds back, but I had no clue as each mile rolled over what the pace for the mile was.

I usually mostly just pay attention to the mile splits as they click over because I know I’m not running the exact speed always, depending on wind, hills or whatever. But, that wasn’t going to happen because my watch was full and wasn’t tracking my distance. Super! What a great day for that to happen haha.

Honestly I didn’t dwell on it.There was nothing I could do about it. I knew I’d see Glenn around mile 9 and he would fix it for me. I wasn’t going to let it screw me up. For a minute, literally one minute I worried that I might start running too fast without knowing my splits, but I’m smarter than that. I knew what I was doing.

In the beginning: Miles 1-10

Mile 1- After the watch fail, I knew I was running faster than my planned 7:30ish warm up mile. One of my biggest worries going into the race was that my warm up pace would feel too fast. BUT, I ended up feeling very controlled and not overly excited. Although I’m not positive I think my first mile was somewhere around 7:05-7:10.

My body felt good, my breathing was great, so I went with it. I did peak down at my watch at one point and see 6:50 pace and immediately said woah sister, settle down. I put myself in check right away.

Mile 2- I came up on a pack of guys. I told them my watch was being weird and asked what pace we were at. They replied 7:05. I asked if they were trying for 3:10 and they all replied yes. There was not an official 3:10 pace group and I don’t really like running with official pace groups anyway, I find it distracting.

Since my good day goal was to break 3:15 and my great day goal was to break 3:10, I was being a little ambitious going out so hard and am much too smart of a runner these days to do that, BUT I felt confident and we had a tail wind for the first 10K so I wanted to take advantage.

I knew that no matter how fast or slow I went out, I might not be able to hold pace through some of the anticipated headwinds. And while I know in marathoning, getting some time in the bank in the first 10K isn’t the smartest decision; for this race, I thought it was. Every race is different.

Miles 3-8– I had decided at this point, this was my group, I was hanging with these guys. There wasn’t much talking. I’ve never ran a marathon and said so few words in my life. It was my plan going into it, I didn’t want to waste energy talking.

The guys were mostly quiet too, a few talkers here and there, but I wasn’t entertaining conversation. There was a wide variety of ages in the group. I think everyone was happy to be packed up. One of them jokingly asked who was going to be the one to step up and take on the wind in the front later and head the pack, everyone kind of laughed and said they’d take turns. Turned out only a few were actually willing to jump in front and do it. Selfish runners!

Between mile 5-6, there was a little out and back, where we were able to see the leaders on our way out and also the people behind us on our way back.

Of course I was mostly interested in looking at the top females. The second place female (who ended up winning) was already working hard a mile 6. I tried to wrap my head around how hard she was working this early in the game. I felt like it looked like what my 10K effort would look like. That’s how you get fast though, you work hard the whole time. It made me think I could work so much harder, but knew my body wasn’t trained to work that hard the entire race- her’s clearly was.

Mile 9– I saw Glenn for the first time, he ran next to us for 2 minutes and fixed my watch. The pack all agreed he was a keeper. I knew I’d see him again at mile 17. At this point I felt great, but my legs were starting to say, OK I see what’s going on here, you are working hard today. I did everything in my power to stay in the mile and not think about the fact that I still had 17 miles to go.

Middle: Miles 10-19

Miles 10-12: They had us on the boardwalk during these miles, right on the water. The wind was absolutely brutal. I’m not just saying that. This was my 13th marathon and I’ve never run a race in winds like that. 7:15 effort felt like 6:50 effort. We were working. I knew that 6:50 effort this early in the race was not ideal, but I also figured we would run into wind later as well and I couldn’t drop my pace that early, so I held on.

Only 1-2 of the guys were taking their turn out front, I was leading the group for the most part. One of the guys, kept purposely getting in front and to the right of me to block the wind every so often. I knew he was doing me a favor. It was obvious he was trying to help me out and I appreciated it. Although I’m not sure how much anyone could block the wind from another- it was crazy.

While I knew I was working harder being out front, I was doing it on purpose. I very well could have dropped back and forced some of the guys to get in front of me, but I was afraid if I dropped in the middle or back of the pack that my mind wouldn’t stay strong and that was the most important thing I could do. So I stayed out front.

It hurt and our pace fell a little bit but we picked it back up once we hopped off the boardwalk. Although it was less windy on the road, it still wasn’t calm and there were some nasty blasts of wind going by the large hotels. At one point I remember saying “are you kidding me” and apparently Glenn was secretly hanging out watching when we dumped off the board walk- (I had no idea he was there and he didn’t say anything because the plan was to not see him again until mile 17) I’m glad he didn’t speak up because it might have made me get weak. It might have made me want to run over to him and be a wuss. Anyway, he tells me I didn’t look happy.

