Blog

Going According to Plan

I signed up for the L.A. Marathon with a fair amount of apprehension.

I knew I had a great base (that’s gotta be on all the “Shit Ultrarunners Say” videos), but in between finishing The North Face 50 on December 3 and about the middle of January, my weekly mileage and my motivation had been much too low for marathon training. Sure, I knew that I could train to get through the marathon and probably even post a decent time, but that wasn’t my goal. If I was going to run a marathon, I wanted to “race” it – to hope to achieve a new PR more indicative of my ability. I wasn’t sure I had enough time to train to do that, but with nine weeks to go, I signed up and put the legs in motion.

Since then, I’ve put in some really good running, including weekly tempo and race-pace runs and, of course, strong hilly runs on the trails. Even though my training hasn’t been textbook road marathon training, it’s been pretty close to what I think my version of “right-for-me” marathon training to be.  For example, I haven’t made it to the track for speedwork a single time, but I have spent at least two mornings a week wrecking my quads running up and down mountain trails.  You won’t find those kind of workouts on too many marathon training plans!

I had a really good day at my only recent race, the Ventura Half Marathon, two weekends ago. And last Sunday and yesterday, I got in my two key long runs. Last Sunday was 20 from Marina del Rey to Redondo Beach with Jimmy and the SoCal Coyotes and yesterday, thanks to an invitation from running guru Ankur, I joined Track Club LA for 22 miles along the LA Marathon course, from downtown to Brentwood. Both long runs went really well – comfortably quick pace for most of the run, then a race-pace or faster push for the final five or six miles. The runs were great confidence boosters. I’m certain that I have a good race in me; I just hope I have a good race in me when it counts on March 18!

From here, I’m going to do an uncharacteristic-for-me three week taper:

• Week 1 won’t look too different from the last few weeks, except with a shorter weekend “long run”
• In week 2 I’ll ease off a bit on some of the harder efforts, and cut the weekend run even more
• And week 3 (race week), I’ll run on my usual days, but shorter and easier, mostly in order to keep blood moving in the legs and to avoid going too stir-crazy

In my head I know there’s not much more I can do to improve my fitness for the race.  That being said, I might need some help remembering that between now and then!

As a final note, I signed up to run the marathon with Team Pablove.

As you know, The Pablove Foundation is an organization that means a lot to me – the Pablove Triathlon Team continues to grow and we have high hopes for the future of the team.  The marathon team has already raised nearly $60,000!  I’m a little late to the game getting started with my fundraising, but am hoping to help contribute.  If you are interested in donating to Pablove on my behalf for the marathon, here’s a link to my personal fundraising page.