Avenue Training and Goals

Race week is here! On Sunday, I'll be toeing my seventeenth marathon starting line. One would think that with experience comes comfort, calm, and confidence, but that is not how it works for me and the marathon. The final week before the race is a bundle of nerves as I ride a veritable seesaw between confidence and total dread.

Marathon course mile 12.

I would be lying if I said this spring hasn't been difficult for me. My health hasn't been where it should be and as a result, my running isn't either. I still have workouts that are amazing and fill me with hope, only to be followed by some so inexplicably terrible that I cannot imagine wanting to run fast ever again.

Since my training has felt inconsistent, I decided to look back on my training and key workouts. They're all there. Most weeks, I even got some formal speed runs in and actually enjoyed them. Here's the part where most people would show you fancy Garmin or Strava stats in neat little electronic form and fonts. But I'm not at all like that. Here's how I do it.

Looks good, right?

Since my allergies still continue to surprise me (and not in a good way), I decided to play it safe and go with a three week taper. Better to be extra rested and a little stale than to be overly tired. I'm trying to nap every day and stay hydrated. That springy feeling is returning to my legs.

Call it optimism or or call it stupidity, I'm still hopeful that Sunday will be a good day. 

I helped the race director freshen up mile markers on the road. It was a good visual reminder of the course. Also, there's no wall at mile 20. Whew, that's good to know.

Now for the goals part. In the early days of this blog, I used to set three time goals, A, B, and C, for myself. But as I've run more and more of these darn things and realized how everything has to line up so perfectly to reach that "A" Goal, I've stopped doing that. It's beyond disappointing to miss two or three out of my three goals.

When it comes to time goals, I usually set just one: the one that helps me set my starting pace. For this marathon, it's going to be an 8:12/mi. pace, which equates to a 3:35 marathon if I can hang on the whole way.

Mile 16 or 17. Hopefully we're feeling this energetic on race day.

Once I'm running, I'll reevaluate every few miles and go from there. It could be one of those minimal allergy days where I'm brimming with speed and energy or it could be a day where I can barely breathe and have to slow down. Either way, I'm going to do my best and finish proud of my effort, whatever that ends up being.  Twenty-six miles with the beautiful redwood forest will only suck if I let it, right? :)

BIG, TALL REDWOODS HERE I COME!