Latest / The Endurance Athlete Journey / Episode 80: Road to Grandma's Marathon- The Marathon is the Journey, Not the Destination

Transcript

Episode 80: Road to Grandma's Marathon- The Marathon is the Journey, Not the Destination · The Endurance Athlete Journey

• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: Hello, hello.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: Today I am um gonna actually break it up into two different sections.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: I wanna do a little bit of a review of how my marathon training is is going so far.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I was just trying to look at training peaks because that's where I keep all of my training for the most part.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I have everything in there, so it just kind of prompts me to remember the workouts that I did so that when I am talking about my last two weeks, I can kind of refer to training peaks a little bit to kind of see what's in there so I can remember.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: What I will say is that I think the last time I recorded and put the episode out was I it was on St.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: Patrick's Day, so March 17th.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: And that particular week after that was a little bit of a struggle for me.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: My son typically goes to school four to five days a week, and that week was spring break.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: So it just meant that you know he was with me a little bit more than usual.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: He had like Monday and Wednesday, he had he was home with me, he didn't have school.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: He had a spring break camp, like a camp Tuesday and Thursday, so that I could work.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: But because he also didn't take the bus like he usually does Tuesday and Thursday, and then on Friday I had to work, so I actually had to work quite a bit that week, it really made training a little bit more challenging.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: So I think I've mentioned before that I'm pretty lucky with my schedule.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: It's fairly flexible.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: I have some occasional days that I work at a hospital just to kind of get some clinical skills, but um a lot of days, like when he's at school, I have some flexibility and then the two days a week he usually rides the bus.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: He gets on really early, so it's a little bit tough, but he rides a bus at like 6.30 in the morning, which and school starts at 7.20, which I think is a little bit honestly too early, but um, it is what it is.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: If I pick him up after school, it's at like 2.20, which is a really weird time.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: So sometimes he does um like an art class or after school program, and sometimes I pick him up right after school, but that's I guess just a little bit of information about that schedule.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: But this particular week where he wasn't in school and he wasn't riding the bus, I had to be a little bit more, I guess the word would be creative or not so flexible with my schedule and when I ran.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: So Tuesday, because he was in the camp thing, the the spring break camp, I did have an opportunity to do a workout, but I had such a busy day that day because I was trying to load up everything into my schedule to work that day that I had to like break up my runs into a few different runs.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: I had to kind of break up the workout a little bit.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like that day was maybe like a windy, a weird windy day, and I don't love running in the wind.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: I will do it if it's like slightly windy, but if it's like really windy, I just run on my treadmill, kind of give up when it comes to the wind because it really irritates me.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: And that particular m day I did like a treadmill workout, but I had to, I literally had to fit it in with an hour's time.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: I believe like I finished one of my calls, literally like had my workout stuff on, threw on my shoes, and just like jumped on the treadmill and ran like it was a 53 or 54 minute workout.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: So I literally did the workout, got it ready, and then sat down again for more calls.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: Like I don't generally love to do that.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: I that is not ideal.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: I don't recommend that for my people I coach.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: I generally recommend doing some sort of like mobility, like warm-up activation drills, something to kind of get ready, then do the workout, and then have some time to like re-you stretch and you know, maybe just kind of cool down a little bit more, eat.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: I think I pre-made a smoothie that morning, so I literally finished the workout, drank a bunch of smoothie, and then had to jump right back into work.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: So that was that kind of day.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: I was just trying to fit everything in.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: And then later on, when I was done with work, I did another three or four mile run.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um with I was gonna try to do like another part of the workout.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: I was tired after working all day, so I ended up just kind of going out and running outside and um kind of picking up the pace a little bit, but not doing what I would is that had exactly planned, and that's okay sometimes.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um just happened to be that I was really tired that day.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: And then Wednesday I had to my son, so I actually ran on the treadmill while he kind of hung out because it was a beautiful day.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: It was like warm, really warm here, like kind of hot, and it was beautiful in the morning, but I can't, he's six years old, so I can't like leave him and go to run outside.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: So I had to do that on my treadmill like four miles easy, and then I did a strength workout, kind of a workout with him.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes I incorporate my son into my workouts or have him do the workout with me, which is honestly a lot less efficient, but it's better than having him watch videos while I do all of this and you know, kind of have that.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want him to have like so much screen time.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: Plus, he enjoys doing the workouts with me.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: So I think that's what happened that day, and then kind of spent the rest of the day with my son.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: And then Thursday I had to work at the hospital that day.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: So I was going to do my workout after work.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: And when I got out at probably like 4 30 and started my run, I think about 4 45, it was already nearly 90 degrees out.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, maybe like 85.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: And it was like this hot wind, like I call it an oven wind of like that dry heat.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: It's not a cool, like comforting, like cooling down type of wind.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's like the kind of wind that just heats you up even more.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what the day was like.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: And and this was March 18th.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: So a little bit concerning.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: It already felt like August when I, you know, like that's typically what I'm running into and issues I have running in the heat in August.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: So I had a my workout that day was like two mile, it was a two-mile warm-up with some strides, and then eight by one K at about 95% five case.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: I think it was supposed to be like 620 pace or 630, something like that.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: And then a cool down.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that workout did not go very well.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: I I was like, it's hot out, so I'm gonna kind of slow down.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: That first rep was maybe a 645 pace.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then it and then I sort of started the second rep outright and and then it kind of slowed down, and then I think I did four of those 1K, four or five of those 1K repetitions, and I was toast.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: Like the heat, I it's like usually in the spring, we have like a slow progression to the warmth, and we'll be already have like occasionally some warmer days that are maybe in the 70s and low 80s.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: I it was just being like punched in the face by summer in my March.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: And so that did not go well.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: I I finished that.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't do all of the reps.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: I struggled big time.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: I even tried to run back to my car to get water and make sure I was hydrating, and even then, I just felt like if I'd kept pushing myself, I would have had heat strokes.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: I did go home and do like a little bit of an arm workout, you know, after kind of getting dinner ready and all that.