January 2016 –
All About LA!
Soon after my last race in October 2015, the UTMX 100k, I
decided that the LA Marathon was going to be my next race and possibly my “A”
race for 2016. I told my coach, Chris
Vargo, that I really wanted to break 3 hours and after a 3:01 at a tough Boston
course in April, I felt my body was up for the challenge. However, after months of mountain running
with basically no speed work, I had a lot of work to do. Fortunately, I had time on my side.
After a week off in mid-October, the calendar was set for
mainly street running. Chris started the
ramp up easy but intense. 6 days per
week filled with Tempos, Fartleks, Hill Repeats, Progressions, easy miles, and
long runs. In November I averaged 55
miles per week and December 62 miles.
The long runs were starting to get looonnnggg with tempo workouts (i.e.,
easy 10 miles, 8 miles at goal marathon pace, 2 miles easy, etc.) and
progression type workouts scattered in between.
I took a bit of a break when my brother-in-law and
sister-in-law came into town over the holidays.
I ditched the roads and headed to the mountains. Guy, Natalia, and I ran Brown, Echo, and
Inspiration Point multiple times and Guy and I had a chance to run from Chantry
to Lake Avenue (part of the AC100 course) the week before Christmas. It was so nice to be in the mountains again
after 2 months of solid road training.
However, the respite didn’t last long. Starting December 30th through the
end of January, I will have taken only 3 days off. 62 miles per week in December jumped to 75
miles a week in January. Besides the
workout type runs, I’ve had a few double’s and multiple 20+ mile long runs with
23 miles being the longest and I’ve done that twice. January will be the most miles I have ever
run in a month – over 300! (I ran less
miles training for AC100 miler in August)
With the LA Marathon 3 weeks away, I’m feeling
anxious. My goal of 2:55 (6:42 per mile)
feels lofty but attainable. I’ve
definitely put in the time and I’ve done the work but now I need to focus on
the mental side. I know it’s going to
hurt, that’s a given, but do I have what it takes to fight through? You would think that after completing a 100
miler and a few 100k’s, running a marathon would be easy. 26.2 at an easy pace is not difficult but
trying to run at such a high intensity for such a long time is going to be the
real challenge.
Whatever happens on Valentine’s Day, I know that I will have given my all. I can’t wait…
