Boston Marathon training {Week 0}

Today starts Boston Marathon training for me! I’ve been super excited for this day since I qualified again at the Copenhagen Marathon in May. I’m even more excited because I’m fresh off the heels of a breakthrough half marathon PR.



On Training

I guess I should set intentions for this new season of marathon training since that’s what social media tells me I need to do. Lolz.

I’ll be following the Hanson marathon advanced plan again. I’ll likely add some Goal Marathon pace miles into my long runs too. I’ll also be adding cycling (and swimming eventually) in each week because I’ve got another big goal post Boston- a Triathlon!

I’ll up my strength training- Mondays and Wednesdays are usually arm/core days, Tuesday’s and Thursday’s post speed/tempo are leg days. Trashing my legs after hard workouts made my half PR achievable.


Tuesday Uniform FTW. Only worn for speed work

On Goals

It was surprisingly difficult to determine a time goal to train for. Sure- I put my recent half time into a running calculator online and it said I could run a 3:20- but that is at my current fitness level. I plan on being fitter 4.5 months from now- and 3:20 didn’t excite me much. (Current PR 3:28) I looked at training paces for something more aggressive and decided on a 3:1x. Yes, Ambiguous to everyone but me since I know what that “x” represents. Some things I need to keep to myself.

Ideally I’d like to set some new PRs in 2018, but with marathon and eventually triathlon training, I know I won’t be as prepared to PR a 5k because, long distance training. Dropping my half time further would be doable. Getting closer to breaking 1:30 is top of my list for a half this spring.

On Mindset

Social media tells me I need motivation and inspiration to run. What a load of bull shit. If I only ran when I was “inspired” or “motivated” I’d run half of what I do now. I run because I genuinely enjoy it. And on the days I’d rather sit on the couch, I think about my goals and how important they are for me and then I go run. Chasing goals and enjoying running is internal for me. External stuff like motivation or inspiration set you up for extreme failure.



Other stuff

I was at my lowest race weight for the half and it paid off. For this cycle I need to lose 10lbs (from my fluffy weight this morning), and would like to cut about 4-5% body fat. The whole “you can’t out exercise a bad diet” is 100% true. I don’t eat bad food- no junk food here, but I eat too much food (gotten better about bingeing on food) and can cut back on beer. I’m not as concerned now- 6 weeks pre Boston I’ll start dialing in my food intake more.

The end of this rambling post

I’m so excited to train for Boston again! I really wanted a second go since last year’s race was an inferno. It’s also nice having something to look forward to during the Chicago winter.

126 days to go!

Race schedule :

•F^3 half- pending weather

•Potential half in a tropical location

•March Madness half- if I remember to register on 12/31

•Shamrock shuffle 8k

•Boston Marathon


-Xaarlin