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: And then I was gonna try to do the workout or some of it, some sort of workout the next day to make up for it.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: And I had to get up real early because again, I had to work at the hospital and my husband was home that day.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: So I had to wake up early and try to go out and run.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: And my body was not having it.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't just not gonna work out.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: So this is just kind of one of those examples of in the marathon.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: It's I feel like, first of all, life things can definitely make it harder to feel great.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: Like when we're not, when we have stress and things come from outside, or we're trying to manage more because maybe I was trying to manage having my son home with me, plus like the days I was working, I was, you know, especially going into the hospital, just more driving.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: It's a little more stressful.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: You know, Tuesday was a loaded day with lots of video consults and trying to fit in my run.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: I just think by then that hot day on Thursday that just I just couldn't, I just wasn't prepared for.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: I think just by Friday, I was like toast.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I just was trying to do too much, even though that's way less than what I normally do.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_00: Like volume-wise, because I had actually taken Monday the 16th completely off.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, volume-wise, the those three days, you know, Tuesday through Thursday wasn't that much.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: But there was like all these factors kind of playing into it.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: And so by that Friday day, I just tried to go out and do my workout, and it was, it just wasn't gonna happen for me.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: So I had to, after trying a few more, a few reps, I was gonna do maybe another few K like eight, one K's and just try to see if I could kind of make that workout that was supposed to be do done Thursday and to like break it up into maybe like two workouts, it just wasn't happening.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: So I had to just kind of like accept that and just finish out.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: I actually ended up doing less mileage than I was supposed to do.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: But you know, sometimes it's just so important for us to listen to our bodies and actually get when we get out there, if like especially for me, I was like, okay, I'm not feeling great on the warmup.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: Let's see.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes I'll like j jump into it, I'll feel better, I'll kind of like bounce it back.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: But for me, like that point by the time I started the first rep, I just knew like my body was tight, I was tired.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I tried to finish it out, tried to do another rep, and it just wasn't happening.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: So I had to give up.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: I just kind of ran the rest of the way easy and did maybe one or two miles less than I was hoping to do that day, and that's okay.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: It just happens, like you know, and so again, just an example of when you just have to accept that.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes you have to know when it's okay to push through, and maybe you do that at a lower pace at a pace that's a little bit easier, or you adjust your pace expectations, and or you just have to know when the body, your body is just not gonna be able to perform that day, and you maybe be best served to just take it easy.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I honestly think that the heat from Thursday just had a bigger impact on me than I was um thinking, you know, and it again, it's like I feel like I forget about how the heat impacts me every year, and then when it gets hot, it it like especially when I'm trying to adjust to it, it just really gets me.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, I had it, it makes sense that I didn't feel that great on Friday.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: But then luckily Saturday I did feel better, so I did do kind of a progression run where I sort of started out really easy and then progressed to like a little bit of harder in the middle.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: I did 28 minutes of like one minute at 5k effort, night or at a little bit slower than 5k effort, three minutes moderate.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: So it was like kind of doing like a moderate pace with some little surges in it for 28 minutes, and then I tried to, for the last 10 minutes or so, push the pace close to my marathon goal pace or a little bit around that, you know, effort, anyways.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: That would be equivalent to my marathon goal pace.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: I actually felt pretty good that day, so it was nice after kind of struggling for a few days to, and that's kind of an example of where I took it easy Friday.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: I was able to do something, it wasn't like a full workout, but it was it was something that was, you know, had a little bit of work in it.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: It I got something out of it, and it was just kind of redeemed me a little bit from not feeling so good the other two days.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: And even in that day, I have been adding some plyometrics.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_00: So I did actually some box jumps, drop jumps, dumbbell jumping lunges, isometric calf raises, and some uh kettlebell swings.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: Not too many reps.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: I don't like to do a ton of volume.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: It was probably like four times three box jumps, drop jumps, and maybe uh I think I did like six dumbbell jumping lunges on each leg and did that a few times through, did like three isometric calf raises where I hold the calf raise for 20 to 30 seconds.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: I did that actually before my workout.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: So I've been trying to implement a little bit more of those plyometrics into the equation, especially now because I haven't been doing CrossFit as much.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: So that that seems when I was doing CrossFit, a lot of those things were like box jumps and things are kind of built into the workouts.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: Now I don't have that, I'm not doing that, so I try to build that into my days, and sometimes I'll do those before the workouts because I found that that actually kind of helps wake up my muscles, almost like activate my muscles, and I feel better sometimes on my workouts if I do that plyometrics beforehand.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: So it just works for me.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know, you know, if I would advise that for everybody.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_00: And then the Sunday was like a longer run, like 13 miles, no, nothing, not anything built in there, just kind of thir 13 at like a moderate pace.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: And then I actually did some deadlifts, um, heavy deadlifts, then some single leg deadlifts, sort of as a accessory movement, Bulgarian split squats, and some hip thrusts there on that day, in addition to the long run.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_00: And then Monday was a recovery.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: So last week, 23rd, Monday was recovery.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um I have a I had a half marathon on Sunday.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_00: And I so the week before, because of everything going on, I wasn't able to get like what I would normally want to get for volume.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: Usually I like to do a two or three or three or four week ramp up and then a down week, but I had to kind of take an easier week because I had theo more and just wasn't able to run as much.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: I wasn't really able to do like another like low-key week.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_00: And so, in order to be at least somewhat rested for that half marathon, I had to really pull a lot of put a lot of volume in the early part of my week.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_00: And so, you know, I don't generally always recommend doing that because you run the risk of just being like overly tired and obviously injury when you sort of like load volume all into like a few days.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: But I've done this before and I'm comfortable doing it.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: I know, I know that sometimes it can help me if I have a race or something that I don't want to reduce my volume or do a full taper for.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_00: This just does has worked for me in the past.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: And so what I ended up doing is doing um on Tuesday a threshold workout.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_00: So it was actually five by 2k at so again, it was actually another really warm day.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_00: I think, and I I when I managed my schedule about a month before this, I was thinking, oh, it's March.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_00: Like at noon, it's gonna be warm, but not, you know, it's not gonna be so cold in the morning.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_00: It's gonna be nice and warm and pleasant at noon.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I didn't anticipate we were gonna have like a major heat wave for like the last couple weeks, and it was already like 80 degrees, maybe 70.