VANCOUVER MARATHON TRAINING RECAP

The hard part of marathon training is over and I only have a couple of runs before the Vancouver Marathon. It's getting really close and that scary! Anyways, I'm far along enough that I think I can reflect back on this training cycle. My plan has changed some since I initially laid it out back in January, but for the most part I remained true to my original intentions.

In retrospect, I hit my training plan pretty well. The only time I "fucked up" was when it snowed... that screwed up my long run and another weekday run, but the week after I just got right back on schedule. So while I hate that being in the "record," I don't think it harmed my training at all. Most weeks I hit the mileage I planned and I was able to get a lot more speedwork in this time around compared to my first.

I did allow myself to be flexible and switch around my days if necessary. I was also really good about getting two hard and one easy workout in each week (in addition to my long run) until these last few weeks. The 20, 16, Ragnar, 20 really wore me out and I don't feel like I have yet to recover. I haven't been quite as good getting all my types of runs in and mainly fartlek/interval stuff has suffered. I also feel like I've slowed down but I mainly think that is just fatigue and a mental thing. I'm definitely prepared to run this marathon a little bit quicker!

A couple times I also added runs to my schedule (in the easy 5k variety). This was fairly short-lived though. I was really feeling it late March but a rough sixteen miler in the pouring rain followed by the "marathon" at Ragnar snapped me back to reality. My butt muscle flaring up also didn't help. That has calmed down but is still lingering... normally rest is what makes that completely go away (it's come and gone before) so I'm hoping the taper will help take care of that.

So yeah, overall I am quite pleased with my progress this training cycle! I can only expect to get so fast running the amount of miles I do, but I still don't feel I've hit the floor of my potential with this style of training. That is probably somewhere around 3:20 or 3:15 but I'm not sure. We'll just have to see. Boston has floated in my mind, but it was always something targeted for like 2018 or later. I just see so many people burn out because they train too hard, I've always wanted to take things slower and enjoy the ride a little bit more. I'm only 27; I can keep getting faster for at least another decade.

Next marathon will be Portland this fall. I might make that fifth day of easy running a staple of my schedule. We'll see. For now, I am focused on Vancouver. Ten miles this weekend and then hope for the best come race day!