It's Not the Years, It's the Mileage - birthday marathon training journal

[Herding_Cats]

Yeah, you won't have me slowing you down!

oh please. says the person who purposely makes character and lengthy bathroom stops to wait for me to catch up.

 

[The Expert]

oh please. says the person who purposely makes character and lengthy bathroom stops to wait for me to catch up.

Yeah... "purposely"

 

[avondale]

Always fun to squeeze in a race when you travel!

 

[nancipants]

Garmin Run Coach Week 3 of 7

Technically I started this plan on February 28, but the plan is calling this Week 3, so here I am.

Plan Overview:
Build: February 28 - March 13
Peak: March 14-April 3
Taper: April 4-12
Target Event Day: April 13. I'm planning to just do this around my neighborhood unless I find a local race.

My goal for this plan is 1:10. It all depends on the weather, but I will adjust for T+D as needed and aim for whatever that pace may be.

I'm not sure what I think about this plan yet. I'm using heart rate instead of pace as workout goal for this plan, because I have a really hard time pushing myself above Zone 3. However, when it gives me a "Base" workout, it gives me an estimated distance of 3 miles in 30 minutes. Um, Garmin, I told you my average pace. You KNOW my average pace and associated heart rates. If I could cover 3 miles in 30 minutes, I would not be doing this plan. So TBD on how I care for this plan. If it works, I'll do another one prior to by POT attempt this summer. If not, I'll start researching other plans online.

I won't recap my base runs, only to say that my overall pace has been getting faster, hooray! I've also been running more on the treadmill, mostly because it's easier for me to run continuously. Outside I'm still doing intervals.

I've done two workouts so far, Tempo and Threshold.

March 5, Tempo: Did on the treadmill. 10 minute warm up, 3 x 9 minutes at 150 bpm with 3 minutes rest, 10 minute cool down. Since I was on the treadmill, I'm not sure what the paces were.

March 12, Threshold: 10 minute warm up, 3 X 7 minutes at 157 bpm with 2 minutes rest, 10 minute cool down. My execution score for this was very low because my heart rate was not high enough. But my paces were decent, so I'll have to push myself more next time. I swear, once my heartrate gets to 155 I feel like I'm going to throw up. I know that I won't, and I don't have a problem breathing, but it's a mental block. I think it comes from mostly doing run/walk and never really letting my heart rate get high, even when I'm running faster. Hence trying to run more continuously on the treadmill.

Anyway, interval 1 was .66 miles or 10:40 pace. I did 1 min/30 sections run/walk.
Interval 2 was .64 miles or 10:52 pace. I did :40/:30 run/walk.
Interval 3 was .64 miles or 10:59 pace. I did :30/:30 run/walk.

Next time, I'm going to start with :45/:30 and see how that works.

I have also kept up with strength training. I do lower body on Mondays, core on Wednesdays, and upper body on Fridays. It's not super intense but I've kept up with it for a few weeks and average between 20-30 minutes per session. The only way I force myself to do this is before bed while watching TV. This better make me faster because I am not a fan of strength training, LOL.

My current Garmin race predictor says 1:06:56. I think this is a generous estimate, but it keeps trending downward, which is all I care about!

There is a 10k this weekend in Winter Park, and I'm SO tempted to try it, because YOLO. But the temperatures are trending up in the morning, and it would be in the mid-upper 60s during the race, which isn't ideal to push myself. But I might go anyway. I'll have to decide tomorrow.



Upcoming Races:

July - 10k POT attempt in Everett, Washington (if I don't get 1:08, I'll try again in the fall)
September - Margaritaville 5k (may upgrade to the 10k depending on what the course looks like)
December - Orlando Half Marathon (it was a great training race for the marathon and I'd love to try for another PR)
January 2026 - Disney 5k and Marathon (can I call this the Happy challenge, too?)

 

[avondale]

My execution score for this was very low because my heart rate was not high enough.

Are you using a wrist-based heart rate monitor? They are often quite slow to react to changes in HR. It can take several minutes or more for the HR that the watch detects to get up to what your HR actually is. I think this depends a bit on the person (maybe their circulation?) and the conditions (when it's cold, your wrist HR might never get up there; although you don't live where it gets cold).

At any rate, I bet you were in the range you wanted but the wrist monitor hadn't caught up yet. I also train by HR as my "effort level" and I think that can be very good. But you have to start recognizing the "perceived exertion" signs of when you're in particular effort ranges: how fast are you breathing? how are your muscles burning? etc. That can help when the HR monitor can't keep up.

 

[WillRunForPizza]

Definitely agree with everything @avondale said. Having both a pace and a HR range in mind can be helpful for gauging effort, because you'll see the pace before you see the corresponding HR.

I am not entirely sure how run/walk would affect this, however, since your HR/effort would drop during the walk intervals. So it might take some experimentation.

 

[avondale]

I am not entirely sure how run/walk would affect this, however, since your HR/effort would drop during the walk intervals. So it might take some experimentation.

Good point! Obviously your HR will increase during the running intervals and decrease during the walking intervals, but that probably means your watch will have even more trouble "keeping up".

 

[nancipants]

Me: We really need to save money.

Crowned Athletics: How about your favorite sports bras in some pastel colors?

 

[Herding_Cats]

Me: We really need to save money.

Crowned Athletics: How about your favorite sports bras in some pastel colors?

 

[The Expert]

Me: We really need to save money.

Crowned Athletics: How about your favorite sports bras in some pastel colors?

Not a pastel girl, even if that green is giving Tink vibes.