Marathon training – hot as (bleep)! 19 weeks to race day!
Over the course of my marathon training, I’ll be providing many updates. Sometimes, they’ll be short weekly posts and others may be longer updates of several weeks. The key is that I’ll share the space I am in at each point in this journey towards running 26.2. Over this past week, that space went a bit back and forth.
Week two of marathon training had a different feeling than week one. While the start of training felt like the marathon was getting close with only 20 weeks to go, my mindset shifted in week two to the realization that I still had 19 more weeks of this massive commitment remaining. Right now, while the marathon is the destination, my immediate goal is to give the training program everything I’ve got. This week, it set in how daunting that is – especially as New York was hit with insane heat. All I can say is that, for a couple days, it was really, really, hot. It reminded me of Eddie Vedder’s speech at this Pearl Jam concert I went to at Fenway Park in 2018. I’ll let Ed take care of the explicit language that better describes the heat . . .
Besides the intense heat, I dealt with some of the usual twists that life throws in. It was a week of sleeping on my couch as I got to enjoy a visit from my mom, and it was another week where I somehow ended up with a painful injury – this time to my pectoral muscle. It was just a slight nag at first after a day of strength training last week, but perhaps as the result of carelessness when I spent a morning at my climbing gym, it became surprisingly painful.
Weather, life events, and injuries are all part of the process. Certainly, injuries are with me. All I can do is try my best to prevent what I can and recognize them early when they creep in so they can be dealt with easier. Going for acupuncture on my knees last week was a simple therapy with the goal of injury prevention on an area that gets abused. But ending up at acupuncture this week was purely treatment for pain. Of course, I don’t need much from my pectoral muscle to run, but the most excruciating pain happens with coughing or heavy breathing, so this injury was not nothing.
While the enormity of this plan felt intimidating, there’s also real focus that comes with the mission. It’s a focus that gets me through the days you don’t want to be doing it. I’m certain that this focus is a muscle I’ll need during the latter part of the marathon. It’s the “embrace the suck” muscle. It’s where I learn that overcoming the challenge is often the best part of the journey. For those who want to read the entire training program at the end of this, you’ll see a week where I overcame the weight of the early part of the week to finish it on a high note where I could feel real improvements in my performance – culminating with a 4-mile race day on Sunday after a five-mile warmup run to get my full nine miles in for the day. For years, I’ve shown up at these races noticing others in race bibs running Central Park before the race. I always thought they were crazy. Running before a race?!?! But on Saturday, I became that guy, realizing that the impressions I had before were just because I didn’t get it . . . yet.
In the end, a week that started with a bit of anxiety, finished with a renewed sense of optimism. I turned the things that get in the way of training into what strengthened me. The ease of that nine-mile run and pace that I hit on the last mile of it (9:15/mile) was a moment of clarity that showed me it’s all working. Long runs are getting easier, and my pace is getting faster. Even a 5K pace test I ran on Tuesday — the hottest day of the week — let me know that I’m ready for the toughest of days. Now, as week two is complete, my legs feel fresh, and I’m looking forward to seeing what progress I continue to find as this goes on. But most importantly, there’s now one less week to go!
Aaron
For those interested in more, here’s a recap of the full training program in week two followed by some stats on how many miles I’ve run per week. As always, the day and training plan workout are listed in bold.
Sunday June 22 (19 weeks until the marathon): 30–40-minute easy pace run
3.6-mile run (38:58): This might have been my first time going for a run the day after a longer run. I had run seven miles the day before but got in a nice day of recovery that afternoon. What I hadn’t done – which I need to incorporate more – is put on my air compression boots after the long run. As I set out for this run on the East River, I felt pretty good, but my legs were a bit heavier than when I typically run. It was nothing that would get in the way of an easy run on another rainy day, but something that reminded me to take better care of my legs afterwards.
Air compression: Besides being a great recovery after a week of running more often than I am used to, putting on my Normatec air compression boots was nice way to sit back and chill on a rainy day. I put them on for 45 minutes and did some reading on my iPad to prepare for a busy work week ahead.
Contrast therapy: Another Sunday at Remedy Place to feed my mental and physical health. Today’s routine consisted of sauna and stretching (14 min), ice bath (1 min), sauna (13 min), ice bath (2 min), sauna (12 min), ice bath (3 min).
Monday June 16: 30-minute cardio + strength training
Strength training (35:00): One of the new layers that this training program has added to my fitness routine are days like this where I start the day with two workouts. Typically, a workout day is either strength training or cardio, but the plan on Mondays calls for both. I started with working on legs and core with a five-minute jump rope warmup.
Swimming (30:00): Last week, my Monday cardio was boxing. Today, I went with 30 minutes of swimming. It used to be that I could work most of my variety into a single week, but while on this plan, I’ll be using Mondays and Wednesdays to mix in my favorite cross training routines.
Sauna (14:00): My morning ended with a 14-minute sauna session where I got in my post-workout stretch.