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_00: I think it was probably 75 at least by the time I started at noon on that day.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: And so I had to do a little bit of an adjustment of my pace expectations.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_00: I don't have it written down what the pace goal was supposed to be, but I think it was supposed to be right around marathon pace, maybe a little bit slower.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: It was supposed to be a warm-up, a little bit, a few strides, and then two kilometers.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, a little slower than marathon pace, and then easy, a little easy jog, and then I was gonna do that five times.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_00: I did again my plyometrics before that workout, did that felt pretty good, although it was really warm.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: So I did bring water, a handheld water with me.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_00: I actually had a gel.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: I found that, you know, this workout was a 10-mile workout, so it took me about an hour 22.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_00: And um I found that in those hard workouts, I'll often take a gel with me and have it midway.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_00: So even though it's not quite that 90 minutes where it's like, oh, you need a gel, you need to start taking in carbs.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: I have found that I perform better if I take that gel midway through a workout like that, even if it's less than 90 minutes because it is higher intensity, so my glycogen is running out quicker.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_00: And then I also find when I do that and then more immediately take in carbs afterwards.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: So like I took in, I I really like them.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: Some people probably find these too sweet, but I like those maple syrup gels.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: I think I just like grew up in Vermont and have some sort of affinity for maple syrup.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know, really like it.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_00: Like a maple syrup fiend.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_00: So like I'll take I took that midway and it just like really helped me like feel good all throughout the whole workout.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_00: And then I come home and I eat carbs more immediately.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: I think I think I had like a sweet potato that day.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_00: I'll do like sweet potatoes.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes I'll do like a smoothie with bananas and fruit and and protein, but I more immediately have the carbs, and then I just feel like that really helps me recover.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: So even taking the carbs in during the workout, even if it's a shorter workout, actually helps recover even better for like the next day.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_00: And so I had two back-to-back workouts.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_00: I was gonna do kind of a double threshold day, but I just felt like that was gonna be too much.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_00: I had a pretty busy workday.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_00: I've done that in the past.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_00: It's hard, it really depletes me.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_00: So rather than do two workouts in one day, I did two back-to-back harder workouts.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_00: Each one of them wasn't extremely hard.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_00: So the Tuesday one was a little bit slower than marathon pace, so it wasn't overly hard.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_00: It was kind of in that more aerobic threshold zone.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: And then the next day I was trying to hit more like some of the anaerobic threshold.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: So higher speeds, higher intensity, but shorter duration, like shorter intervals.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: So on Wednesday I did two 10 by two minutes at more like my 10k pace.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_00: So not exact, not maybe entirely anaerobic, but just like a quicker cadence and kind of just kind of hitting on some of those threshold zones.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_00: That's two hard workouts back to back.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_00: And both of those days I doubled.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_00: So on Tuesday I did an easy, really easy run in the morning and then did my workout noon, which was hot.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_00: And then the next day I did the workout in the morning and then an easy run later in the day, like a three mile run.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_00: Kind of like again, loading up volume.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um, between those two days, it was something like um 23, 24 miles total.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_00: And then I had Monday, I did sit around six miles, so it was about 30 miles that I had in by the end of the day Wednesday.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_00: So it just again, a lot of volume in those three days, you know, trying to get two workouts.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_00: So I was pretty, pretty toast when it came to the Thursday.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_00: I was very tired.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_00: So I did a recovery six mile recovery run, pretty easy and very slow and easy.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_00: And then I did a bench press workout, and then on Friday I did an easy four miles and and then kind of broke that into two, so easy four, easy two later in the day, and then a really easy four miles pre-race run with some strides on Saturday.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_00: And so you can see it kind of how it was loaded up front and then tapered a bit at the end of the week, and that was intentional because I did my spring equinox half marathon on that Sunday, and it was hard.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_00: I okay, so again, it has been warmer than usual.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like feel as though I am making I'm just like making excuses for the heat.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_00: Like the heat.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_00: It's like I feel like I'm just man, man, the heat, it's hot, like whiny, whiny, whiny, like woe is me.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't want to like I know it's like affecting everyone around here, so I I I don't want to make that too much of an excuse here, but again, it was a really warm, another record-breaking heat day here in Colorado.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um when we started at nine, it was probably in Strava said 61.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_00: I think it was more like 65, but you know, I don't know how I don't know where it gets that information from.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_00: At nine, you know, so I do a three-mile warm-up.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_00: I'm already hot.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_00: Like I had like some sweatpants on and a light shirt, like long sleeve, and I'm already like sweating, right?
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, oh my gosh.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_00: So I take that off.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I'm like in a tank top and tiny shorts like for racing, and I'm comfortable.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_00: Like, you know how sometimes you know it's gonna be cold at first because it's chilly out, but you don't want to get too hot during your race.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_00: So you take all your layers off right before and you're like cold.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't like that.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_00: I was like comfortable in, you know, like it would be in a summer race.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_00: It felt like a race that should have been in maybe like May or June.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_00: So that's where the temperatures were.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_00: And so, you know, I do my little warm-up, kind of do some strides or some some stuff to warm up, and then we start the half marathon.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_00: And I my goal for that was to do uh last year.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_00: I did it, it was a different course this year, too.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_00: So that's the other thing.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_00: Is last year I did it and it was cooler last year.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_00: Uh the course was a little more flat.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_00: I did it in like 127.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_00: So I was like, oh, it would be great if I could do a similar time.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_00: It would really help me feel confident for my marathon.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it started out good.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_00: Then around mile two or three, I realized that there were a lot of hills, like a lot of hills.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_00: It was very hilly, like not flat at all.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_00: And so I'm like, okay, well, I'll slow down a little bit.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_00: It's hot, I'm starting to heat up.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, I'm ooh, I'm getting warm.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_00: The hills are kind of kicking my butt.