Marine Corps Marathon Training Recap - Week 5

This week was once again little crazy in the world, but I did get in some good training for the Marine Corps Marathon. California put many industries back a "phase" in reopening after COVID-19 and on Friday it was announced that California schools would not be allowed to reopen in person if they were within counties that are on the "watch list."

These setbacks, along with the Chicago Marathon getting cancelled this week, makes an in person race at Marine Corps Marathon seem even less likely in October. However, things seem to change daily; so in that sense, who knows what life will look like come October? I am continuing to stick to my plan and train for the marathon as long as I am healthy.

I had a great week of training and my little "niggles" have gone away. Yay! I have been doing a lot of extra foam rolling and stretching. I have also been trying my best to keep up on my strength training. I don't do much in regard to strength training, but I do a few specific exercises to work on weaknesses that I have and attempt to correct imbalances.

My coach's main goal for my training this week was to continue to build my mileage. Most of my runs where at an easy pace, but a little longer than the previous week. I did get back on the track again one day this week to do 12x 200m with goal pace of :38 per 200m. I was able to run all the 200's at :36 or below and it was the first track workout I had in over a month that I felt great the whole time. It was just one of those workouts where everything "clicked" which is a great feeling. Best of all the workout did not leave me feeling dead and I still felt good on my run the next day. A sign of forward progress.

I ended the week today with my long run. My coach told me to shoot for 2 1/2 hours, but cut it shorter if I needed to. I felt good on the run even though it got pretty warm during the last hour. I was able to keep my pace at about 7:30/mi and hit 20 miles just before 2 1/2 hours. I was super happy when I saw my watch hit 20 miles because I knew I wouldn't be able end the run at 19.something miles, I would have kept going until I hit 20 miles. There is something about hitting that 20 miles that makes you feel an extra sense of accomplishment. My long run put my total weekly mileage at 57.5 miles. I also swam just over 6,000 yards this week.

This coming week I am going to keep plugging away at building my mileage while keeping my body healthy and maybe I will hit 60 miles.

Last week, I forgot to mention the most exciting running news I have had in awhile. I registered for the Virtual Boston Marathon!! The Virtual Boston Marathon is less than 50 days away and I am so excited to be a part of this race. I never thought I would want to run a solo marathon, but when the Virtual Boston option became available, I immediately knew I wanted to participate. So far, runners from 86 countries, all 50 U.S. states, and six territories have registered for the Virtual Boston Marathon. It is a wonderful way for the running community to come together during this time, even though we are apart. I have already had some many conversations with other participants over DM's encouraging one another as we train. I even met two local runners who are also training for the Virtual Boston Marathon. I was running in a neighborhood and I came along side two runners that I had seen on a lot on my runs in the last few weeks. I asked them if they were training for anything in particular and they said they were training for Boston too. How fun is that? Even though it is far different of an in person event, I do think it is brining the running community together and giving many runners a goal when we need it most.

Are any of you training for the Virtual Boston Marathon? Let me know in the comments. Has anyone ran a solo 26.2? What is some advice you have?

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