I moved to Phoenix in late 2011. Shortly thereafter I made the decision and started training for my first marathon. The New York City Marathon was supposed to be my first, but then Hurricane Sandy happened and we all know how that went. So I restructured my goals and my training and ran the 20th Anniversary Walt Disney World marathon as my first marathon instead.
A year later I made it to New York City and ran my fastest & favorite marathon to date; 5 boroughs, 26.2 miles in 4 hours and 35 minutes!
For my first 3 marathons, I had a super specific training plan that I followed to the letter.I very rarely missed a day and it was super exciting to be hitting mileage goals that I’d set for myself. With such specific training I didn’t always listen to my body and had an issue with my hamstring that still bothers me from time to time today.
Fast forward 3 years, 6 more marathons, amazing destinations like Rome & Venice, Italy, no specific training plan, slower times, and no new marathon PRs. When I picked the Vancouver USA marathon to be my 10th marathon, my birthday race and PR race, I picked it because it’s supposed to be flat & fast. I also didn’t have a lot on my race schedule at the time.
In the last 6 weeks, I’ve run 2 50ks, 2 half marathons, a 15k and a 5k along with many miles on the trails. It’s not a traditional training plan, and not necessarily one that I would advise anyone else to embark on but it’s worked for me.
My endurance is definitely at an all time high and my recovery from the 50ks has been amazing, with recovery runs the day after the race, active recovery at it’s finest. My race nutrition is still a work in progress but I feel like it’s slowly but surely coming together and using my Orange Mud VP1 has helped significantly so I can carry my own fuel with me vs. having to rely on aid stations.
My focus for the next 6-8 weeks is to work on increasing my speed on longer runs, get used to running in the heat and to continue working on my nutrition.
Happy Running!
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