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_00: My shoes were probably should be thrown out.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_00: I shouldn't have even worn them.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_00: They were my racing shoes.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_00: I've been kind of wearing.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Through various races from last May when I did my marathon and they were shot.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: Like, so I'm starting to get that achy feeling that you get in your bones, that kind of weird achy feeling, your knees are a little achy.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_00: You know, when you can kind of tell that your running shoes are maybe getting past their prime and your time to retire.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_00: Well, that's where I was starting to feel early in the race.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_00: So that was my mistake to maybe think I could get one more race out of those race shoes.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm running, I'm starting to slow down because I'm realizing, okay, it's hilly.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm thinking, okay, I'm gonna hit like halfway and it's gonna get, it's gonna be like a lot more downhill because it feels really hilly.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_00: And there was some downhill, but it wasn't the type of downhill you go up and then you're kind of coming back down and you just have a faster second half.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't like that at all, just seemed like every time there was a downhill, there would be like a subsequent uphill, like still.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_00: So it wasn't like it felt that much more downhill, honestly, the second half.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_00: And meanwhile, I mean, I'm stopping at the aid stations.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_00: I'm so hot, I'm like trying to drink water.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, okay, normally I just kind of breeze in, get some fluids, drink a little bit, like try to like not spend too much time at the aid stations, but I had to stop and like make sure I took in extra fluid and I just throwing it on my head.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_00: It was that warm out.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it had to have been by the time we got to 10 a.m., it had to have been close to 70, if not a little bit more warm.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I'm slowing down.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_00: It's like my obvious my goal isn't going to be accomplished that day.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I get to the last bit, it was all um, it was all that kind of gravel where the gravel is packed compact.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_00: It's not like loose gravel, it's like they put something on the, they put something on the road, I can't remember what it's called, where it's like compacts it so it's like hard.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_00: But when they do that, like in the people drive on it, it gets pothole y everywhere, like it's not even at all.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_00: So on top of it, it's just like these this uneven terrain, like I'm constantly kind of like having weird missteps where I'm running and kind of tripping a little bit on this, you know, this road.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's flat some parts of it, so I'm kind of running and trying to run in the middle.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_00: So that was probably where it was less bumpy.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_00: And then obviously it's kind of tapered off a little bit because you know, it's kind of how they make the dirt roads.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_00: So man, just all of these things combining, it was just a rough, it was a rough race.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I finished in like and it was and it was long by like 0.2, so it was like 13.3, not 13.1.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_00: So I finished in like 131, um, something.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_00: It was far from my goal of getting the time that I wanted from last year.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I did come in first female.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_00: I felt like I was like, I don't, it's kind of weird to me that I feel like I would have been like behind a bunch of people, but maybe it was just that challenging of a course that everyone I think it was, because a lot of other people were kind of struggling with it.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_00: So I I think it was a really it was a good, I don't know, it was, you know, quite a bit hill, quite, quite a bit of hills.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_00: It was like a good training run, but I am a little bit disappointed because I really wanted something that was gonna make me feel confident for where I'm at with my training.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_00: And that made me feel like crow, I am, I am not where I should be.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm not sure it was a really good indicator at all of where I'm my fitness actually is or what I could actually accomplish on race day.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_00: It just made me feel like, oh my gosh, if I can't hold this pace, which was like a 655 pace for 13 miles, and I feel wrecked after, you know, because literally I finished and we we did do like a two-mile jog just to get 18 in, but I was I was like done for the the rest of the day.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_00: It took me forever to recover.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_00: I even with I ate like a protein drink.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_00: I had some I like salt and vinegar chips sometimes because they're salty.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_00: So I'd have a really hard time eating after the race.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_00: Like I have a hard time sometimes, especially when it's hot and when it's long, my appetite is actually really affected negatively.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want to eat.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_00: So I had this really hard time like getting in what I needed to get in.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_00: So I just had like some salt and vinegar chips, the protein shake.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_00: I'm eating that.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_00: Like I think I had a gel right at the finish before I did my cool down.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_00: I had a a scratch, or actually it was tailwind, high carb drink, mix, and not of not a whole thing of it, but some in my water bottle with some electrolytes.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm pounding that down while we're doing the cooldown.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_00: I'm trying to recover.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_00: I get home.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_00: I had um a sweet potato, I had some chocolate milk, I just I had I I mean, I don't remember everything I had, but I'm like trying to get carbs in just so I can recover.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_00: And it took me forever to just feel normal.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_00: It was like four or five p.m.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_00: by the time I just kind of felt like, okay, I feel better now.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_00: But it was just tough.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_00: I don't, I feel like I don't feel any more confident for my marathon.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, I might do another half here, maybe if I can find one in May, just trying to sort of see if I can find one that's maybe not so hilly, maybe a little bit better, flatter course.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and just kind of see if I can maybe do it more as a marathon-paced run.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_00: And and that might give me some confidence.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_00: But right now I'm feeling, you know, I I mean my goal for the marathon is to get a PR, you know, anything faster than a 259 would be great.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_00: And any and anything faster than that, like as you know, as quick as I can go, a 255 would be fantastic.
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_00: Right now I'm not feeling super confident.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_00: So I do think it's just probably the the um the terrain and all the other factors, because I know a lot of other people were struggling, and I'm trying to kind of keep that in my mind, but it really wasn't the race I was kind of hoping for in terms of really helping me feel like, oh my gosh, I'm I've got this, like I'm in great shape for the mare, you know.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_00: Now thinking ahead, it's like, okay, well, how do I use that information to maybe look ahead and see what I can do, what changes I can make to maybe improve a little bit?
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_00: What am I missing?
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_00: Because I had this really fantastic 5k maybe only a couple weeks ago.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_00: You know, is it is it just the fact that I did, you know, try to get more mileage and I didn't really do a full taper?
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_00: Is it, you know, there's a is just all these factors together and it's not really a true indication of fitness.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_00: And that's probably the case, but it's it's hard when you're expecting something and you kind of get a different result.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_00: So it is making me kind of think about my training a little bit.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_00: Like, am I on the right track?
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_00: Is there something I could be doing differently to prepare myself?