Mile 13: Halfway there: The halfway point in a marathon is a different kind of halfway. Your body and mind have to be prepared for the second 13.1 in a completely different way than the first 13.1. It’s a separate race.

I crossed the half at 1:34:40, 7:14 pace. As we crossed the timing mat, I told myself, this is where the racing begins. I was realistic and knew that I had gone out a bit fast, but was hopeful I could stay steady.

Mile 14: This felt like the longest mile in the entire race. I was wanting to get to single digits so badly and the mile just seemed to go on. I had some major mind battles here. My body started slowing down and I thought about my 14 mile progression run two weeks earlier and felt negative…. my mind was saying, remember how hard that was? You were totally done at mile 14, what makes you think you can run 11 more miles at this pace? You wouldn’t have been able to do it that day, why today? I took a deep breath, gathered myself. And pushed it away.

I reminded myself that I was tapered, my body was ready for this. And most importantly, this wasn’t the day to give up and run slow. I didn’t give up and run slow in any of my training runs, why would I do it here. 

Miles 15-16: Thankfully, I was able to get my head back in the game. We were finally getting out of the wind for a few miles and that certainly helped. I was feeling comfortable again and the pace was picking back up a bit.

Mile 17: We were running on a road and everything was really wooded. It was quiet and I was grateful for my pack- it would have been really lonely out there by myself. I was also looking for Glenn to show up at this point- and there he was… apparently he got lost trying to get out there and time trialed his way out on the bike as fast as he could to make sure he didn’t miss me where he said he would be. Side note- the easiest and best way to be a marathon spectator who wants to be everywhere on the course… bring your bike!

Below is the video he took at mile 17. Running like a girl with the boys. It was empowering to be the only female in my pack. I liked it. It made me feel tough. 

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Miles 19-22: This is when it got really hard. The pack had broken up. I’m not even exactly sure when it happened. The wind was terrible. I wanted to be done so badly, but at the same time I was trying to not wish the experience away. I felt myself slowing down in the wind and I wasn’t happy about it. I told myself to stay strong, slowing down a little bit wouldn’t ruin my time, I just needed to gather myself and I could come back out of it. I felt a little defeated, but not completely. This is the time of a race when you remind yourself you’ve hurt worse than this before, you do are stronger now than you’ve ever been and you can keep pushing.

At mile 20 two girls who were running together came running past me, we exchanged words and although I knew they were hurting too, I could tell they felt stronger than I.  It didn’t upset me, I reminded myself that I was running my race.

I think I had dropped down to a 7:40 mile. That was not at all where I wanted to be, but it’s what I was able to put out in the wind and I was determined to keep it there, I was not willing to let myself creep to an 8 minute mile.  I ended up passing one girl and then was passed by one more during that hellacious section.

Those were the only four girls that ran by me or I ran by the entire race. There were a few guys from my pack in front of me, but most had fallen behind. I was shocked. For some reason, I had expected them to be the strong ones. I expected us to stay together unless I fell off. I had slowed down, but most of them had slowed down more. I told myself that just because they were falling off it didn’t mean I had to. Maybe I was being tougher than them or maybe I had trained better, either way I wasn’t letting it slow me down any more than I already had.

I was alone now. I had to get this done on my own. Although this was always the truth, I had to get it done on my own from the very beginning, it felt harder and lonely without my pack.

Mile 22: I had only taken 2 gels by the time I got to mile 22 and I was in desperate need of one- I was hungry. I knew Glenn was going to show up then and had a supply for me. I was hoping the gel would give my some zing and I suppose it did a little, but not as much as I wanted.

Mile 22 was hard, really hard mentally. I was so close to the finish and it took some major mental strength to not slow down too much. I was mad that I was letting myself fall off pace as it was, but made myself be content with what I was doing. If you let slowing down make you get too defeated, you’ll slow down more than necessary. I know, I’ve been there before. 

Glenn was encouraging, he knew I was starting to struggle. He told me this was what it was all about and I would be done so soon. After he gave me my gel though I was ready for him to be gone, I needed to focus on the run and needed to be in my own head to stay strong. I told him to find me at mile 25.

Miles 23-26: The end was here. Three miles is a distance I can grasp, the end is near- less than 24 minutes of my life. During these miles, I was kind of all over the place, I would slow down and then surge a little, over and over again.

I saw Glenn again at mile 24 and took half a gel. During this time, we were running by marathoners who were on miles 11-15. I wanted to cheer them on and be friendly, but I had to stay focused and get my butt to the finish. I was imagining feeling like I did and still being back there at mile 15. I hopped those runners were enjoying their race but I was very glad I didn’t still have 11 miles to go.

