Running 26.2 with a Marathon Virgin

Date: 10/5/14
Current Weight: 181 lbs
Total Miles Last Week: 50
Long Run This Past Weekend: 26.2 miles 

This week marked a real return to autumn temperatures with most mornings in the 30's and daytime temps between 40-55 degrees. I love this time of year for running. It is a comfortable temperature where you don't need to worry too much about how you dress, hydration is easy to manage, and you have no need to layer yourself with bug-spray to ward off mosquitoes and ticks. It just makes it that much easier to go out and get a few miles in. The only gripe would be that it is dark late into the morning, and gets dark earlier in the evening every day. My trusty LED headlamp makes this very manageable, though. 

This week was much of the same training wise. After a good 26.2 training run with Tony last week, I found myself going into the week of the Twin Cities Marathon with a bit of Marathon envy. I made a decision not sign-up for the marathon, simply because I've had a stacked race schedule this year, as is. It would not have been wise to sign-up for another race, unless I planned to do it simply for the fun of it rather than a personal record time. At this point in my running, I have a fun with my training, but when I race I want to be able to put out a great effort. I didn't feel like I would be in a place to put out a great effort at Twin Cities Marathon, and I know I made the right choice in skipping the event. I do intend to do it in the future, though.

Erik and I after he hit 26.2 miles

..Back to marathon envy. So, all of these people, including a few friends of mine, are going out to experience what is supposed to be the best marathon in the state, and I'm not. So what's a guy to do on marathon Sunday? Run a marathon, of course! 

The client of mine, Erik, who ran the Wheels-Off Half Marathon in Duluth back in September, has been creeping his way up towards the marathon distance in his training. He peaked with a 20 mile training run recently, and I knew he had the determination to do the full monty. He'd also expressed to me that he wanted to run the full distance before he raced it sometime next spring or summer (this is somewhat abnormal, most people will only run 18-22 mile training runs prior to running their first marathon). With Tony being out of town visiting relatives, and me being at home with marathon envy, I thought I'd ask him if he'd be up for doing a little 26.2 training run with me today. Sure enough, he was up for the challenge and met me at Snap Fitness in the morning to kick off what would be a big personal record for distance in running for him. 

Our route took us down the Luce Line Trail to Theo Wirth Parkway, around Cedar Lake, down the Kenwood and Cedar Lake Trails to River Road. After picking up a few miles on River Road, we hit the 13.1 mile mark where the road is blocked off due to a recent mudslide. Our mission and pacing strategy was simple, keep an easy pace and finish feeling good. Mission accomplished - and congrats to Erik on running a full marathon! Ironically we crossed the 26.2 mark in the McDonald's parking lot, which we had to run through due to the sidewalk being torn out. We resisted the drive through, although a vanilla shake would have really hit the spot. 

I must admit I get a bit of a high off of helping people achieve goals. When Erik came to me in the spring of this year to work on running form, a training program, and a running specific resistance training plan, he couldn't even run a mile without fairly severe knee pain. After finishing his first 5k race that he did with his wife, he was determined to take his running to another level. Beyond my wildest expectations, he has now raced a half-marathon (with a great time, at that) and run the full marathon distance in training. 

As for me, I still have might sights fixed on the Icebox 480 on 11/8. This 8-hour event is simply a test of endurance. It is 8-hours on single track hiking trails with an objective of running as many miles as possible. Therefore, my focus in training has been primarily on aerobic distance, as that is what will come in to play the most on race day. I have also been mixing in a good amount of biking (to and from work, mostly), which I find a very enjoyable way to get some additional aerobic training in. This week I need to take a glance at last years results for Icebox to help me figure out what a good goal would be for the event. Since is it all on hiking/mountain bike trail, it is hard to tell what to expect without actually seeing the course in advance, which I'm not sure we'll have an opportunity to do.