Training Update

For crap's sake, I'm ready for the cold temperatures of fall and winter.

This summer has SUCKED!! I don't remember the last time I ran in weather that was under 75 degrees. I had a taste of a sub-70 dew point last week and it was glorious, but once in dozens of training runs is definitely not enough!

Give me frozen boogers and numb fingers, please.

Of course, when that actually happens, I'll be wishing for tank top running weather. Isn't that how it always is?

I am in Week 9 of California International Marathon training and it's going well. Not spectacular because, like I said, the weather sucks and I'm pretty much totally sick of "80 degrees at 5:30am" training runs. But I am not injured, my endurance is really good, and I'm enjoying training nonetheless.

I just wish I could see my speed and know where I really truly stand with my marathon goals. Pretty hard to do that when it's so oppressive and it takes major discipline to keep my heart rate in control during 18 mile training runs, discipline that means I'm running pretty slow so I don't burn out and overdo it and end up injured.

Let's talk some positives now....

My heart rate data is better than last year, and yet the weather is worse. I'm consistently keeping a lower average heart rate during easy, recovery, and long runs. This morning I ran 8 miles and tried to keep a faster cadence and push a bit more than a very easy run, but never looked at my watch data. At the end of the run my average heart rate was 129, solidly Zone 1 and 2. But I was quicker than usual (not fast, definitely not fast!). For it being 100% humidity out and a pretty long run for mid week, I'd say that was great!

My interval times are faster. It might not seem like much to see a half mile interval split faster than this time last year when you compare that to racing 26.2 miles, but it's still a positive data point.

I'm putting in higher volume earlier in training and I'm not dying (yet) from it.

It's so easy for a marathoner to get burned out trying to train in the summer, and it's hard to see fitness improvements when you know you're running way slower than ability because of the weather constraints. I like to keep a few things in mind while I train through this and wait for cooler temps. First, it's okay to be slow right now. It's okay for the intervals to be a bit shorter right now. It's okay to ease into goal pace work during long runs. My main concern is building my endurance and watching my effort level, to becoming comfortable with faster paces during intervals, to watching my heart rate trends and seeing them move in a positive direction week over week, and to take my recovery very, very seriously.

When the temps start trending down this upcoming week, I am hoping to see my training improve with regards to pace vs effort level. I think I saw a glimpse of that this morning. Plus, if last Friday's run in better weather is any indication, this improvement should be pretty noticeable. I have a long run planned this weekend with four goal marathon pace miles. I'm actually looking forward to this because it should give me a lot of good feedback to use in my future training weeks. The temps will hopefully be a few degrees cooler than they have been but even if they aren't, it's *only* four race pace miles. I can do four!

I'm pushing myself into 45+ mile weeks now, and a 200 mile month for September. Next month I have two races planned to gauge my fitness. On October 7 is a 10 mile race and on October 28 is a half marathon. I have never raced a 10 miler before, but I have an idea of how I want to approach it. What I'm really curious about is how fast I can run a half marathon. My PR is old as dirt and I haven't broken 1:50 yet and I haven't ever attempted it. I really REALLY want to obliterate 1:50. So Houston, could you pretty please give me good racing conditions on October 28? K thanks.

Things for me to keep in mind as these weeks get tougher leading up to my December 2 marathon:

1. Consistency. Show up and do work everyday, whether it's a hard effort or a recovery run. Every run has importance and I need to take them all seriously. My friends will just have to understand why I can't stay late at that party on Saturday night.

2. Self care. More sleep, better eating habits, consistent hydration, stretching and rolling. Keep the damn cookies away from me. I ain't eating them!

3. Recovery. Why do people have such a hard time with this concept? If you ran hard every single time you laced up your shoes, you would never improve! Recovery effort is Zone 1! If that means you run 11:00 pace when your marathon pace is 8:45, then that's what you run. Truthfully in the summer I find it pretty hard to stay completely in Zone 1, but trust me when I say I am crawling and I'm not even breathing heavy in very low Zone 2 so I cut myself some slack here. I am totally in love with runs like this.

4. Warm up. That first mile is a really easy one, for every single run. When I take that seriously, the rest of my run goes so much better. I'm almost 45 years old. I need to warm up, dammit. On Tuesdays when we do our intervals and tempo runs, our first mile is often well over 11:00 pace. We take it very easy and incorporate drills a few minutes in. When we start our first speed interval, our bodies are ready for it. This will be especially important to do prior to any race start.

5. Believing in myself. It might seem crazy to consider approaching 8:30 pace for a marathon, but at one point I thought under 8:50 pace was insane, and I did it twice in five weeks. I'm in better shape now and I have to believe I'm capable of improvement.

6. Celebrating the small victories. Was my pace 10 sec/mile faster at the same effort compared to my run two weeks ago? That's a victory! Did I maintain Zone 2 over three hours into my long run? Victory! Did 7:30 pace during my interval feel almost easy compared to last week? Another victory! Every little improvement gives me more confidence to take into the next run.

I have 88 more days until California International Marathon. 12 weeks, 4 days. Lots of time to train, to get stronger, to get more confident.