Once you put it out there on Facebook, you’re committed.
Honestly, this makes me very excited. My last marathon was before I got pregnant (December 2012) so I may as well get back at it.
I chose Lehigh Valley Marathon as a last ditch effort for Boston 2016. I ran it in 2011 and BQ’d so the race means a lot to me. It’s also a great course and a not-too-crowded one (although it has grown in popularity since 2011). I’m not sure yet what time I’ll be going for (PR is 3:41). With MAF training and missing out on the LOVE Run, I have no clue where my speed is right now.
Then there’s the Monster Mash Marathon in DE…5 weeks later. This was a deferral from 2014. If I can snag a PR/BQ at LVM, then maybe this will be a fun run. If LVM goes bad, then maybe this will be a redemption run.
I’ve never done 2 marathons so closely together but I think this will be my new standard (well…we’ll see). I love to run 2 marathons per year and generally do Spring and Fall but, after the winter we had and being sick, I don’t think I’d ever do another Spring marathon (outside of Boston, of course).
And then there’s the Philly Half Marathon…because I look forward to running it each year.
I’m taking the next 7 to 8 weeks to build my mileage back up to the 40 and 50s. Slow, gradual, and strictly adhering to the 10% rule. I’m still MAF training too. My intention all along was to continue MAF though May and then add some speed work back in when I began marathon training. Last week I hit 40 miles for the first time in over a month. And on Monday, after 2 weeks of thinking I was back to square one with MAF training, I was finally hitting my pre-bronchitis MAF paces. (And then I thought it was a fluke, but it wasn’t!)
I’m still mulling over how I want to train for these marathons. I’m tossing around the idea of following Pfitzinger’s 55-70 mpw plan, with some modifications. I find that I’m very bad at coaching myself after creating plans for clients all day. It totally falls by the wayside. Pfitzinger’s plan is pretty much where I would want to go with my training this time around. But we shall see 🙂
I love this and I love that you’re going back to LVM! I’ve done back-to-back marathons twice and there is some bad with doing it (mainly exhaustion and staying motivated for the 2nd after you run the 1st), but overall the good outweighs the bad! And 5 weeks is a good amount of time. I’ll be really interested to see how you transition out of MAF training and how you feel. And I totally agree with you, I find it really hard to coach yourself – I don’t put enough thought or planning into my training and I’m constantly second guessing things.
It’s great to hear you’re tackling another marathon! It sounds like you’ve got a really good plan for getting for marathon training. Pfitz has been my go-to off and on for several years. I’ve used the 18/70 plan for roughly half my marathons and PR’d all but one of the times I used it so I’m a big fan.