1. I NEVER want to spend that much time on a marathon course ever again.
2. I am totally capable of achieving faster times. I've had a goal of going sub-5 in the marathon for years and that is VERY attainable for me.
3. I am 100% ready to put in the work to get faster and become a better runner.
I am thankful that I had such a challenging time at the Newport Marathon. It sounds silly to say but it's totally true. I feel like if I had a similar experience to some of my previous marathons, I would be approaching my training for New Orleans and LA in the spring the same way I always do - lazily. I feel like in all of my past training cycles I would do less than the bare minimum. I would skip runs and feel kinda guilty, but not really. I would never strength train. I would never stretch. And guess what that's gotten me? Feeling nauseous for 20 miles at the Newport Marathon and a 6:01:50 finish. And I'm really tired of feeling so terrible during these long races. I can't do it anymore!
So, with the kick off of another 16-week training season (which ~technically~ started yesterday, but I got a jump start over the weekend), I'm feeling more motivated than I ever have to put in the work and train my butt off for a sub-5. New Orleans is so flat and below sea level, so it's a great opportunity to PR (they even talk about it on their website!). If I can achieve the sub-5 goal on any course, NOLA is a great option to do that. Los Angeles, which is just under a month after NOLA, is a bit hillier, but there are some significant down hill sections and ultimately ends up being around a 465 foot drop from start to finish. Still a good course to try and achieve a PR on as well!
Here are the plans I'm following for this cycle:
RW's Ultimate 16-week marathon training plan for runners looking to run sub-5.00
16-week strength training program for marathon runners
I'll be updating my progress here and on my Instagram stories - I've created a #Sub5orBust highlight on my page so you can keep up with my past workouts as well. I'm really motivated to tackle these next two marathons head on and finally push myself to be a better runner. 💪
No comments:
Post a Comment