I was holding out around 7:30 miles at this point, although I wanted to be at more like 7:10…. every time I pictured myself finishing leading up to the race and during the race I pictured myself picking it up the last two miles and flying in. But it wasn’t happening and I told myself to be confident in what I was able to put out and stay there to the finish.

At mile 25 the clock said 3:04 or something like that, I was already sure I had 3:15 in the bag, but that solidified it. I wasn’t sure what the real time was because they started corral one 30 seconds after the official start with the wheelchair athletes and obviously my watch didn’t have the time.

Mile 25

Mile 25

The Finish:

We turned the corner and finished out on the boardwalk, there was a girl up ahead that I hadn’t seen yet and if I would have had another 400 meters I would have been able to catch her, but there was too much distance and too short of time in between us.

A couple of the guys from the pack finished right behind me and we chatted a bit. They made me feel better about my efforts because they were completely trained for a 3:10 and they agreed that the wind was insane.

The Mental Game:

• When the mind battles came, I reminded myself, it won’t last. The entire race won’t feel like this, get out of your funk and you will feel good, at least decent in a bit. You are not having an off day, you are having an off moment.

• There were a few times when I wanted to back off the pack I was running with, I kept making myself promise to stay with these guys until mile 20. This was my group. It wasn’t going to be a short lived group. I was almost giving myself an out though- I was saying- get to 20 with them and reevaluate. The weak part of my brain was saying, then maybe you can slow a bit, the strong part of my brain was saying, then maybe you will be able to take off.

• There was a girl holding a sign at mile 12 that said “trust your training“-this was right after we had the terrible board walk section of headwind and my body was still adjusting back. I kept that on repeat in my mind from then on. I remembered the 10 mile tempo runs and the 20 miles I ran on not much sleep. I remembered all of the stroller runs that ended in a headwind. I thought about how hard I worked on mile repeat days. I kept those workouts in my back pocket and pushed.

• There weren’t a lot of spectators out on this course, but when there was good music and cheering, it really helped. You forget how helpful that is when it’s absent.

Other notables:

I let Marshall creep in to my head a few times but honestly thought it made me feel weak. Thinking about him made me think he is the most important thing in my life and this race doesn’t even matter in the long run. That is true and so if I focused on that I would slow down and I didn’t want to do that. I know that probably sounds weird, but it’s how I felt.

So I jumped back to race mode and just thought about keeping my body at the same pace and staying in the moment. I did make sure to thank volunteers at each water stop and the course marshals. The only time I didn’t give a smile and verbal thank you might have been the last water stop. I think they just got a head nod.

Last 400 meters on the board walk

Finished. Exhausted. Happy.

Stats

I know that running a near even or negative split is the way to get it done in a marathon, but I really believe that yesterday I ran the race I was supposed to in order to get to the finish line when I wanted to. Although I knew I was loosing speed the last 10K, which is the opposite of what I desired to do, I still think I ran smart.

Had the conditions not been so windy, I really believe I would have had a shot at 3:10. I know a 3:10 and beyond is in me and I kind of want to go for it sooner than later, but right now, I need to remember how much I was looking forward to not getting up everyday and running so far and fast. I need to enjoy the break that I worked for.

Was happy to have warm clothes to put on.

Best supporter. We spent the last year in reverse roles, it was nice to be the competitor this time.

I started thinking about the list I made for what I want to think about when I race on Sunday and am trying to put things into perspective. What is the point of letting this race get in my head and make me freak out?

This morning I read Kris Law’s post on her workouts for the week and she talked about how she was EXCITED to race on Sunday. (She is running the Shamrock Half and she ain’t slow!) She didn’t say she was nervous, freaked out or grouchy, but excited. And why shouldn’t she be? Why shouldn’t I be? You work hard, you train hard and then you get out there and let the hard work pay off.  Will it hurt? Yes. But the workouts hurt too and I survived those just fine.

The reason I’m typing all of this out is because I’m trying really hard to speak it so I’ll believe it. 

Every morning when I wake up, the thought of the hard workouts and races seem impossible to me, I think about how hard my body has to work and when I’m under the covers in the dark room, I wonder to myself why the heck do I do it.

Then… once I’m out of bed and have been awake for more than 30 minutes, I remember the finish. I force myself to think about how it feels to finish- whether it’s finishing an easy run, hard workout, great race, any kind of finish.. and I think about how my days, my attitude, who I am as a mother and wife is so much better because I put my time in and finish.

Completing a project feels good and this marathon has been my project for the past few months. I didn’t work hard to put in mediocre effort on race day. While I feel doubtful about it at times, the pace and the distance just seems daunting. I am going to say out loud that I can do it and that I believe. And when it hurts on Sunday, I’m going to speak it out loud and I’m going to PUSH. 

