Tag Archives: Chicago Marathon

Training Recap: Weeks 1 -3

Erica, Marathon, , ,

I always get really motivated at work that the next morning is going to be the day I wake up early and run. And then morning comes and I just sleep in instead. That happened for 12 of the 13 running days for the first three weeks of training.

Week 1: 0 Miles out of 7 Miles

Week 2: 0 Miles out of 15 Miles

Week 3: 3 Miles out of 21 Miles

The one day I did manage to run, I was still short one mile due to google maps leading me to the wrong meeting location. It was a planned easy run while I build up mileage and I kept my heart rate consistent, but it is still higher than the Maffetone 180 Formula plan.

Wish me luck on Week 4!

 

 

Chicago Marathon Training & Bet

Erica, Marathon, Running, Training, , ,

After a terrible 2016 racing year, I have come to realize that I can only slack off on training plans so much and still improve my marathon times. I have some big goals for the 2017-2018 Marathon Season (Aug-July) and if I want to obtain those goals, I need to get serious.

I am planning to run the Chicago Marathon, the New York City Marathon, the Walt Disney World Marathon and the Los Angeles Marathon this coming year. Right now I only have one goal in mind, run a sub-5 hour marathon at the Chicago Marathon. Why? Well, over Memorial Day Weekend my parents visited and out of this visit came a true bet. Not a traditional Kolsrud Challenge, a real bet. So real, that I wrote up a contract for my Dad and I to email sign. The terms, if I run a sub-5 hour marathon in Chicago I get $1000.00 and if I don’t, I pay my dad $500.00.  It isn’t all about the money, I also want a PR (personal record) real bad and where better than Chicago, the setting of my last PR in 2015 (5:27).

bet

I need to drop 27 minutes off my currently best marathon time and it has proven harder than imagined. I need to really tighten up on my bad eating habits, good bye McDonald’s, and focus on fueling the body with the right foods. The other factor, is the training plan. I usually find something online and follow it 50% of the time. This won’t work. Over the spring, I had researched a few plans and had an idea of what I wanted to do. I am doing a hybrid of two plans, the Hanson Marathon Method and the Maffetone M.A.F. Test. I will be aiming for my easy runs to all be at the M.A.F. test heart rate. This will allow me to prevent injury and see where my fitness is at so I can see if the sub-5 is achievable.

hanson

Image via Amazon.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have enlisted my good friend Lauren and some co-workers to try and keep me accountable. To help even further, I will be posting what workouts I do each week and every so often what my race pace will be based on those workouts. I need the online accountability as my training should have started the week of June 6th and I have yet to run. But here we are and tomorrow is Day 1!

Wish me luck!

 

Erica

 

*Book images via Amazon.com