Meh-rathon Training

I realize I haven’t posted much in the last couple of weeks. Honestly, marathon training isn’t much to write home or blog about.  All I seem to do is run! LOL There aren't any horror stories of six hour bike rides, saddle sores, black toe nails, freezing water temps, or crying. I might bitch about the distance of a run, but nothing is really so bad that it reduces me to tears.

After I completed IRONMAN Vineman, my focus switched to the California International Marathon and my fourth attempt at running a Boston Marathon qualifying time. My first attempt was my fastest to date and every attempt after that has seen the clock move further away from a BQ time. I am hoping to reverse that trend next month.

• Boston Qualifying time for 45-49 female = 3:55:00
• Boston Qualifying time for 50-54 female = 4:00:00

GOOD NEWS! The qualifying times are based upon each athlete's age on the date of the 2018 Boston Marathon (April 16, 2018). That means I have an extra 5 minutes to qualify cuz I'll be 50!

• CIM 2013: 8:58 / MI pace, 3:55:04 finish Race Report
• CIM 2014: 9:02 / MI pace, 3:57:06 finish Race Report
• CIM 2015: 9:03 / MI pace, 3:57:09 finish Race Report

Half way through my first CIM

I was actually excited to start my marathon training...that is until I realized the 18 week program (Hal Higdon's Advanced 1) that I picked out started two days after Vineman. I decided to take a few extra days off to recover and ended up starting my marathon training on Friday, August 5. My excitement started to wane after a few weeks. I missed my IRONMAN training! Thankfully, the runs were still short enough that I could do them in the mornings before work and still do a swim or bike workout in the afternoon.

Morning Runs

Since HS and I both start work at 6 am, I would get up at 4 am (or earlier) and then run around the block (.58 miles) as many times as I needed to meet my scheduled mileage. The nice thing about running around the block at 4 am is that all of the neighbors are still sleeping and are not witnesses to my craziness. The bad thing about running around the block at 4 am is that it is dark and there always seem to be a few shadowy figures out and about at that time of day. If you don't have a headlamp and a Garmin on, you must be up to no good. LOL

This is what "crazy" looks like at 3:50 am!

HS was not fond of my morning runs (too dark and dangerous for me to be outside). As a compromise, we ended up buying a treadmill for the house. I could still do my morning runs and he wouldn't have to worry about me.

Keeping Things Interesting

To keep my sanity during all of this running, I did manage to sneak in a couple of triathlons, a trail run, and a wine tasting/cycling event with friends. These events were a much needed mental and social break.

Tarantula Run - Half Marathon Trail Run

Amador Triathlon

As I mentioned, HS got me a treadmill. To most people, treadmills (and bike trainers) are not a means to "keeping things interesting". However, the treadmill we picked out has iFit. This allows you to program a running route anywhere in the world that appears on Google maps. My first programmed run was on the CIM course! The nice thing about iFit is that you see the Google street view of where you are running and the treadmill adjusts the incline based on the actual road. I run all over the world now :-)

I even do my hill repeats on my "crying hill". Crying hill? Yes. This is the name for the hill that usually seemed to make me cry during my 2015 Vineman brick workouts (maybe that's why I didn't run this hill during my 2016 Vineman training).

Final Thoughts

Well, as I've heard so many times before...

Can't wait for race day!

#endureandenjoy #run365 #CIM2016 #trilife