Road to Redemption: Wrightsville Beach Marathon

I'm resurrecting my poor little blog. Hello, how are you? Did you miss me? (Probably not.)

That's ok though.

In truth, the point of this blog has always been more of a memory jogger for me than anything. If  I don't write it down somewhere, I forget that it happened. And if I forget it happened, then it may as well have not happened at all.

I would like to forget what happened last September very much, but this won't make much sense if I don't provide a little bit of an update. So here it is.

In September, I went to Erie and ran the Erie Marathon. I was attempting to get a 3:30:00 to guarantee my entry to Boston because I had a bad feeling that my 3:33:40 from earlier in the year wasn't good enough. Kit went with me. He was also trying to BQ.

For 20 miles I was doing great and on target. I met two great gals (Katie and Carmel) and we all pushed each other hard. The best thing about Erie was meeting them and running with them for 20 miles.

Katie in blue tee, Carmel in black, me in blue tank

Then I did some really bad math (for the record, 8 times 6 is NOT 42 and it is also NOT a good idea to try to do simple math in your head at mile 20 of an all-out marathon effort), decided I had plenty of time, and walked for 2 minutes then stopped and stretched because my quads were completely shot.

Did I mention that 8 times 6 is NOT 42?

When I crossed the finish line, it said 3:34:42. When I looked down at my Garmin and saw a matching figure, I couldn't comprehend why my time was not at all what I wanted.

It was because 8 times 6 is 48. Not 42. I did not have any time to spare. Certainly no time for walking or stretching.

Kit did BQ with a 3:23:(and some change I can't remember) - taking 20 minutes off of his previous PR. Which is amazing. I was so damn proud of him that day. I still am.

Two weeks later, on September 21, I applied to Boston. I used my Shamrock time of 3:33:40.

On September 30, I got the news that I wouldn't be running Boston. Kit wouldn't be either. And worst of all, Lauren, the first in our band of close running friends to qualify and the one with the widest margin, didn't get in either.

In October, I ran a little point to point trail race from Broadnax to LaCrosse, Virginia. I placed second. Kit placed first. As in, he won.

It was a little race. But it still felt really good to kick some butt.

In November, Kit and I started and finished the Richmond Marathon together - something we have never managed before. We've started plenty of races together, but never finished one together. We aimed for a 3:45 and we ran a 3:45. It was the best marathon experience I've ever had. A perfect, sunny, beautiful weather day. Running side by side, step for step with my best friend and enjoying every moment.

Photo by Jesse Peters

So here we are. It's January. Like over 4,000 other Boston rejects, I have a fire lit under me. I am ready to go out there, train harder than I ever have before, and qualify for Boston with a margin so huge that I will be guaranteed my rightful spot at the starting line in April 2017.

Kit and I are both signed up for the Wrightsville Beach Marathon on March 20th. This is our redemption race. Our screw-you-BAA-let's-see-you-deny-me-again race. I'm aiming for that 3:30:00 again. It's a 3:20:00 goal for Kit.

We've cobbled together an 11 week plan (unorthodox, right?) that combines the Spring Marathon Training Team long runs with Run Less, Run Faster speed work outs and tempo runs. All pace goals are based on a marathon time of 3:25:00. Per usual, I'm running three days a week and adding in a day of Vinyasa yoga and a day of intense cardio cross training (spin or aqua jogging or swimming laps).

We're also trying a few new things. One of them will be to complete a long run for time on feet rather than distance; time on feet equaling the total amount of time the marathon will take to run. We're going with my goal time of 3:30 and expect to run around 23-24 miles. In Erie, I felt great until I hit the three hour mark - which also happens to be the longest amount of time I ran during our training (which topped out at a 21 mile long run). I'm hoping that pushing to complete 3 hours and 30 minutes of running will help my body be able to cope better with the last 30 minutes of the marathon.

I am (VERY BEGRUDGINGLY) trying to clean up my diet, cutting back on sweets and alcohol while adding more vegetables on a daily basis.

I'm also committing myself to not slacking on the cross training. I definitely slacked near the end of the Erie training cycle. Who knows if it hurt me - we'll never know - but I am determined to go into Wrightsville stronger than ever.

In December, I caught a terrible cold and barely ran for two whole weeks. I came into January and the first week of training with a lingering couch and not in my best shape. It's been a rough start, but last week at yoga on Tuesday night, something clicked in me.

I am ready to do this. I am ready to push myself; dedicate myself; be uncomfortable; do something hard; not eat so many donuts.

I'm coming for you, Wrightsville.

I am also going to commit to keeping better track of my training. I can't improve if I can't see where I've been.

So here is what happened in week 1.

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Monday - 6 miles of speed work at Mary Munford. 1200, 1000, 800, 600, 400 with 400 rest intervals. I have no idea what my pace was because it was cold and I was wearing mittens that caused me to screw up my Garmin during the first 1200, so I gave up and left it off. Target pace was 6:30/mile for the speed intervals. It felt hard and it was hard. To be expected for the first speed work session of the season, especially coming off an illness and a 10 mile running week.

