goal marathon pace

Glorious SF Run #1

February 10, 2011 by Kristy 3 Comments

2/10/11

8 miles

1:10

8:45 avg pace

It’s another beautiful day here in SF. I was so excited to run this morning. Guess who also ran?

I was thinking a lot about my training plan yesterday and realized I’m not doing many miles at goal marathon pace (GMP). I’m either running faster during speed work and tempo runs or running slower during my long runs. That needs to be fixed asap. One of the reasons I was able to PR last October was because I could run a 9:00 pace without a watch. I knew exactly what it felt like because I had spent so much time running at 9:00 pace. I need to start honing in on what 8:45 pace feels like…my breathing, my stride, etc. I don’t want to be a slave to my Garmin for 26.2 miles and constantly need to check-in and make sure I’m on pace. I definitely think this is a flaw with the FIRST training plan. Too much running faster or slower than GMP. I am going to start making some of my tempo runs at GMP, instead of half marathon pace. And a few of my long runs will be fast finish long runs, meaning the last few miles will be done at GMP.

My average pace today was GMP but I was all over the place in the early miles. I didn’t get into the groove until mile 5 or so.

Here are some pictures from my run:

I saved the best for last…the beautiful Golden Gate Bridge! I’ll get some better pics during my long run on Saturday.

Speedy Tempo

February 8, 2011 by Kristy 2 Comments

2/8/11

8 miles

1:09

8:37 avg pace

The training plan called for some nonsense like 3×1-mile repeats at 7:15 pace. I loathe mile repeats. Since I didn’t feel like running a 5K this morning and my legs haven’t 100% recovered from Sunday’s 18-miler, I changed things up. I’ve wanted to do this workout for awhile now…

1 mile warm-up
2 miles at 10K pace – 7:53. Since I haven’t run a 10K in about 10 years, I have no idea what pace this would be…so I estimated just under 8:00.
2 miles at half marathon pace – 8:13. My half marathon time last September was 1:49 (8:19 pace).
2 miles at goal marathon pace – 8:46.
1 mile cool-down

There you have it…a speedy tempo. I’m definitely doing this run again. I really enjoyed it.

This is my last run on the treadmill this week, all my other runs will be outdoors in San Francisco! Woooohoooo! Hello 60+ degrees and sunshine!

Reality Check

January 3, 2011 by Kristy 5 Comments

1/3/11

Speed work – 5 miles

I know my speed (or lack of) is holding me back. I need to get faster so I can bring my goal marathon pace (GMP) down to a 8:45 min/mile (your GMP should be relatively comfortable since you need to sustain it for 26.2 miles).

Here’s what plan called for: 3×1-mile repeats (at 7:21 pace) with a 1 min RI (rest interval) in between. I went to bed dreading this workout and woke up thinking “just get it done”. I wasn’t too sure how I would handle the 7:21 pace. It seems my body dislikes going faster than 7:45 min/mile! And I new the 1 min RI was extremely unlikely to happen.

I did this run on my treadmill since it was really cold this morning. My first mile repeat was at 7:24 pace and it was tough. I walked for a few minutes before beginning the second one (and probably let my heart rate get somewhat back to normal but oh well). Second mile repeat was at 7:35 pace followed by more walking. Third mile repeat began at 7:35 pace and ended up at 7:41 pace for the last quarter mile. Of course, I warmed-up for 15 minutes and cooled-down for 10 minutes too.

This was a tough one. What a way to begin training! I certainly used adaptive training here 🙂

I wanted to mention this yesterday but forgot…my husband, Matt, is also running the NJ Marathon! Misery loves company. This will be his second marathon (he ran MCM back in 2006). I’m excited and surprised he’s running another marathon. After MCM, he said never again. It was something that we wanted to do once. But I guess he couldn’t stay away.

His training is a little unorthodox. For his first marathon, he basically did all his long runs and neglected to run any short runs. He finished in 5:04 which I think is amazing considering his lack of preparation! I’m really envious of his natural athletic ability. He won’t run for a year and then enter a 10-mile race and run 10:00 min/miles with no problem. For the NJ Marathon, I have him using Bart Yasso’s “newbies” plan. He only has to run 4 days per week and yes, I will make sure he does his short runs!

