When I started running four years ago, I followed a fairly natural progression. At first I trained for a sprint triathlon. I enjoyed all three disciplines of swimming, biking, and running. While I continued to train for triathlons, I also ran a stand-alone 5K, an 8K, a 10K and a half marathon over the course of the next year. Once I had trained up for the half marathon and liked it, I figured if I was ever going to run a marathon, that would be the time to do it. Five months later I ran my first marathon and was hooked. And so began three solid years of marathon training:
4:02:39 at the Santa Barbara International Marathon – Fall 2012
3:57:29 at the Mountains2Beach Marathon – Spring 2013
3:52:42 at the Long Beach Marathon – Fall 2013
3:44:26 at the Santa Rosa Marathon – Summer 2014 (BQ minus 34 seconds)
3:36:58 at the Phoenix Marathon – Winter 2015 (BQ minus 8:02)
Those last two races took a tremendous amount of physical and mental energy as I raced to qualify for Boston. When my qualifying time at Santa Rosa did not meet the cutoff to register for Boston 2015, I felt a huge sense of disappointment. I dedicated myself to training for the Phoenix Marathon six months later. It took an incredible amount of focus and commitment to finish that race strong and not give up on qualifying with several minutes to spare. I accomplished that goal, and yet I felt an odd sense of letdown. I think I burned out on training 10-11 hours a week with three runs (a 4-5 mile speed workout, an 8-mile tempo run, and a long run) and two bike rides (20-30 miles each) and strength training (40-60 minutes per week). The training worked, but it left me ready to take an extended break from regimented training.
So, I took the month of March off formal training. I went skiing with my family at Whistler (where I still took advantage of the trails to get a few runs in) and I engaged in marathon housecleaning sessions rather than marathon training sessions.
Rest is great, and there’s lots of research that says muscle memory and endurance make it easier for you to get fit again after a break than it was the first time you got fit. However, I have to say that it took me a good two months of regular training before I felt back on track again, so to speak. I held off signing up for my next race because I just wasn’t sure it was worth putting myself out there. Finally I decided I was just being chicken and I signed up for the Downtown Anaheim 5K a week from tomorrow.
After that, I will start training for my sixth full marathon, the REVEL Canyon City Full Marathon on November 7, 2015. I had such a fantastic run at the REVEL Canyon City Half Marathon in 2014 that I couldn’t resist putting the full on my calendar this year. The challenge now is to train for the net -5,134 feet of downhill on the full marathon course. I take that very seriously and I plan to do at least a couple of long runs on the course to make sure I can handle the pounding on my quads on race day.
What’s up next for you? Have you ever taken a break from running? Do you like to have a training plan in place or do you enjoy the flexibility of some time off from formal training?
What a great story! Congrats on your BQ!
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Thank you! Looking back I cannot believe the progression — I never even thought I would run a marathon and now I’m going for my sixth. Not an unusual occurrence I suspect!
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Wow, you ran a really fast marathon off just 3 days of running plus long rides and strength work! I’ll become more flexible with workouts this summer with lots of traveling going on – a fun challenge!
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Tina, it was the advanced marathon training program from Smart Marathon Training and it was quite an aggressive plan. The bike rides were no joke — 60-100 miles per week in addition to the running. I’ll be trying a new plan this next time around — the “Own It” plan from Train Like a Mother. More running but still some cross-training. I hope you have a wonderful summer! I envy you getting to train in different locations as you travel!
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That’s a lot of riding! I had no idea. I hope the new plan works out for you – running with cross-training sounds good!
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Just randomly found your blog looking for a Santa Rosa marathon recap and love your posts! Thanks so much for the detailed recap – I’m running it in August hoping for a BQ as well. Hope you have a fantastic summer getting ready for REVEL Canyon City!
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Hi Rachel! I hope you have a wonderful race in Santa Rosa. It is a beautiful course and a good one for going after that BQ!
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