New perk! Get after it with local recommendations just for you. Discover nearby events, routes out your door, and hidden gems when you sign up for the Local Running Drop.
Editor Nicki Miller (left) is tackling the Boston Marathon as her first 26.2-miler!
No, this isn’t an April Fools’ joke! I found out I could run the Boston Marathon as part of a press trip with the official sports nutrition partner of the marathon, Clif Bar, just a few short weeks ago, and I couldn’t turn down the opportunity. Luckily I had already been running some good miles, but I’ve never run 26.2 before and haven’t run more than 13.1 at a time.
RELATED: How Much Caffeine Is In Your Race Fuel?
I can’t recommend this training strategy become the norm for any runner, but sometimes impulsive race decisions happen. You find the opportunity to do a cool race, and you just make the training and timing work in your favor. Or—your training gets put on pause by a minor injury, illness or the craziness of life, and all of sudden you’re skipping weeks and diving into the highest training mode.
RELATED: 12 Marathon Training Tips for Time-Crunched Runners
I grew up outside of Boston, but it’s never been a dream to run the race. I’m not particularly fast, and since I crossed into my 40s, I don’t find speed work much to my liking. I do really enjoy endurance though—my most extreme accomplishment is a half Ironman.
I’m not in BQ shape, but I figure there are plenty of other charity runners and “regular” people like me, and if they can do it, so can I. So when the invite from Clif Bar arrived, I was all in. While I have access to coaching advice and plenty of training plans through my job, there’s no six-week plan for a marathon, so I’ve cobbled together a plan on my own.
I started by running with some walk breaks to beef up the mileage on my legs for a couple of weeks. Then last week, I adopted a new philosophy: Run every day. I’m usually an every-other-day runner to give my body a little more healing time, so last week was tough, but it also felt good to push my body and discover that it could run everyday. However, this week I chose to revert back to the every-other-day routine and go longer on run days instead of lacing up every day. I started by running the Carlsbad 5000 on Sunday, which offers an all-day 20K—you run a 5K four times, but there are breaks between each that are about 30 to 60 minutes, so you have a lot of extra time on your feet. The total 12.4 miles was a good, long run.
RELATED: 2015 Carlsbad 5000 photos
However, I still haven’t run longer than a half marathon, so I’m planning to do 18 miles on Saturday. Someone suggested a half marathon and then running 5 miles on my own, but then a colleague recommended I run without the support of a race to develop mental toughness. Sounds like that might be a good idea!
Next Wednesday, I’ll follow up with how my training is going. If you want to share your training tips for this compressed schedule, tweet me @nickiontherun!