This year, I took a whole new
approach to training. I decided to only run one marathon later in the year (THE
CHICAGO MARATHON!!!), and spend the rest of the year focusing on two main
things: Becoming a more resilient runner, and running a faster half marathon. I
hoped that the combination of these two things would ultimately result in a
faster marathon.
Building Resilience
It’s no
secret that I’ve struggled with running injuries since I started running. And I
have always felt that it’s holding me back from reaching my potential. But I've never given in to the idea that I would be plagued with injury for the
rest of my running days. Sure, I’m not anatomically, or biomechanically gifted enough
so that I can be one of those people who just goes out and runs every day with
no issues. My kneecaps are tilted too much, my hamstrings are too short, my
left foot over pronates. All adding up to misalignments and imbalances that
result in injury from the repetitive motion of running. But I knew that there
were things I could do to counteract them. So I started 2015 off with a
training plan to do just that. I’m not going to lie, it took dedication and a
lot of time. But I knew that if I focused on it over the winter, I would finally
become a resilient runner, and maybe finally see where my potential lies.
Here’s what a typical week early in
the year looked like (logged in my awesome training journal from my
running-partner-in-crime, Si):
So it came down to this:
Two days a week
- Lower body strength training including traditional heavy lifts like squats and lunges to build strength, and a lot of stability exercises to build up my stabilizing muscles. This included many single-leg exercises to make sure that both sides are equally strong and balanced.
- Plyometrics to build up connective tissue strength
- Physical therapy exercises (prescribed last year to prevent runner’s knee)
Every day
- Hamstring and calf stretches to improve mobility
- Core workout (2 sets of 3 exercises, each targeting a different core muscle group)
- Lower leg foam rolling/deep tissue massage (with roller stick or lacrosse ball) to prevent shin splints.
It sounds kind of insane as I’m typing it out, especially
because I was also running/biking/swimming and upper body strength training on
top of all that every week. But you can accomplish anything if you make it a
priority.
In the spring, I put it all to the
test when I kicked off the training season with a couple of 5Ks. Surprisingly,
I PR’d in the first race (by 2 seconds)! And placed 3rd in my age
group. Apparently I was doing something right with my strength training. The
second 5K, I ran with my little sister, Emily in Nashville. It was her first
ever road race! I loved that I got to share that experience with her. And it
was a total coincidence that we matched that day :) 
Training – The
Struggle Stage
In April I started my half marathon
training plan, I once again followed the FIRST training plan, which you can
tailor to your goal time (see this post for more info on the FIRST plan). I set
the goal of running a 1:45 half marathon (i.e.
to finish under 1:46) because the paces of the training runs would really be pushing my limits. Here’s an
example week from my training journal:
At first, I really struggled to hit the goal paces. Running
5 miles at a 7:50 pace?! I’d only ever run that fast at my peak fitness during
a 10K. The long runs in particular were the most difficult for me; I was
pretty far off from the goal paces. But the struggle stage of my training
definitely helped build my mental resilience. Feeling wiped out only a few
miles in and still being able to push through the rest of the workout is
invaluable mental training that I knew would help on race day. It was toward
the end of this training stage that I ran half marathon #1 of the year.
The Madison Half
Marathon – May 24, 2015
A group of us were running this race
as part of my friend Nicole’s wedding celebrations, and it was her fiancé’s first
ever half marathon! I knew that my time would be nowhere near my goal, or even
my PR because it was still so early in the training cycle, but I wanted to have
fun and challenge myself, especially because it was on a SUPER hilly course.
Part of the
reason why I love racing is because I get to experience so many new places.
Madison is an awesome city, with a great biking and running culture. Maybe it
has something to do with the fact that it’s surrounded by beautiful lakes. Jin
and I made sure to bring our bikes so we could experience that culture
first-hand!
The race on Sunday started off in
the center of Madison by the capitol building, then headed west to run around
the University of Wisconsin. Next we ran through some wooded areas that
engulfed us in beautiful green colors, and then around one of the nearby lakes.
Then it was back downtown to the finish! It sounds quick when I recap it like
that, but let me tell you, this was the hardest half marathon course I’ve ever run
and the final miles felt impossibly long.
As predicted, I didn’t PR, but I
think it was definitely a PR for effort. I’d never felt so wiped out after 13.1
miles. Every time I saw a hill, I told myself not to slow down. At mile 11
there was one REALLY steep one (thanks guys for putting that there at mile 11).
Looking up at the practically 90 degree vertical hill, a bunch of people around
me said “screw this!” and walked up it, but I forced my legs to keep running. A
spectator helped me by running backwards next to me cheering me on the whole
way up!
By the time I was in the final
mile, I had practically nothing left. Running back into the heart of downtown
toward the finish line, I even started feeling a little woozy, which had never
happened to me before. But every run where I push myself to the limit is a run that
will ultimately make me faster, and I treated this race no differently. I ended
up finishing in 1:53 – a time that two years ago was my PR. It’s pretty cool to
think that now I can hit that time at the beginning of my training cycle AND with
all those hills! It was a confidence boost for sure. And here’s my favorite
picture of the happy couple crossing the finish line!
