Marathon Training Excerpts I

I caught the running bug shortly after graduating from college. I was trying to lose weight, an issue I’ve dealt with for my entire life. After several false starts something clicked. More or less, I’ve been running to some extent since 2007. In 2012 I ran my first marathon. I exceeded my wildest expectations when I crossed the finish line in Chicago in 3:29:05. In 2014, I ran my second marathon. Since then, either the time wasn’t right for me or the universe conspired against me.

My serious attempts for marathon three started in 2020. The pandemic did that in. Then I suffered two injuries. Now I’m back for another attempt. I signed up for the Cellcom Green Bay Marathon on May 19th. This week kicked off the official start to my training¹.

Over the next few months I will be on my feet for a long time. In my runs, my brain goes all sorts of places. I’m intending to post excerpts from my training log once a month. Sometimes my log covers on achievements. Others, I reflect on strategies I use to get through difficult runs and times. Other times, it could be any other topic. I find that running is a great way to connect my mind with my body. This is the first post.

Run 1 - January 16th, 8 miles with 4 at lactate threshold

Why did this week have to be the week to start the marathon training? Why did I decree that I would never use a treadmill again?

After the last few weeks of mild weather in my base building, things were looking good. Then over the weekend we got 12 inches of snow and brutal cold swept in immediately following it. My last pre-marathon training run was 10 miles. I wasn’t looking forward to it since the temperature was 0 degrees fahrenheit with an ungodly amount of wind. I suited up to an obscene degree and went out. In retrospect, I’m so glad I went out because it gave me the confidence to attempt the 8 miles on Tuesday.

Outside of training for something in particular, I don’t do a lot of speed work. Considering the calculators gave me a range of 6:10 - 6:53/mile I wasn’t confident I’d hit the times. It was still cold with wind, so I was bundled up and couldn’t monitor my times. Plus with the recent snow, it compacted and the roads had a lot of uneven and packed in ice. It was going to be interesting…

The two mile warm up didn’t warm my body temperature but it loosened up the muscles. I started the push. I was opportunistic in my route and avoided a lot of the ice or cars that would make running in the middle of a road inadvisable. It was hard but I survived the 4 miles. The constant push warmed me up that I wanted to pull off some of the clothing in my cool down. I didn’t because it was still only 1 degree fahrenheit and exposing sweat to that temperature can make your sitaution bad very fast.

When I got home I looked at my splits and I was shocked! My LT miles were hit in 6:44, 6:42, 6:58, and 6:58. The last two miles had a lot more ice and hills. It meant that I made the intended range by 1 second. Not too bad!

When it comes to marathon training, it’s a long journey. Things come up. It’s how you respond and push forward. I fought the urge to switch from the 18-week schedule to the 12-week schedule so I could stay warm inside. I constantly fought against the voice in the back of my head telling me that I didn’t need to push that hard when I was in my lactate threshold phase. I employed a technique I’ve used to great effect in the past. I got dressed and said I’d just test the weather. Then I kept saying I’d go a little further. Before I knew it, I was half way through and telling myself not to give up. I had already gone this far.

Dealing with weather sucks but this was one of the greatest gifts I gave to myself. The first run was one of this training block was one of the hardest runs I’ve ever done, inclusive of all previous marathon training and races. When I’m in the thick of the next few months I can always look back at this and tell myself that I did it and I can get through whatever difficulty I’m facing next.

Run 4 - January 21st, 12 mile medium-long run

Wisconsin is still fighting the cold but it’s gotten better. When I went out for this run, we were in the mid-teens. It’s not my preferred temperature to run it but relative to earlier in the week when it was 0 or 1 degree it was nice.

The plan calls the intended distance of 12 miles a “medium-long” run. I find that kind of funny because the thought of running 10 miles or more when I started was unheard of. I’d consider anything over 5 miles at that time as a long run. Then as I started to run more, I’d consider 10 miles to be the threshold for long runs. Now, when I run 12 miles I can record it as a medium-long run.

Relativity is a funny thing. A lot of my friends look at me and think I’m crazy because of what I put myself through. I look at professionals and think they’re the crazy ones because they’re hitting 100 mile weeks. I like to think about where I was previously, but if you stop and look back at a far enough focal length you’ll realize how far you’ve come. When I started my attempt at running to lose weight, I was hovering around 230 pounds. Right now I’m around 140. Between those times, I’ve logged over 12,000 miles and hard things became easy and new things have become hard. The progression is why we do this. It’s just so neat that I was hitting the relativity on the weather front and the mileage on this one.

Overall, this was a decent run. It was my longest run I’ve done in months and I’m happy with how I held up and that none of it really seemed that difficult. It means that my base-building was successful and I’m ready to rock.

Cumulative Stats

• Weeks into Marathon Training: 1
• Planned Runs: 4
• Runs Achieved: 4
• Planned Mileage: 33 miles
• Actual Mileage: 33.5 miles
• Longest run: 12.03 miles
• Average distance per run: 8.375 miles/run