How i PR’ed 18+ minutes to average a sub-7 marathon
I will preface this by saying I am in no way saying this is the best way to do it! Everyone is different, I just found what works for me, so I wanted to share with everyone who has been asking how I did it. We all need to remember that everyone is different and what works for some, doesn’t for others.
I will start this by saying after Miami I was in a low place, that was my comeback race, I wanted to PR there and run what I was capable of. It would be 2.5 years since my last marathon and after the race sometimes I would doubt myself that I could run another one well again. After some reflection and recovery, work, two half marathon PRs, I knew I could go after it in the fall. I wanted a fun, beautiful race that would bring me somewhere new, so I decided upon St George.
I had 2 rest days last marathon cycle, which I think was wise after a stress fracture, but this time, I wanted to up that to 6 days running. After talking to my coach we agreed that 6 was doable and manageable, as long as I kept one full day of rest, no cross training, just rest. This is huge for me. I am not someone that will ever be a run streaker, I know rest is what my body needs so one day a week, that’s what I give it. In my opinion its much more manageable to handle all the runs in the week when you know you have sunday off (my preferred day). It also gives me one day of leeway if I need to move things around. I think it helps keep a schedule you can stick to and succeed at. That was one of my biggest takeaways – besides my Salmonella incident (ella ella ella) of one week off total, I took one extra rest day after the Loon Mountain Race (go read that post to see why!) and one extra day when I was traveling in Jackson Hole. That is it – every other run was completed. The month of September I was able to do every run on the schedule. I think this consistency was key and prepared me well.
I maxed out at 57 miles in a week. That’s right, you heard me, less than 60 miles a week to run a 301. Every run for me has a purpose and my schedule follows a pretty simple formula. Speed Tuesday, Long Run Saturday,,lower mileage monday, wednesday and friday with thursday a medium day. I make my long runs count and often run those faster than my other runs during the week.
Strength Training. With the help of Barry’s Bootcamp DF, I would get my run in to end at the gym for my hour workout. Monday is arms and abs, Wednesday is arms, back, chest, abs. I was consistent with this and majority of my training I went both days. For my next cycle, I am going to start incorporating in total body days to get more leg work. I have been slowly adding more to each training cycle to keep myself healthy.
Diet and hydration – I became kind of crazy about sticking to my meals that I prepared. As a result, usually I would only be eating out on the weekends. I really watched what I was putting into my body. This was especially true and probably came about because of salmonella, but I think it definitely helped. As a result, right after Salmonella, any alcohol would upset my stomach. Because of this I virtually eliminated it the last two months of training. I love my wine and vodka sodas, dont get me wrong, but the way my body felt eliminating them was phenomenal. I am totally not saying to stop having these things, just my perspective on what helped!
Sleep – I was a sleep monster with this cycle. I didn’t care if it was 9pm, I was in bed ready for morning runs. I think it really helped with my recovery, because I did not have one injury during this training cycle.
Training on hills. The majority of my runs have both ups and downs and my long runs have a whole lotta ups. I would aim to get 1000+ feet of gain on my runs longer than 12 miles. This helped build strength in my legs and I think built mental toughness. I even tried to do some pace work on hills (dont really recommend that!). I always say train on hills, race on flat and I think its true. Atlanta is a great city for it, we got hills everywhere!
Summer training – this really can’t be replicated for Boston training, but it helped in this instance. They say that heat and humidity is poor man’s elevation training and I think there is something to that. The race started at 5000+ feet and I didn’t even notice it. I am not sure if I wasn’t up at elevation long enough ( I was staying at 3000 feet), but I would like to think my humidity and heat training made this seem easy. I know I am “lucky” that I can train in a brutal summer, but I am going to be interested to see how “winter” training goes when the running is much easier.
Know when to make adjustments. Like I said many a times, summer is hot AF here. There were some workouts where I wasnt hitting the times, or had to cut some of the reps down and I would sometimes get down on myself. My coach reminded me it was 90+ degrees and adjustments have to be made. I think its wise to not forget that. I know at times I sometimes did.
Those are just some of the thoughts that were going through my head as I looked back on my training cycle. I am excited to see what this Boston training cycle has in store. My goal is to go 255 and training will start mid-December. I am looking forward to seeing what my coach says about realistic mileage I need to hit this.