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'm I'm I'm not sure yet.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_00: I'm still need a little bit of time to think about to think about that and kind of see um what my next steps are.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I I have a couple, I have my next 20 miler, not this coming Sunday, but the following Sunday.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_00: So maybe I just need some more long runs in there.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_00: I haven't done, you know, I've done a lot of long, longish runs, but not a lot of long, long runs.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_00: So maybe that'll help.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah, I'll kind of go from there.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_00: And then today I just did a really easy five-mile recovery run and some cardio.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_00: So I've been adding in some elliptical just to kind of get some more of that aerobic fitness without the pounding on my legs.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_00: And I have been trying to do like heat trainings.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_00: I did one last week and I did it um, I think Wednesday maybe, and then um this week I just getting them in the hot tub because I've there's some good research that getting in some heat training can help increase plasma volume.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_00: Kind of maybe you get some of the adaptation similar, it's kind of similar, maybe a little bit similar to like altitude training.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_00: But I also the heat training, it's kind of like I don't want to I I feel like I've been forced to do heat training in the last couple weeks that I wasn't really intending.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_00: So maybe there's some benefit going on there.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but this is more passive heat training.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_00: So I'll get in the hot tub and I didn't realize like how absolutely difficult it is to actually try to be in the hot tub, not just like in the hot tub, but like in the hot tub from your neck, like you know, having the water up to here and then sitting in there for my goal was 15 minutes the first time.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_00: I think I made it maybe 10 or 11 before I was like, oh I can't do this anymore.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_00: And then today I tried it again.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_00: And there's a few times I had to kind of get out and drink water, like not out, out, but like kind of get up above like where the water was like here and drink some water and try to like put my hands over my head just for a second.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it was hard.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_00: Like you think, oh, the hot tub's so relaxing.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_00: Not when you have to like sit in it all the way, it's here for 15 minutes or 20 minutes.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_00: So I made it like maybe 14 or 15, but I did have to kind of get out once for a few seconds and just kind of like cool off.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_00: So it wasn't perfect.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_00: I'm hoping to be able to do like 20 to 2 to 3 20 minute sessions a week where I'm I you know, I don't know, maybe maybe I could do that, but it seems like that was like the hardest part of my morning was trying to do the hot tub training heat training and the hot tub submerged as far as I could be and sitting in there.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_00: It's actually much harder than you would think.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_00: Or maybe I'm just a big wuss.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_00: So that was my week.
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_00: Uh yeah, I mean I kind of talked a little bit about the strength training in there.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_00: Not a big, I mean, maybe at some point I'll kind of emphasize how I'm putting in my strength training a little bit more, but I think overall last week was 65 miles, a couple 20-minute cardio sessions, or maybe I only got one 20-minute cardio session last week, so not a lot of cross-training.
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_00: I did the plyometrics once last week, and I did get in a back squat workout and a pinch press workout, and I'm gonna try today to get some deadlifts because I wasn't able to do that last week.
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_00: So, overall, a pretty good volume week.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_00: This week I'm kind of aiming for 65 miles of um mileage, a couple of elliptical sessions at around 25 minutes, at least two hot tub training sessions.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_00: We'll see if I can do another one.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_00: And then yeah, I'm strength training today, biometrics tomorrow, bench press, back squat, just trying to get some more of the strength in because I'm not gonna be tapering necessarily.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_00: And then my long run this week will be uh 14 miles with um on some rolling hills.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_00: Although after last week with the rolling hills for the race, I'm not sure I'm up for hills, but we'll see.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_00: We'll see how that goes.
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm sure I'll update you all again in a few weeks on my progress.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna come back here in a little bit and do like kind of a second portion of this.
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_00: I wanted to talk a little bit about my journey, my marathon journey.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_00: I want to kind of go through each one of my marathons in a little more detail and give a little more history of like where I'm coming from in terms of my marathon journey, I suppose, and and a little more context there.
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_00: So stay tuned.
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_00: I'll be I'll be right back for that here and in here in a second.
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_00: Good morning.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_00: I am going to be recording the second half of my podcast episode, and it's uh actually Tuesday morning.
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_00: I'm supposed to have the episode out today, so it's uh kind of just trying to finish up before I get the episode out.
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but it's morning, as you can see, it's a little bit dark in here.
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_00: It's uh about um 6 40 in the morning.
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_00: I just my son just got on the bus and um I'm just getting going with my day.
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_00: So good morning, if you're listening and it's morning.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_00: If not, I hope you're having a good day.
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I wanted to do the second half of the episode and just talk a little bit about my past marathons, uh just kind of what I learned from each of them, which ones I've done.
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so I have a little sheet that I have to keep track of them.
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_00: My friend Bob actually created it for me.
• 34:07
  SPEAKER_00: He looked up all of the marathons and times um and kind of fit them all down in like a little piece of paper for me, which was really nice.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_00: I am not the type of person that records a lot of things.
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_00: Like I know there's some people that have like diaries or maybe they've recorded almost every training run in like a diary, and I don't, I just I don't do that.
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_00: It's something I would love to do.
• 34:33
  SPEAKER_00: I wish I was more like that type of person who could just keep track of all of my training runs and everything, and then have time to kind of sit down and write about it.
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_00: I think nowadays we have things like Strava or training peaks, I can kind of keep track, but I kind of have like a running tally in my head.
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like I'm pretty intuitive.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_00: So sometimes I don't personally feel like it's extremely helpful to be able to look back, you know, 10 years ago and be able to see what exactly I was doing because it's things change and evolve, and I'm not sure that's honestly the most helpful thing.
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_00: I think for some people it might be.
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but it is helpful to kind of be able to look back because I remember each marathon, and so it's kind of helpful to be able to like have this down so I can kind of have the tally of like how many I've done and you know my times because I don't remember every detail.
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_00: I wanted to kind of just go through each.
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_00: I've done ten ten um total marathons, and so I'm grandma's will be my 11th.
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um and I don't know how many m more I'll do beyond that.
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_00: I'm kind of just taking it one step at a time.
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but my very first marathon was in May, May 27th of 2007, and that was the Vermont City Marathon.
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_00: And so that was when I was 24 years old.
• 35:57
  SPEAKER_00: That's crazy.
• 35:58
  SPEAKER_00: Almost, well, not quite 20 years, but it's um yeah, I mean, I've done 10 in in 20 years, so I've obviously done a lot of other things, but that was in um Burlington, Vermont, and that my very first marathon was a three ten, three hours, 10 minutes, and 50 seconds.
• 36:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I was actually first in my age group and 155th overall.
• 36:21
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't know how many people were in the race.
• 36:23
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know any of those details, but I do remember that, and I remember training for it and just kind of wanting my first marathon to be fun and enjoyable, and I didn't want to feel crappy, so I just took that one fairly easy.
• 36:38
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it was a 717 pace, but I remember that race being overall pretty fun.
• 36:43
  SPEAKER_00: Marathons are hard, but I don't remember that one being particularly difficult.
• 36:47
  SPEAKER_00: I kind of finished it feeling, you know, like wow, okay.
• 36:51
  SPEAKER_00: So that was manageable.
• 36:53
  SPEAKER_00: Like that marathon felt like, okay, I could I could go faster than that.
