Marathon training and more lessons learned

Well i am getting VERY close to race day only 34 days to go. WOW i can't believe it's almost here. I don't feel quite ready yet! I have been battling some issues with Achilles tendinitis that started acting up back around Christmas but it wasn't until end of February that i finally got it looked at. I am not sure why it sprung up and hills sure seem to aggravate it more. I am fine to do a few hills during a long run but actually doing a training run with hills tweaks it a bit. It hasn't really been enough to stop me from running and now that i have new sneakers FINALLY it seems to be pretty good. I attempted hills this week for the first time in about a month and a bit. And it was fine during but i could feel it a little after. So i may just avoid hill training for the rest of my marathon training. I did a rolling hill long run today and i have already iced it a bit so i will see how it feels tonight/tomorrow and judge from there whether i will continue with a little hill training before 2 weeks of tapering.


Today's run was great but SLOW omg i haven't had such a slow pace in a long time. I woke up feeling really tired this morning even though i had almost 8 hours of sleep and as soon as i started my run my legs felt so heavy and i just couldn't get my pace up. A few times i was at my race pace 5:30 min/km but not for long. I don't think the hilly-ish run helped pace wise either. I kept looking at my garmin and seeing 6:30. Which seems to have been my pace for these high km runs the last little while. But then i looked down some other times and it was 6:50 - 7:00. I didn't really push much harder to get the speed up either as i didn't feel like my legs could do it. 


We stopped and stretched when we had about 4km or so to go and it seemed that after that i was able to pick my pace up! Weird. I have never really been one to stop and stretch part way through a run before. But perhaps i need to in the future when my legs are feeling that heavy. I also didn't really stretch before i started my run either. I normally don't really since my muscles are cool and i don't believe it's good for them to stretch before they are warmed up. Lot's of differing school's of thought on this one though! I am thinking next time i feel like my legs are heavy like that i will walk and/or jog a bit and then stop and stretch and then really start my run. Perhaps that is all i needed? Despite the run being tough i never really hit a wall probably because i wasn't pushing it as much as i should have been. Not that i want to hit a wall but i almost feel like i wasn't pushing as much as my body could take? Hard to know at this point. At the end of my run i was able to sprint at 3:30 for the last 200m. I have really been enjoying adding this sprint element into my training. It's something i have always done during races as soon as i see that finish line i just give'er and even when i don't think i have anything left in the tank i still manage to be able to do it. But considering how much stronger my finish was then the whole run i seem to think i didn't quite push enough and perhaps i should have stretched sooner. More lessons learned in my marathon training. 


That's the great thing about training for a marathon i have learned so much more about running and training as well as listening more to what my body needs. I will be able to take todays lessons and apply it to a future long run and see if it works and if not perhaps there is something else that will come to mind that will help. However at the same time i always keep in mind that sometimes you just have a junk run and thats ok! It makes you stronger mentally and it's still time and km's on your legs. That's what really matters in the long run. That you stuck to it and committed that truly is the biggest feat of them all. Marathon training is no joke! It is very time consuming, tiring and sometimes even painful, but in the end you come out a changed person and a better stronger runner!


I am excited for post marathon too i plan on working on my speed more and dialing back the mileage! While i love my long distances and especially half marathon's i really want to work on getting faster before i go back up to a half marathon and perhaps even another full marathon:) There truly is nothing like the feeling after finishing a 29km-32km run. You feel amazing for running that far. By far one of the best runner's high's i have ever had. I can only imagine how great it will feel to actually have completed 42.2km. In marathon training it's recommended to only go up to 32-35km. If you do any more you risk burning out before race day! They also recommend for a lot of first timers to only go up to 32km. So that's all i am doing:) The last 10km is purely mental anyways and after the few tough long runs i have had throughout my training i feel more than ready mentally to tackle the full marathon. Physically i feel like i need a bit more to get the time i want. We'll see though. All that matters in the end if that i have completed it!


I will leave you with a quote today that my friend Steph shared with me on facebook the other day. It is a wonderful thing to keep in mind when training for and racing a marathon.


"A marathoner is a marathoner regardless of time. Virtually everyone who tries the marathon has put in training over months, and it is that exercise and that commitment, physical and mental, that gives meaning to the medal, not just the day's effort, be it fast or slow. It's all in conquering the challenge." -Mary R. Wittenberg