Marathon Training plan #2 complete

Graph of average speed for my runs with an Excel generated trendline.

When I launched this new blog a few days ago, I mentioned on social media that it really did not make sense since I barely have time to get done the things I'm already doing, so adding a new blog may not be the smartest move. In any case, wanted to squeeze in a quick post before the weekend as I will be rather busy running the Foot Leveler's Blue Ridge Marathon. At this point, I have completed my marathon training plan for this marathon and just wanted to provide a quick recap.

The plan started back on January 3rd as I followed a 16-week plan. It was structured on an intermediate plan from Jeff Gaudette and RunnersConnect. I got hooked up with Gaudette via his plans in the Runkeeper app. Unfortunately, Runkeeper made some changes to their app so I could not use his plans any longer. I had used them previously for a 10K in March 2016 and then my first half marathon in August 2016. That actually turned out for the best as after some research, I found resources he provides on the web and was able to use those to craft a plan for the Rocket City Marathon I did in December 2016.


For this go round I had to do much more customization work from his template plans. One of the things I discovered during the first marathon training plan was that by halfway through the plan, my times had improved so much that I was regularly exceeding the target paces. For this marathon I made some tweaks to stretch my target paces as the plan progressed. Not much, but enough to try to keep all the buzzing of the Garmin at bay from exceeding target.

I did miss a couple sessions early in the plan due to some heavy snow and then I was sick for a few days. Once I got past that, I managed to hit every single run since then, wrapping up on Wednesday, 4/19 with a short, easy 4 mile run. Over the course of the training plan, I logged 553 miles during 65 running sessions. For the first month or so, I was also doing some cross-training at the gym - swimming and weight-lifting. My hope was to improve leg strength and overall fitness since this marathon has a whopping 7400 ft of elevation change.

I also had to spend some time on the treadmill for several sessions when I developed some bursitis in my hip. Using the treadmill helped me control the inclines (i.e. I could keep it a flat course) since those really irritated my hip when running. It did not hurt that those sessions came during the winter months so I was able to avoid running in freezing temps, which I really do not like to do.

This plan was also marked by an injury to my hamstring that I pulled one day during a run. Not enough to stop me, but it was painful for about 10 days. And in these last couple weeks, I have a pain in my right heel - possibly plantar fasciitis, a problem I've dealt with in the past. I don't think that will be enough to stop me from completing the marathon though.

As I get ready to run this weekend, I feel pretty good about where I am and the result of my training. When I ran the Rocket City Marathon, I ended up averaging 9:59 per mile. My target for this marathon was predicated on a 6 percent improvement, which would put me at around a 4:05 time. If I were going to be running a flat course, I'm pretty sure I would be able to hit that no problem. However, I'm just not sure what the elevation changes for the Blue Ridge Marathon may do to my pace. I'm not even sure I'll be able to set a new PR. Hopefully, I'll make that happen since 2 PRs over the course of 3 marathons in 2017 is a personal goal of mine and if I don't hit a PR with this one, the pressure will be on for the next two.