Back to work tomorrow…ugh.

2010: Lessons Learned

January 1, 2011 by Kristy 1 Comment

Thanks to all of you who subscribed to my blog! I’m really feelin’ the love 🙂

As I said in my first post, 2010 was a real eye opener for me in terms of training. I ran 2 marathons, 1 in May and 1 in October, and attended a 2-day coaching certification class in April. The class was amazing and I was literally hanging on every word. We spent a 1/2 day learning the physiology behind training or, essentially, why we torture ourselves with speed, tempo, long, easy runs, etc. Also included were lectures on nutrition, injury prevention/how to deal with injuries, and we spent an entire day examining and making up training schedules. I was in heaven. And, as if things weren’t great enough, the class was the Saturday and Sunday before the Boston Marathon. So naturally Matt and I stayed an extra day to watch the marathon. Now that’s a good weekend in my book!

I plan to do some posts in the future about what I learned in class but for now let’s move on to lessons learned…

My May marathon (#6 for me) was the Pocono Run for the Red Marathon. You can read my review here. I used Bart Yasso’s training plan from his book My Life on the Run (sidenote: Bart rocks and every runner should read this book). For the most part I followed his “seasoned” plan and mixed in a little of the “hard-core” plan. Looking back, I was running too fast. My goal marathon pace was 9:00 min/mile and most of my easy and long runs were done at that pace. A big no-no. I wasn’t allowing my body to recover from previous runs and get stronger. I should have slowed down and ran more hills…

I knew the race was hilly (it is the Pocono Mountains). I read race reviews and talked to people who ran it before and everyone said “some rolling hills with a few big hills at the end”. OK, so I’ll add a few hill workouts to my training and I’ll be fine. So that’s what I did. Come race day the rolling hills got the best of me. I maintained my 9:00 min/mile pace until Mile 19 when I gave up. Physically, I was exhausted. I was not used to maintaining that pace on rolling hills. Mentally, I gave up. I wanted to quit. I have never (ever) wanted to quit in any of my previous marathons. This is the kiss of death. Once you let the negative thoughts creep in and take over, you are done. I was also pissed. I trained so hard and this was it? After Mile 19, I took some walk breaks and crossed the finish line in 4:13 (I was training for a sub-4:00). Boo. Lessons learned: mimic the race course during your long runs so your body knows what to expect and step up your mental game!

After the May marathon I had 3 weeks “off” before I started training for my October marathon. I had never done back-to-back training cycles before and was nervous about getting burnt out. Marathon #7 was the Steamtown Marathon (review here). I decided to use Pete Pfitzinger’s 55/18 plan from his book Advanced Marathoning. The plan was to max out at 55 miles per week (a reasonable number since I maxed out at 50 mpw for marathon #6). That never happened. I started to notice some signs of overtraining (exhaustion, constantly running on dead legs, and irritability) and cut back on my mileage. I think I maxed out at 45 mpw. After a few weeks of reduced mileage, I felt great and even PR’d in a half marathon (1:49)! I think the back-to-back training cycles got the best of me.

I also did more tempo runs and more marathon-paced long runs in this cycle. These 2 runs gave me the confidence I needed to know that I could run a sub-4:00 marathon. This marathon was also hilly so I mimicked the course with each long run. As much as I hated all that hill work, it made me so much stronger. I did no speed work for this marathon, even though the training plan called for it.

During this time I was also coaching a group of runners to train for their first half marathon. We had group runs 2x/week. I used these group runs as my easy runs (and I really did take it easy).

The result? I crossed the finish line in 3:58 and got my sub-4:00! Lessons learned: mimic the race course with your long runs (and love hill work), listen to your body and alter your training plan as needed, tempo runs and marathon-paced long runs help your mental game, and run your easy runs easy.

If you are still reading this you are a trooper. Now go get yourself some caffeine. If you are glazed over and bored, I don’t blame you.

Next up…my training plan for the NJ Marathon (please keep the nail biting to a minimum)!