• 36:58
  SPEAKER_00: And I felt pretty good at the end.
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_00: So that one was actually before I went to graduate school.
• 37:03
  SPEAKER_00: So I went to graduate school around 2009 to 2011.
• 37:07
  SPEAKER_00: And in that time, so I took a little break from running marathons because I was having a hard time just trying to get into school, trying to kind of figure myself out, you know, get I just had a lot going on.
• 37:19
  SPEAKER_00: But when I got into grad school, I trained again for again the Vermont City Marathon.
• 37:24
  SPEAKER_00: So that's one that I've done quite a few times just because it's my hometown.
• 37:28
  SPEAKER_00: I live, grew up at least part of my time outside of Burlington, Vermont in a town called Essex.
• 37:34
  SPEAKER_00: And I my mom still lives there.
• 37:37
  SPEAKER_00: So it's a place that held holds a lot of meaning to me.
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't mind, or at least the time, I didn't really mind doing like a lot of the same marathon because it was familiar, it was fun, I had family in the area.
• 37:48
  SPEAKER_00: It's easy because I could I was traveling back home anyways to see my mom.
• 37:53
  SPEAKER_00: So I did again the Vermont City marathon.
• 37:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and that was the one in which I had the fastest time until recently.
• 38:01
  SPEAKER_00: So 259.07.
• 38:03
  SPEAKER_00: I think it was 259.02 with the gun time or the um trip time and uh a pace of around 650.
• 38:11
  SPEAKER_00: And that was um, I was actually third in my age group that time.
• 38:15
  SPEAKER_00: So it was a fast course, a fast um, I think there were a lot of fast people in that race.
• 38:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but I remember that one pretty vividly as well.
• 38:25
  SPEAKER_00: And this time, I think I was training harder and I went into that one feeling maybe a little bit overcompetent, and I kind of got swept up in the first part of the race because you know, marathons you tend to feel pretty good for a good majority of the race, or at least half the race, if if you've trained right, it shouldn't feel hard, anyways.
• 38:56
  SPEAKER_00: You know, if you're feeling like it's hard the first half, you're probably going too hard.
• 39:01
  SPEAKER_00: So I was feeling great and I came in, you know, I remember coming in like a 10k time of like 38, something maybe 39.
• 39:10
  SPEAKER_00: It was a little speedy, and then I think I came through the half in like a time of like 125 or 126.
• 39:20
  SPEAKER_00: So I was speeding right along.
• 39:22
  SPEAKER_00: So if I'd been able to keep that pace, I would have had a 250 or maybe faster, I don't know, marathon time.
• 39:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but I at that time I just I don't that that was kind of before the era of high carb fueling and really the understanding that you, you know, you need to fuel with a lot of carbs.
• 39:44
  SPEAKER_00: It was still kind of a time, I think, when people were just like taking a couple of gels in during a race and not necessarily couldn't eating, you know, consuming a lot of carbs.
• 39:53
  SPEAKER_00: And I definitely did not consume enough carbs during that race.
• 39:57
  SPEAKER_00: I went out too fast for sure.
• 39:59
  SPEAKER_00: I probably was capable, I probably could be at the time capable of like maybe a 255, 250 to 255, but I just went out a little too fast and then didn't fuel adequately and ended up slowing down substantially the second half.
• 40:15
  SPEAKER_00: I remember running, have like this last section is the bike.
• 40:19
  SPEAKER_00: There's like a bike path that's the last section, and I just remember feeling awful at that point and just slowing down and just kind of like trying to get to the finish and counting from six like up to 60 and in in my head and trying to do all those little mind tracks just to kind of keep my mind off of the pain.
• 40:37
  SPEAKER_00: And so I think that was the moment I realized that it is possible to go too fast in a marathon, and I think that's kind of when I started to realize that you know, fueling was going to be really important if I wanted to run fast.
• 40:54
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, basically that one was when I was like, I don't know if I want to do this again.
• 41:01
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't like the first one, it was a little more challenging.
• 41:04
  SPEAKER_00: I I definitely like um just it slowed substantially in the second half, if you can kind of guess by I don't know, I guess it was probably by at least 10 minutes slower.
• 41:17
  SPEAKER_00: The first half might have been like 135, and the second half was probably like 135 around there, you know, 134, something like that.
• 41:28
  SPEAKER_00: So it was it was a good learning experience for sure.
• 41:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um and then I think I wanted to redeem myself.
• 41:35
  SPEAKER_00: So after that marathon, I decided that's kind of when I decided I'm going to like train really hard.
• 41:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um I'm gonna train like a an elite.
• 41:45
  SPEAKER_00: And granted, I'm in graduate school at this point, so I think I've mentioned this before in my Hashimoto's story.
• 41:51
  SPEAKER_00: They did talk a little bit about my history with overtraining, and that was when I did overtrain for the marathon and ended up kind of really hurting myself a bit.
• 42:03
  SPEAKER_00: So I ran, I was trying to run like 80 miles a week.
• 42:07
  SPEAKER_00: I was in grad school, I was busy, you know, pretty busy with everything.
• 42:11
  SPEAKER_00: Luckily, like the grad school lifestyle allowed some freedom, but I don't feel like I had a lot of like I feel like I was running a lot and going to school, and um I wasn't really taking easy days easy.
• 42:24
  SPEAKER_00: And that was my major downfall for that.
• 42:27
  SPEAKER_00: And I learned the hard lesson that when you don't balance your hard days with really easy days, recovery days, your body isn't capable of handling that.
• 42:37
  SPEAKER_00: And you push yourself over the edge.
• 42:40
  SPEAKER_00: And once you push yourself over the edge, it's really hard to come back from.
• 42:45
  SPEAKER_00: So that particular marathon, I remember the distinct moment.
• 42:49
  SPEAKER_00: I think it just I just took it too far.
• 42:52
  SPEAKER_00: It was an 800-meter repeat workout that I've done a lot for marathons, and it was maybe a couple weeks out from the marathon itself, and I did I had a certain pace in mind, and it was just not going well.
• 43:05
  SPEAKER_00: I was suffering and pushed through when I probably shouldn't have.
• 43:10
  SPEAKER_00: I should have listened to my body and been like, this isn't working today.
• 43:14
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna go home and just take it easy.
• 43:16
  SPEAKER_00: But I didn't, I just pushed through, and I remember barely able barely being able to jog home.