Training – The
Progress Stage
After the Madison Half, I felt
ready to kick my training into high gear and do whatever it took to nail the
training paces. Slowly, but surely over the next few months, I felt myself
improving. There were days where I was amazed at what I was capable of. My
earliest successes were in the speed workouts, which I ran at a local track. The shorter, speedier distances have always seemed to be my strong suit. My 5K times predict marathon times that
are much faster than I can actually hit, meaning my body is built more for
speed than endurance. So I was determined to improve my endurance. My middle
distance tempo runs were the next to improve. These are run at threshold pace
so they are 5 or 6 miles of intense effort. I remember the first day that I
finally felt strong during one of these runs; crushing those 5 miles at 7:50 pace
that I had trouble with before. I felt like I could take on the world!
I continued to get faster over the
next few months. But as you may know from my previous post… my first attempt at
a 1:45 half went horribly. I ended up only running a 10K due to
dehydration. I was heartbroken. But I knew that my failure was due to
circumstance, not because of my fitness. I threw myself back into my training
with renewed determination.
For the most part, my
injury-proofing/resilience-building plan was working. I had no knee, foot, or
joint issues whatsoever! Not even a twinge. But sadly, my war on injury wasn’t
won yet. I spent most of the summer battling shin splints on and off. I tried
everything… massages, stretches, kinesio tape, constant icing, and new shoes
with more shock absorption (hello Hokas!). And while these things did help,
they weren’t fixing the root of the problem so the pain always came back. It
was unbelievably frustrating. But as I said before, I refused to believe there
was nothing I could do about it. So finally, I went to a local running form
clinic and learned that I needed
to increase my cadence and to land farther back on my foot. On all of the following runs, I made the effort to focus on
these form corrections, and it was like magic! I could finally say good-bye to something that I’d struggled with since
high school!
Training – The
On-fire Stage
Once my shin splints were gone, the
last piece of the puzzle finally fell into place: The long runs. I found myself
running 14, 16, and then 17 miles faster than I ever had before. And not only
that, I felt a huge shift in the way that I felt at the end of my long runs. In
the past I’d be able to hold a pretty steady pace for most of the run, but I’d
always die in the last few miles. Now, I was able to hold the pace all the way
until the last mile, and even add a little kick at the end! I call this the
on-fire stage of my training, and it was the perfect time for half marathon #2,
and my final attempt at a 1:45 half.
The City of Lakes
Half Marathon – September 13, 2015
This race
in Minneapolis has a relatively small field, but it’s one of the most popular
among the local running community. My friend Si is one of those locals now, so
we wanted to run this race in preparation for Chicago. I have to agree that the
course is pretty amazing – it makes a figure 8 around two lakes twice so you
constantly have a view of the shimmering blue water to your left. There were
some rolling hills, but it was nothing compared to Madison.
I have to admit, I was pretty
nervous. This was my last chance to reach my goal for the year. Running a 1:45
half just meant that I needed to finish under 1:46. That’s 3 ½ minutes faster
than my previous PR! It doesn’t sound like much, but it’s actually a pretty
significant difference in min/mile pace. Standing at the starting line knowing
that I had to run under an 8:05 pace for 13.1 miles felt like a tall order.
The first half of the race went by
quickly. I was running exactly on pace and enjoying the beautiful scenery.
There was an older man running practically perfect 8 min/mile splits in front
of me so I decided he would be my pacer and I’d just follow him. It felt nice
to not have to worry about my pacing. As soon as I started the second time
around the course though, things got rough. It became a struggle to keep up
with my pacer. Even though I’d just run the route, the second time through, it
seemed like every stretch was 5 times longer and every hill was 5 times steeper.
My pace fell to about 8:10. I could still see my pacer up ahead and I willed
myself to close the gap between us, but it was agony.
By mile 11, I’d reached my low. I
felt like I’d given the race everything that I had already, but I still had to
run 2 more miles! And I couldn’t slow down because my goal was still within
reach. I thought back to all the hard runs I’d been doing in my training. Remember how awful those felt? If you could
push through those, you can push through this. This is where it really counts!
I started repeating my new mantra: “The faster you run, the faster you’re
done.” I wanted more than anything for the pain to be over. I knew from the first time through that right
at the end there would be a big hill, then a nice long downhill to
the finish. I mentally prepared myself to sprint up that hill as fast as I
could, then just sail down to the finish. Looking at my watch, I knew it was
going to be close and every second would matter.
I kicked it into high gear and was
able to finish mile 13 in under 8 minutes. But my watch was already reading
1:45:something. My heart pounding, I sprinted up that beast of a hill and kept
sprinting until I heard the emcee call out my name that I’d finished. Gasping for
air, I looked at my watch, which read 1:46:20. TWENTY SECONDS!! I’d missed it
by twenty seconds. And then I realized, I JUST GOT A HUGE PR!!! Who cares if I
was 20 seconds off, I’d just run 13.1 miles way faster than I ever had before. And
that was the whole point of setting that goal in the first place.
Getting Pumped for
Chicago
After that
huge PR in Minneapolis, I started thinking one thing: Bring it on, Chicago. Not only was that race validation that all
the time and hard work I’d put into training and injury-proofing this year had
been worth it, but it made me believe that I have a really good chance of getting a
PR in Chicago! That was validated further by my 20-miler that I ran
the following weekend.
I ran it an entire 10 minutes
faster than I’d ever run 20 miles before! I was hoping to hold an 8:45 pace for
the whole run, and I CRUSHED it. Running half of them – including the last few
miles – faster than 8:45. I just kept waiting for it to get hard, but it never really
did! I realized, that’s how a long run is supposed to feel. It looks like in my effort to get faster, I’ve
finally made myself into a true endurance runner.
Bring it on, Chicago.
