2012 Goal - Seattle Rock 'n' Roll Marathon
I finally did it, I signed up for my next marathon!
I set running my second marathon as a goal for 2012, and I'm happy to have decided on the Seattle Rock 'n' Roll Marathon on June 23. There are a few reasons I decided on this one, the first being that I've always wanted to visit Seattle - living on the West coast now makes it that much easier. It's also in the same time zone (no feeling like I'm getting up at 3 am.) and on a Saturday (less anxiety time.) I've been wanting to do a Rock 'n' Roll race too, so that'll be nice and hopefully the bands will occupy me a bit. The final reason to do this race is timing; I'll be running the Big Sur 21-miler and using it as a training run for Seattle.
Originally, I anticipated doing a fall marathon but doing it earlier in the year will be great. Then I can move onto my second goal, training for a triathlon, for late summer and/or fall.
I had a few concerns with ramping up mileage for Big Sur and then staying in good shape for the marathon, mainly because of the pes anserine bursitis I've been dealing with off and on over the past few months. However, I put together a training plan based on Hal Higdon's Marathon plan that I feel good about. My big hesitation was what to do with the extra weeks in between hitting the 21-mile run and the marathon, but after some reading I decided to shoot for 2 more long runs after Big Sur - every third week. Those runs will likely be 17-18 miles and 20 miles depending on how everything goes.
I did a lot of searching and reading about running longer than 20 miles prior to a marathon, and most articles suggest that it's too hard on the body and not necessary. For my first marathon I did two 20-milers, although it's hard to base anything on that race because I had such a tough day.
Does anyone else out there have experience with going longer than 20 miles pre-marathon? How did it work out? Would you suggest it?
I'd love to have your thoughts in the comments.
I set running my second marathon as a goal for 2012, and I'm happy to have decided on the Seattle Rock 'n' Roll Marathon on June 23. There are a few reasons I decided on this one, the first being that I've always wanted to visit Seattle - living on the West coast now makes it that much easier. It's also in the same time zone (no feeling like I'm getting up at 3 am.) and on a Saturday (less anxiety time.) I've been wanting to do a Rock 'n' Roll race too, so that'll be nice and hopefully the bands will occupy me a bit. The final reason to do this race is timing; I'll be running the Big Sur 21-miler and using it as a training run for Seattle.
Originally, I anticipated doing a fall marathon but doing it earlier in the year will be great. Then I can move onto my second goal, training for a triathlon, for late summer and/or fall.
I had a few concerns with ramping up mileage for Big Sur and then staying in good shape for the marathon, mainly because of the pes anserine bursitis I've been dealing with off and on over the past few months. However, I put together a training plan based on Hal Higdon's Marathon plan that I feel good about. My big hesitation was what to do with the extra weeks in between hitting the 21-mile run and the marathon, but after some reading I decided to shoot for 2 more long runs after Big Sur - every third week. Those runs will likely be 17-18 miles and 20 miles depending on how everything goes.
I did a lot of searching and reading about running longer than 20 miles prior to a marathon, and most articles suggest that it's too hard on the body and not necessary. For my first marathon I did two 20-milers, although it's hard to base anything on that race because I had such a tough day.
Does anyone else out there have experience with going longer than 20 miles pre-marathon? How did it work out? Would you suggest it?
I'd love to have your thoughts in the comments.
Hi! I found you on Running with Sass! Funny - I live in Seattle! Rock n Roll races are fun!
ReplyDeleteAs to the training -some really hard-core runners will tell you to do more, but the other thing you can do is doubles. I have not done it yet. Most I have done is 20. I think its a good idea to keep your mileage 16-20 for those weeks and a 3rd week cutback a bit is good. Doubles is running long saturday then running maybe 10 or so sunday. Or try shooting for half the distance of Saturdays run. This is one of my goals - to get to running that extra day!
Thanks for the ideas, very helpful. Also glad we found each other via the friends post on Running with Sass. :)
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on signing up for your second marathon! I'm hopefully running my first full marathon this year so I am definitely not one to offer any long distance running advice. From most of the blogs I read I would say that around 20 (give or take a couple depending on how they are feeling) is the norm for a long pre-marathon run.
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