• 43:23
  SPEAKER_00: Like I was really struggling.
• 43:25
  SPEAKER_00: But I mean, you know, you have workouts like that in the marathon sometimes.
• 43:29
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't like totally absurd that that happened.
• 43:32
  SPEAKER_00: I ended up going to California for the California International Marathon in December.
• 43:37
  SPEAKER_00: I got, I just I never I took the taper and I just never felt good.
• 43:41
  SPEAKER_00: So that particular race, it just never I s I also got very sick, while kind of slightly violently ill with like a foodborne illness, or something kind of made me very sick, like the week before.
• 43:53
  SPEAKER_00: There was just a lot of weird things that kind of happened prior to that race.
• 43:57
  SPEAKER_00: And I knew from the get go, I started the race and it Just it was like this isn't feeling good.
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_00: This hasn't felt like the last few marathons.
• 44:05
  SPEAKER_00: It was tough from the get-go.
• 44:07
  SPEAKER_00: And I made it halfway through and I knew I know I had an ambitious time goal.
• 44:12
  SPEAKER_00: I was really wanting at least to get faster than 250, but I just overdid it.
• 44:17
  SPEAKER_00: I overcooked myself, way overdid it.
• 44:20
  SPEAKER_00: And I had like towards the end of that race, I did have to do some walk running, walking, running, jogging.
• 44:26
  SPEAKER_00: I finished it.
• 44:28
  SPEAKER_00: I understand that this is still a pretty good time because it it is.
• 44:34
  SPEAKER_00: It's not like a bad time.
• 44:36
  SPEAKER_00: It's just in context of everything else and what was going on.
• 44:40
  SPEAKER_00: For me, this was not a great time.
• 44:43
  SPEAKER_00: It's my slowest time in the marathon so far, other than a trail marathon I did, which I don't know if that exactly counts, but this was a 31946.
• 44:52
  SPEAKER_00: So that one was by far my most struggle marathon that I most struggled with.
• 44:57
  SPEAKER_00: And but it didn't exactly deter me because after all I struggled with with the Hashimoto and being diagnosed with that kind of after the race, having the struggles I did to recover after that race, I did come back in 2012 and did the Vermont City Marathon again.
• 45:14
  SPEAKER_00: And that was the again, May 27th and 2012.
• 45:17
  SPEAKER_00: And I did that in three hours and seven seconds.
• 45:22
  SPEAKER_00: So again, I was trying to be I was trying to go fast, but it just didn't happen for me that day.
• 45:28
  SPEAKER_00: I think perhaps I was trying to come back from the marathon, you know, trying to come back into it and see what I could do.
• 45:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I just I was working at the time.
• 45:39
  SPEAKER_00: I think I was um I had just kind of gotten out of my internship and time was becoming an issue.
• 45:47
  SPEAKER_00: So then I was sort of introduced to the concept of running and trying to work almost full time.
• 45:53
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, I don't remember anything remarkable about that race.
• 45:56
  SPEAKER_00: I just know, you know, it was like, okay, this is this is kind of a struggle.
• 46:00
  SPEAKER_00: I don't maybe train as much as I wanted to, and then decided after that I actually took a little bit more of a break from marathons.
• 46:07
  SPEAKER_00: I I was becoming a dietitian, I was trying to build up experience.
• 46:10
  SPEAKER_00: I was working like sometimes three different things at once, three different jobs, three different, you know, I I think there was one point I was working like I worked every day straight for like one month, just doing weekends and at the hospitals and working during the day.
• 46:23
  SPEAKER_00: So I took a while off before I mean I was still running a bit during this time, but I took some time off.
• 46:29
  SPEAKER_00: So my next marathon was in steamboat.
• 46:31
  SPEAKER_00: So it was Steamboat, Colorado.
• 46:33
  SPEAKER_00: Their marathon is starts at like 7,000 feet, so it's not sea level.
• 46:38
  SPEAKER_00: And my whole goal for this race was just to qualify for Boston.
• 46:41
  SPEAKER_00: So I kind of had to change my goals.
• 46:43
  SPEAKER_00: I knew trying to run like a really fast marathon, trying to do even an Olympic qualifying time, which was kind of where I was at back when I was training for California International or getting close to that, it just wasn't gonna maybe be in the cards for me because I, you know, I just kind of had to accept that maybe I wasn't that fast.
• 47:01
  SPEAKER_00: And I also had to accept that now that I had the Hashimoto's autoimmune disease, I had to be a little bit more careful about training and making sure I didn't overdo it again.
• 47:11
  SPEAKER_00: Because once you have one autoimmune disease, you can get more.
• 47:15
  SPEAKER_00: And I didn't, I don't really want to push my body so hard that I end up developing more autoimmune issues or exacerbate my Hashimoto's.
• 47:24
  SPEAKER_00: And so I think my had to kind of change my goal a little bit at this point and realizing that, you know, maybe I could do some fast marathon time still for sure, but I was never gonna be able to be in compete at that level.
• 47:41
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, at the time, I can't remember when they changed the standards, but at the time I did California International, I think the B standard was like a 247 or faster, um, something like that.
• 47:53
  SPEAKER_00: But now they've changed the standards to qualify, so it's much faster.
• 47:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um, maybe 238, I think, or faster.
• 48:01
  SPEAKER_00: It's now most definitely not in the cards for me at this point to qualify.
• 48:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um but at the time of the California International Marathon, it was possible, I thought, you know, but then I kind of had to really reevaluate my goal after that experience.
• 48:18
  SPEAKER_00: So my goal for Steamboat was just to qualify for Boston.
• 48:22
  SPEAKER_00: And I can't remember what my qualifying time had to be, but I was pretty well under it.
• 48:27
  SPEAKER_00: I knew I needed to have some buffer because you know, sometimes you get the qualifying mark and they still don't let you in.
• 48:33
  SPEAKER_00: I ran that at the age of 33 in 2016, so this was June, in a 310-40, and that was one of my favorite marathons because I was just trying to run it comfortably enough to qualify.
• 48:48
  SPEAKER_00: And I knew it was a tough course because of the altitude.
• 48:51
  SPEAKER_00: It does have a lot of downhill, but there are some tough hills kind of towards the end.
• 48:55
  SPEAKER_00: And I just really enjoyed it.