I know I’m not the first person that’s happened to, I’ve heard it 1,000 times, you come back stronger after having a baby. True. But at first, it’s hard. To go from running most days for the past 15 years, even through your pregnancy to taking 6 mandatory weeks off, is a shock. The first few weeks back were tough- 5 miles felt like 20.

The recovery week is beautiful. Although it’s funny, during this “down time” I had five, nine mile runs on the schedule. (I broke them up a little differently than originally scheduled, taking no rest day and shortening Wednesday & Friday’s runs a bit)  I’ve kept them all around 8:00-8:20 pace and it felt good. It can be difficult to think of how much faster and harder the actual race will be when you train so much slower for an entire week, but I know it does a body good and I enjoyed all of the carefree running.

This coming week, the training is pretty intense and the long run is pretty scary. What’s important is, it will keep me honest about the work I need to do to get where I want to be at the finish line at Shamrock.This is my last big push before tapering. I fully intend on working my hardest this week to ensure that my body is physically ready to take on the challenge and that mentally I know I can do it.

The race is going to hurt. I can already hear the mental games that will go down and I’m already working on the positive mind games I will play back.

Here’s a look at what I was up to last week and what’s ahead for next:

Rest Week:

Monday – 9 Mi at 7:30-8:21
Tuesday – 9 Mi at 7:30-8:21
Wednesday – 6 Mi at 7:30-8:21
Thursday – 6 Mi at 7:30-8:21
Friday – 7 Mi at 7:30-8:21
Saturday – 9 Mi at 7:30-8:21

Total Miles: 46

*You’ll notice, the pace range is the same on easy days for the rest week and the build week, however on the rest week I generally keep it closer to 8:00-8:15 and build week I keep it closer to 7:30-7:50.

I like having the option to speed up or slow down in those ranges though, in case I’m having an off day or just feel like picking it up. 

Next Week:

Monday – 10 Mi at 7:30-8:21
Tuesday – 10 Mi at 7:30-8:21
Wednesday – 10 Mi, 6 at 7:03
Thursday – Rest/XT
Friday – 10 Mi at 7:30-8:21
Saturday – 20 Mi, 5 X 3 Mi at MP (7:26)

Total Miles: 60

Then I looked at the temperature…..  6 degrees, feels like -10. It was cold. The temperature on Saturday would be much more desirable to run in (around 21), but I didn’t think I’d be feeling it as much.

My mom agreed to be on Marshall duty for 20 miles worth of time. She thought I was crazy for running outside, said she’d suffer through it on the old treadmill if she were me. Then I called Glenn and he also thought I was crazy.You don’t hear that from him much, so I was a little concerned.

His text right before I left: “Be smart out there. It is really cold. Do you have something for your face? Your water bottles are going to freeze.” My response- “I’ll be fine.” (I wasn’t taking water… it was cold enough and I could stop somewhere and grab a drink if I needed) I think he might have just been acting concerned, because I always tell him I don’t think he gets worried about when I could be in danger. Like one time I said I was going to get my run in at 3am and he had no arguments with me out running in the dark, basically in the middle of the night in some so so neighborhoods. He also always tells me I’m silly for thinking it’s dangerous to run on the shadiest parts of the monon by myself.

ANYWAY- since I do most of my weekday runs on the treadmill, I try to always do my weekend long runs outside no matter what. Glenn says putting the work in is putting the work in… and he has a point. While he was bouncing off Ironman WI, he did nearly all of his training for the Monumental Half on the treadmill. And he majorly PRed.

There are a few reasons I like to keep the long ones outside though, one being the wind- Shamrock could possibly have a strong headwind. I need to be used to that as much as I can. I’ve definitely done some serious stroller runs into a headwind, which is great practice. (that was more last fall though) I also think the mind battle is totally different on a treadmill than it is outside. In my mind, the miles seem to go by faster outside but the distance seems more daunting.

Heading out the door. Scared my fingers might fall off.

What I wore:

• The only two pairs of long running tights I own. Both are too thin by themselves for weather under 15ish. I should probably invest in a thicker pair. I don’t like to spend money on running clothes though. Babies are like really expensive.
• Black wife beater tank (always start my layers with one, don’t ask me why)
• Super thick Under Armour long sleeved shirt
• Puma Rain Jacket thing
• Monumental Marathon toboggan hat (should have worn a hat that was tighter and didn’t let air come in the bottom… or a skimask)
• Super thick socks
• Two pairs of gloves (and kept my hands balled up in a loose fist inside the outer pair. Was too cold to have them out in the fingers)

He was cracking me up in this little seat at the store. His little nose is roughed up from his cold.

Turns out I was smart to get the 20 in Friday, because Saturday night I slept probably 4 hours total. I finished off the weekend though with an easy 8 on Saturday and 13 today. 41 miles in 3 days…  that’s a lot of running. I’m ready for my rest day tomorrow!