This post is about many things:
- Training for a first-time marathon
- Questioning the plan
- Fretting fitness sufficiency
- Training while travelling
- Dealing with injury and illness
- Being smart when you’d rather be stubborn
- Managing setbacks and disappointment
- Accomplishing goals
I’ve wanted for some time to run a marathon. And after my somewhat disappointing result at Wildflower Long Course Triathlon this year, I figured a change of focus might be fun. So, when I received notice of Garmin’s new marathon series, seeing an event in Toledo where I have family, I figured it’d be a great first 26.2.
Rigged up the plan in Athletica.ai and off I went. Throughout the training I managed to stay mostly injury free, somewhat surprisingly, despite…as one does…substantially ramping my running mileage. Loved the extra diversity of running sessions, versus the triathlon programs. Even so, as I got closer to the race, I worried that I had not covered a sufficient number of miles to allow me to complete the distance. Over the final three build weeks, then, I added mileage and reduced pace on the otherwise longer days that included the progressive sessions. That is, I focused on the length of individual runs, rather than the intensity. Even so, I looked to keep the overall volume, so I was above-plan in terms of mileage and duration for those final weeks.
As many will note, this balance is among the more obvious debates one finds across Internet forums regarding marathon training. While I found present views not as one-sided as fueling (anyone not agreeing to more, More, MORE! are ridiculed off the thread), seems the bulk of prescriptions will opt for volume over time, accompanied by more rest. For those (extrapolating from the number of posts on the forum) worrying that the mileage included in the mid-effort Athletica plan cannot possibly be enough, I might argue that they may well be. I’d imagine, actually, that if one can complete the long progression run (ramp from Z2 to what, for me, was effectively a 10k pace for the last mile), one is well on the way to being able to conquer the marathon.
I know this to be true—for me, at least—when considering mid-distance triathlons as I have tended to be well under-plan on the run (and swim), versus the bike when training for 70.3s. Never a problem not only completing those races, but also performing as I had hoped in advance.
Based on forum content, we know many create a plan and immediately look to the outer weeks/months to see volume and conclude those meters, miles and hours can’t possibly be enough. The responses from the Athletica.ai team and forum members with longer experience on the platform generally have been to trust the process, which often comes across to some as dismissive. As much as the science backs the approach, I hope that my experience and those of others on the forum, too, help provide the confidence that success is possible if one puts in the prescribed work. On that note, my running miles over the final eight weeks leading up to the event:
Net/Net: I imagine I would have been properly prepped for the marathon having solely followed the plan as prescribed by Athletica.ai. Seems the intensity, when properly executed, was prepping me to add miles when needed. That’s based on how I felt when I actually added off-plan miles in lieu of intensity. My longest run prior to the two taper weeks was 18 miles and, while certainly fatigued at the end, I felt fully certain that 26.2 was within reach. The two longer-than-prescribed sessions I added (16 and 18 in place of 13-mile progression runs) certainly boosted my confidence without crimping my progression. Or adding injury; seems easy to add too many miles in one run. When I was at the 35-40 mark on prescribed weekly mileage, would seem I easily could have hurt myself going well over 50 by way of a 20±mile effort on a Sunday after a long week of runs.
The week leading up to the race was an eventful one. I had board meetings in Delaware (Monday), then western Pennsylvania (Tuesday). As I needed only running shoes, it was easy enough to maintain the taper. Man, I felt good on these runs. Pace was there. Comfort was there. Confidence was there.
Off I was, then, to my sister’s house for the remainder. Having spent the prior few days flying (masked up), then driving several hundred miles over three days to Toledo, OH, I expected I might have some body issues. I read, of course, that all manner of nagging issues can crop up during marathon taper. While I didn’t really have any muscular/joint issues, I did have a tickle in my chest.
Come Friday, I spent a few hours in an Adirondack chair in my sister’s backyard variously staring at the ground and at a fence wondering when the extreme sinus ache I was feeling would end. By Saturday morning, when we popped down to the racer expo to get our race packets, I was feeling a bit better, though certainly not at 100%. Call it 75%. After my final shake-out run Saturday evening, though, I returned to the downtown rental (I secured for convenience to the starting line) with lungs that felt like I had inhaled more than a bit of cayenne pepper. My husband suggested I get a COVID test. Sure enough, for the first time ever, I tested positive for COVID.
Of course this would happen! BOO! I immediately reached out to our growing Athletica HIIT-session community for guidance. The responses, confirmed by any read off the Internet, was that it would not be proper for me to race. Happily, I was able to watch my sister crush her 13.1! More than made up for my short disappointment.
You know what? I was OK with that. Super-disappointed, of course, but I had long considered the marathon just a distance. One that I never had completed. I wasn’t there for the race, so much as I had used the race as means to reach a different goal. Were that race my first-ever race of any sort, I imagine my mindset would have been different. But it would have been stooopid for me to race in hindsight, given the month or so that it took for me to get back to 100%.
Back home, though—and in quarantine for the two weeks it took to no longer test positive for the virus—I was left wondering when I might actually tick the 26.2 box. As the days went on, I began to wonder how I might be able to complete the distance, given the now month+ taper.
In the week prior to my “event” I did some perhaps not-wise (in hindsight) things: a mile PR attempt on the track (quickest in decades!) and a HIIT session with the Athletica.ai folks. There was a rowing session in there, too, but I might liked to have gone a bit longer instead of harder. But who knows?
In any case, 20 days after I was meant to have run a marathon, I did. And then some. I had mapped out a marathon course around the Newport Beach/Irvine area that used the boathouse out of which I row as a start/finish. Naturally, there were some hills on the course, but nothing intense. It’s a lovely one, with only a couple places where one might have to wait (and I did) for the sometimes seemingly interminable Orange County traffic lights. Honestly, I was a bit surprised at how good I felt at the target 9:00 / mile pace. Four-or-under was my goal, set with the confidence that that pace was well within my capacity. And by mile 20, I was like, “This is happening!” I actually…out loud and to much internal laughter afterwards…screeched, “Yeah, boy!” a phrase I don’t believe I’ve ever said not in jest.
As I neared the final stretch, however, after a long, lightly declining downhill, weariness began to set in. Not yet weak but getting there, I began to worry about the remaining miles. Back of mind was the oft-noted tendency for the final 6 miles to prove a wall to climb. And sure enough, my legs just about gave out around mile 22. Like the hyperdrive on the Millenium Falcon in The Empire Strikes Back after the escape from Hoth…“whrr, Whrrr, WHRRRR!”…they just didn’t want to work anymore.
A bit dramatic, I know. I actually kept running, but my pace dropped by minutes. I was intent on running the whole 26.2, however, and afforded myself only about a 20-meter bit over which I walk-stretched a cramp.
Turns out that 26.2 only got me most of the way back to the boathouse! Despite running with two watches (I picked up an Apple Watch Ultra 3 so that I could call someone if I died on the marathon course) only the Garmin, which, being farsighted, I have trouble reading while on the run, was giving me directions. I had taken a wrong turn at mile 4.5 or so, an error that added 2 miles to the required distance. Once I had reached the marathon mark (plus some in case the watches were incorrect in their calcs), I allowed myself a walk/run back to the boathouse.
The results: 4:20:21 for the marathon (notably, the best 13.1 time of the day was an exact 2:00:00). While well above the 4-hour mark, I am well happy with the day, all characteristics of the prior month considered.
Hope the review helps some folks build the confidence that the guidance Athletica.ai provides, even against some typical manners of training-related adversity, will help you find success in your training and racing goals.