Tuesday - Vinyasa Yoga with Penny.

Wednesday - 8 mile tempo run. This was only supposed to be 6 miles (2 warm up, 2 at 7:04 pace, 2 cool down) but we missed a turn thanks to my bad navigation skills and ended up running 8 miles. This was also hard, but not as bad as Monday. And I would remiss if I didn't mention that the "feels like" temperature was a whopping 10 degrees.

Thursday - 60 minute spin class; my first in I can't even remember how long. It was really, really, really hard. I was watching the clock the whole time... and I have a lot of work to do.

Friday - rest

Saturday - 15 miles on the Virginia Capitol Trail. The goal pace was supposed to be 8:34 but we let ourselves get swept up in a much faster pace, ending up with an average of 7:47. This might sound like a good thing, but it is not. Pace discipline has been a huge struggle and continues to be. Just because you can doesn't mean you should. Practicing negative splits has got to be on the agenda for Saturdays.

Total Running Mileage: 29 miles

I'm not going to lie - at the end of this week I was exhausted and very grateful to do nothing but sit on my couch and unfortunately watch the Redskins lose their play off game. Hard training has also reawakened my appetite big time. I am hungry ALL THE TIME and it is only week 1. Not a good sign; it's going to take serious self control and discipline to not eat a bunch of junk.

But I've got that axe to grind and it's keeping me going.

On to Erie

Kathryn here for what has apparently become my typical quarterly check in. Honestly, I really miss blogging and hope I can kick start myself into it again. When you have a very demanding day job that is writing based, it is hard to come home and get excited about writing some more.

But I digress.

So, what am I up to? What a silly question! I'm training for a marathon, of course. To be more specific, the Erie Marathon on September 13th.

Why Erie? Well, after the initial elation of qualifying for Boston in March, I've become more and more paranoid that my time just isn't quite fast enough to guarantee entry. It's really hard to explain to people that yes, I qualified for Boston but no, that doesn't necessarily mean I'm going to get to run. The more people I had to try to explain this to, the more worried I became that come registration day, here would be no slots left for people who beat their time by a mere 1 minute and 20 seconds.

What's more, Kit also has Boston on the brain and is determined to qualify for 2016. He helped me get there during the winter training cycle and now I'm determined to help him get his BQ. Erie is known for its high percentage of Boston qualifiers and is the last marathon within the window for 2016.

It took me a while to be convinced to go for it... mainly because a September marathon means running our highest mileage weeks during the oppressive heat and humidity of a central Virginia August. Doesn't sound like much fun to me... but then again, if we can successfully do that, Erie is going to feel like a relative run in the park.

Now here I am, sitting 4 weeks into what has so far been a brutal training cycle. June has been unusually hot and humid for us, leading to some miserable miles. I'm following the Run Less, Run Faster plan, which calls for some very demanding paces for speed work and tempo runs. On MTT Saturdays, Kit and I have to arrive early to add on mileage because we are two full months ahead of the training schedule for the Richmond Marathon... and we also run the majority of our miles at race pace.

Per usual, I've been fighting the ongoing and seemingly never ending battle with my SI and piriformis. In May, I tried active chiropractic therapy - a combination of PT, chiropractic adjustments, active release therapy, and graston technique. I'm honestly not sure if it helped or not. At the moment I'm suffering from a pretty severe flare up, so I'm probably in a more skeptical mood now than if I had been writing this a few days ago. At this point, I'm almost willing to try voodoo if I thought it would actually help.

Despite that and the less than desirable weather, I think I'm making some real progress in speed and acclimating to the humidity and heat. This past Sunday we ran 14 miles at a 7:54 average. Speed work intervals are hovering around 6:30 pace, tempos in the 7:15 range. Eights are now a conversational pace and 8:15s are "taking it easy." Every run has a purpose and is challenging - and it shows.

Unlike the winter/spring training season, I'm actually doing my cross training this time. Swimming is my go to at the moment and getting in a mile is comfortable again. I'm mixing things up by using a pool buoy and kick board, trying to break up the monotony of freestyle. Last week I tried aqua jogging for he first time and the two words that I can use to describe that experience are "frustrating" and "exhausting." It's very odd to "run" as fast as you can yet go pretty much nowhere. But it was a nice change from swimming laps, so I'm thinking of adding the class in once a week.

It hasn't been all serious though. There have been fun group runs, trail runs, a 10k PR, and plenty of stupidly smiley photos that are making people wonder if I am in fact putting forth effort.

Monthly Trail Run
Photo credit Jesse Peters

Monthly Trail Run
Photo credit Jesse Peters

Stratford Hills 10k PR

As Kit said on Monday, when I was so exhausted after Sunday's 14 miler and speed work on Monday morning that I went to bed at 8:00 pm, "Training hard is hard."

Yep. It's true. But it also feels good to push myself and see results.

So there you have it. Nothing much has changed in my corner of the world - still here, still running.

Erie Marathon Training Stats, Weeks 1 - 4
Miles so far: 122.5
STLY: 133.75 (hmm... interesting!)