Tuesday June 17: 5K pace test
5K pace test (29:41): The running group where I got this plan from called off the 5K pace test for its group run in the evening – and ultimately called off the run entirely as the day hit 99 degrees. I got out early in the morning and decided to work in the test myself. Even at 6:45 AM, it was 85 degrees with a heat index of 90. It was really f*&#ing hot! I went out for two laps around the flat reservoir in Central Park at an ambitious pace, but one that I knew I should be able to hit on a perfect day. But this was not a perfect day, and the heat was rough. It was harder to breathe, and it ultimately slowed me down. Still, I did reach my PR for running the reservoir . . .
Contrast therapy: A stop at the gym before work for a stretch in the sauna (18 min) and ice bath (3 min) was a must on this sweltering day in NYC. The walk to the office in the gross heat after a cold plunge was a game-changer.
Wednesday June 18: Cross training or OFF + 15 min strength
Strength training (15:00): At this point, my workouts had been piling up for a few weeks. This was day 18 in a row, and while I didn’t want to take it off entirely, I kept it light – and indoors! I went to my climbing gym and started with this core workout that I had found a while ago on Instagram from former Peloton instructor, Kendall Toole. It’s one of my go-to workouts for a short core-strengthening day.
Climbing (20:00): After the 15 minutes of core work, I wanted to get in the fun part of a day at my climbing gym without going too hard. My pec was irritated, but I figured it wouldn’t be too bad if I kept the bouldering problems easy and focused on using my legs. I knew early on that this was probably a mistake. Even the simplest problems put more strain on my upper body muscles than I should have, and this one aggravated my injury.
Sauna (18:00): After returning home from the climbing gym, I went to the gym in my apartment building to sauna and stretch out the soreness before icing the injury and then applying my favorite CBD balm to it. But it was something that certainly lingered that day and for the next couple afterwards.
Thursday June 19: Four to five-mile easy pace run
5-mile run (53:26): The weather finally cooled off for today’s easy pace run. As I prepared to train for the marathon, my friend advised me that most people run their easy pace days too fast and their fast pace days too slow. I kept that in mind during this run and still probably went a bit too fast. After all, she didn’t say it was easy to avoid that!
Sauna (12:00): I followed the run with a short sauna and stretch, of course.
Friday June 20: Off
Off: The only way to win this day today was to take it off completely. My workout streak went way farther back than just to the beginning of this training plan. In fact, this would be my first day off after 19 straight days and a total of 24 workouts. But not working out doesn’t always mean not going to the gym . . .
Contrast therapy: Before an early day in the office, I got in my usual stretch in the sauna (14 minutes) and a short ice bath (two minutes).
Acupuncture: I already mentioned this one above. By Friday afternoon, my pectoral muscle was in a lot of pain. In fact, it was at its worst when I got to Remedy Place for my acupuncture session. I felt some immediate relief after the session and knew I was on the right track. I’m scheduled to go climbing on July 4, and I need this to recover in time.
Air compression: I finished a quiet Friday evening with 30 minutes of air compression ahead of an ambitious running weekend . . .
Saturday June 21: Seven to nine-mile run
9-mile run (5M (56:17) + 4M (41:14)): Today was a race day! In fact, it was race one of two this weekend, as I signed up for consecutive four-mile races with New York Road Runners. Saturday’s race was the Pride Run, but it was also a long run day. My plan called for seven to nine miles. So far, I find the long run days to be my favorite, so I took on the full nine with a five-mile easy pace warmup to the start of the race. Although I thought I was timing it so that I would just run right into the start of the race, I got there about 20 minutes before my coral began. It was actually a nice break before I went a bit harder during the race. I didn’t go quite as hard as I could have since (1) this was my first time running quite a bit before a race, and (2) I had another race day the following day. Even so, I picked up the pace as I got farther into the race, finishing the last mile in 9:15 (even with a break for water). Overall, it was an amazing running day. It felt like the easiest nine miles I had ever run, and I could have kept going for many more. I really felt the progress after this one!
Contrast therapy: As you know, Saturdays and Sundays are my days for contrast therapy at Remedy Place. This time, I did a 30-minute sauna and 3-minute ice bath at the gym, in lieu of going to Remedy so that I could also squeeze in an afternoon at the movies! I went to see F1 The Movie which was my first time in a movie theatre since before the pandemic. I had no idea the seats are so much more comfortable now! It was not lost on me that I booked the movie on a nine-mile run day, and I took advantage of the calories I burned with this big bucket of popcorn!
Air compression: I ended the day with another relaxing evening in my compression boots as I watched the replay of the real F1 qualifying for the Austrian Grand Prix. I then called it an early evening so I could be fresh for tomorrow’s race which I hoped to run really hard if my body said I could. You’ll just have to wait for the next update to see how that went!
Total miles run per week of training:
Week before training began: 15.2 miles
Week 1: 23 miles
Week 2: 20.7 miles