I officially started marathon training this week. (Don't ask me for what race, I still don't know. Probably Columbus, KC, Des Moines or Quad Cities, but I haven't committed.) And due to the lack of car, I'm back to doing what I did all the time back in 2013, when I was in maybe the shape of my life? Certainly at least in half and marathon PR shape. Back in 2013, I was running fairly high mileage while training for Berlin.
My schedule looked roughly like this every week:
Mon: Boot camp, sometimes run home from boot camp (2.75 miles).
Tues: Run 6-9 with running friends, then run 3.75 to work (slowly), work all day, run 3.75 home.
Wed: Boot camp, sometimes run home from boot camp (2.75 miles), run 3.75 to work, work, run 3.75 home.
Thurs: Run 6-9 with running friends, then run 3.75 to work (slowly) (and then work, and get picked up by my husband).
Fri: Boot camp or 10k hill loop with running buddy.
Sat: Rest (or occasionally race).
Sun: Long run (14-22, depending on the week).
That was a lot of miles (for me) most weeks, but a lot of them were junk miles, basically all of my commuting miles, which were usually very slow (recovery pace or slower), sometimes doing run/walk with a co-worker. And that led me to my marathon PR.
And then I gained some weight, got lazy, and stopped doing 2.5 days of running commutes per week. I've been pretty faithful about doing a running commute about one day per week since then unless it was a travel week, or the weather was bad, or I was tired...
Then April happened. We had houseguests for over a month and we spent most nights at the hospital with my cousin and his son (who is now fine, they flew home about a week ago). That meant 0 running commutes for me (and about 5 more pounds, since lots of nights we'd pick up restaurant food to take to the hospital).
Last week when I sold my car, I was forced back into the regular running commute routine. I really should try to stick with it, even if/when I get my new car (hopefully this week!).
Today is on track to be over 13 miles, which hasn't happened in months or longer. Woot!
Maybe this commute is just the thing for a PR marathon! That would be cool. "How I got rid of my car and ran the fastest marathon of my life" - I can see it in Huff Post.
ReplyDeleteLove it! If I could make that come true, I'd be thrilled.
Deleteso you're at my current level of weekly mileage. you're just ramping up your marathon training and i'm settling into summer mileage...no run over a half distance. i'll start seriously training for South Padre (mid-november) in august. it's a short training season, i know, but july is just way too hot in austin to be running long and not dying.
ReplyDeleteInteresting that your previous run commute routine with many slow miles led to your PR. I give you credit for doing run commutes in the hot summer! I am tempted to try it again myself. The first time I didn't it was too hot for me, but maybe I'd acclimate?
ReplyDeleteColumbus??????
ReplyDelete