The fall edition of Race Pace Training Diaries follows Brittany, a Race Pace Runner, on her journey of training for her first marathon, the New York City Marathon on November 3rd. Learn more about Brittany here or follow her daily adventures on twitter.
Phew, the past few weeks have been crazy! August is always the busiest month for me at work, but I’ve also been apartment hunting, had a family road trip around New York, and decided to take an online class! Now that things are about to settle down, I’ve been thinking about what I’ve learned from marathon training so far.
1. Time Management: Earlier this year, while considering whether or not I wanted to train for a marathon, the aspect of training that made me the most nervous was the weekend “long run”. I was worried that I wouldn’t have time to enjoy weekends with friends and my [now ex] boyfriend. Now that marathon training is really starting to rev up, I realize how naïve I was about the Monday-Friday commitment!
It takes a lot of effort to squeeze in runs and strength workouts around work and a social life. I’ve been thinking about how to do a better job fitting everything in, and going forward I want to create a more concrete plan at the beginning of each week. I’ve been in a bad habit of glancing at my schedule every Sunday without figuring out when I’m actually going to do the workouts! I’ve realized that without a plan, it’s easy to tell myself that I’m too busy!
2. Sleep: Obviously getting plenty of sleep is crucial to having enough energy to fit in my workouts. I actually can’t believe how well I did the first six weeks with getting in a majority of my runs before work. I much prefer the cooler temperatures and it also allowed me time to get things done after work. This was going perfectly until I started staying up too late to watch Orange is the New Black! Committing myself to going to bed at a decent hour and using my mornings wisely makes a huge difference.
3. Fueling: I’ve been surprised at how well I’ve done fueling during long runs. Through trial and error, I’ve figured out that I definitely prefer eating a few chews or shot blocks every few miles rather than dealing with a whole packet of Gu. The area that I’m struggling in is with fueling before and after runs. I seriously feel like I’m hungry all the time!
4. Running: Before marathon training began, I really didn’t know how running more often and [many] more miles would impact how strong I’d feel as a runner. Would I suddenly become fast? Or would I be slower from running so much? I guess it makes sense, but every run is so different. There are some runs where I feel amazing and want to run longer and faster, and then there are also the days that I wonder how I’ll actually run 26.2 miles! I know for a fact that every run is making me stronger, but that doesn’t mean that the runs become easier. As I improve, the runs on my plan just become more difficult! I do have to admit that it’s an incredible feeling every time I finish a run I didn’t think I’d be able to.
5. Community: Without a doubt the best part of marathon training has been meeting and running with other NYC runners. Marathon training would be such a different experience if I were doing all these crazy long runs alone! I’ve really appreciated that experienced runners are always willing to answer the many questions I have about marathon training. Every day I’m so thankful for the running community in NYC!
I look forward to more notes on training for your first marathon. I am training for my first too but I am only in week 5 of my plan. And I agree, it is actually the mid week runs that are on my mind now. I have never run more than 6 before work and I can see that is going to change soon!
“This was going perfectly until I started staying up too late to watch Orange is the New Black!”. This is me. I’m like eh I have time for an episode and push back my bed time. I’m almost done the season though haha. I’m training for my first marathon too and this was great. I’m ALWAYS hungry.
Hey Jess!
I’ve been prowling around your blog more often lately because my family is running a marathon together (I sadly dropped out of training a month ago because of my $^#%& IT band), but my parents are always looking for tips and tricks. They are 69 and 70, mom turning 70 next month, and have always been active-ish but never totally active. Reading this post made me laugh WRT what they’re experiencing:
1. Time mgmt – they got this one in the bag, as freaks of nature/old people they enjoy waking up at 5AM
2. Sleep – they do their long runs on Saturday morning and they almost always sleep terribly on the nights before hitting a new mileage high, just from nerves. They definitely appreciate sleep but have trouble sleeping because they’re nervous about running.
3. Fueling – my dad keeps reading new things about how some professional runner fuels and making huge off-program plans to do things like “carry ziplock bags of hydrated chia seeds on race day”. Yeah that sounds really practical dad
4. Running – 7 months ago my dad literally had an entire script for anyone who suggested he could run more than 3 miles, talking about how he’s heavy-set and his body isn’t built for that etc. He was a marine so he’s not a wimp by any means, he just had some kind of mental block with running. Went on a walk with him the other night and he goes, “you know, the impossible became the improbable, and I think the improbable is becoming the inevitable.” You’re so cute dad. Not to mention you lost 30lbs and look 10 years younger.
5. Community – they run with this nerd-tastic running group in Chicago who wear these cheesy shirts with the Coach’s name on them (I don’t know if this is par for the course in running groups, but I think it’s hilarious, like a little group of similarly-dressed running lemmings). Anyway they’ve made all these super unlikely friends and the group totally gets them through all of their long runs.
Anyhoo that was a long comment! Just read the post and it made me chuckle since they are going through all of the same things despite the massive age difference.
Love the new branding/site too.
That’s fantastic! I’m so impressed by your parents dedication. They’re little running group sounds pretty amazing and I’m sure your parents are inspiring everyone around them.