• 48:57
  SPEAKER_00: It's a beautiful course.
• 48:58
  SPEAKER_00: It's Steamboat Colorado is a beautiful place.
• 49:00
  SPEAKER_00: That time of year, it's off very green, and they have you running like it's just a pretty road with lots of like scenery.
• 49:08
  SPEAKER_00: So it's a really great course if you ever want to check it out.
• 49:11
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's it's definitely not like a flat course, and it's definitely not like a sea sea level, you know, easy course.
• 49:18
  SPEAKER_00: You're gonna be struggling to breathe.
• 49:20
  SPEAKER_00: And the first part is quite a bit downhill, and then it kind of levels out a little bit.
• 49:24
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah, that was a 310-40.
• 49:26
  SPEAKER_00: So I did that very, very happy, and I actually won that race.
• 49:30
  SPEAKER_00: So I was six overall with men and female female, male and female, and I actually won the race for for women.
• 49:37
  SPEAKER_00: So I actually got to break the tape, which was an amazing experience for me to be able to, you know, and sometimes in those smaller town marathons, you get to have those experiences where that's something I would never be able to experience in like a a large, you know, large-scale race.
• 49:53
  SPEAKER_00: So that was pretty cool.
• 49:55
  SPEAKER_00: I have very good memories of that and being able to qualify for Boston.
• 49:59
  SPEAKER_00: So the next year, um, April 17th, I went to Boston and that was in yeah, 2017.
• 50:06
  SPEAKER_00: The reason I wanted to do it so bad was because actually in 2000, so I had qualified for it with my marathon out.
• 50:12
  SPEAKER_00: I qualified for it, I think, with all of the marathons I've done.
• 50:15
  SPEAKER_00: But in 2012, I wanted, I had qualified for it in my Vermont City marathon, and I was actually planning and thinking about going to the marathon and running Boston in 2013.
• 50:27
  SPEAKER_00: Well, if you remember, 2013 is when they had the Boston bombings.
• 50:31
  SPEAKER_00: And so it would have been, um, I would have been there that year, and I didn't end up going because my work schedule was just insane.
• 50:38
  SPEAKER_00: And so for me, it was like I'm gonna go to Boston because, you know, there was like just that, like everyone kind of felt like, okay, we're we're resilient and we're, you know, people wanted to run it even more after that to be like kind of like a screw you or like a yeah, you can't, you know, scare us sort of thing, you know.
• 50:57
  SPEAKER_00: So that's partially it.
• 50:59
  SPEAKER_00: And just because I know there's so much to running Boston and being able to qualify and run that race, Boston is just there's just so much to it.
• 51:05
  SPEAKER_00: It's just one of those races that, you know, a lot of people want to accomplish and there's a lot of notoriety to it.
• 51:13
  SPEAKER_00: So I guess I I just wanted to do that race and I did that.
• 51:16
  SPEAKER_00: It was a warm day, probably in this it starts at like 10 a.m.
• 51:20
  SPEAKER_00: and it was like in the 70s.
• 51:22
  SPEAKER_00: So it was warm, you know, pretty warm.
• 51:24
  SPEAKER_00: I did that in 30317.
• 51:27
  SPEAKER_00: And um, yeah, it was tough.
• 51:29
  SPEAKER_00: I think I probably needed more electrolytes on that day.
• 51:32
  SPEAKER_00: I I feel like I didn't maybe hydrate well enough with the heat, and I didn't like I just had to rely, I was relying on the course on what was on course, and I didn't like pack in the electrolyte tablets or anything.
• 51:44
  SPEAKER_00: So that's one of the things I think I I finished that race being feeling nauseous a little bit, like I had some hypo low, low sodium symptoms, hyponatremia sort of symptoms, nothing severe.
• 51:55
  SPEAKER_00: But I did finish the race and I remember ordering a margarita just so I could have the salt on the rim.
• 52:01
  SPEAKER_00: So that was the telltale sign I was probably low in sodium.
• 52:04
  SPEAKER_00: But I yeah, I was happy with that.
• 52:07
  SPEAKER_00: It was really a great experience, and I got to run Boston.
• 52:10
  SPEAKER_00: And then I kind of switched gears that same year, and that was the year I did the run rabbit run 50 mile race in steamboat.
• 52:17
  SPEAKER_00: So I also did the steamboat.
• 52:18
  SPEAKER_00: There was like a steamboat trail marathon, and for the life of me, I cannot find the results.
• 52:23
  SPEAKER_00: It was like a honey stinger thing at the time, like they honey stinger kind of put it on, and now it's changed.
• 52:29
  SPEAKER_00: So I I wasn't able to find the results for that, but it was a trail marathon.
• 52:34
  SPEAKER_00: So 26.2 miles on trails, lots of up and down, lots of gain, I think 3,000 feet or something, or around that, maybe more of elevation gain.
• 52:45
  SPEAKER_00: So not a fast course by any means.
• 52:48
  SPEAKER_00: It was something like four hours, but I was doing it as a training run for that run rabbit run, and it was super fun.
• 52:55
  SPEAKER_00: I love the trails.
• 52:56
  SPEAKER_00: At some point, I'd love to get back to trail running and doing more ultras.
• 53:00
  SPEAKER_00: It's not as feasible right now to get to the trails when you have a small child that takes a lot of time, and I don't have the luxury of you know being able to take that time to go to the trails because that's then less time that I have to spend with him.
• 53:14
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, and my family in general.
• 53:16
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't have time right now to get out onto the trails, but I'm hoping at some point I will be able to kind of get back to doing some more trail running and maybe some more ultras at some point.
• 53:27
  SPEAKER_00: But that was a fantastically fun and I loved it, I love that kind of thing because you don't have a time goal really.
• 53:34
  SPEAKER_00: You're just I was just out there to do it and just enjoying myself pretty much the whole time.
• 53:39
  SPEAKER_00: So it was great.
• 53:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then it took a while for me.
• 53:42
  SPEAKER_00: That was back in 2017.
• 53:44
  SPEAKER_00: I took a long break from running.
• 53:46
  SPEAKER_00: I had my son, I did a little bit of power lifting before having him and then had him, and it took a while for me to get back to running.
• 53:54
  SPEAKER_00: So my next marathon was the New York City marathon, which I, you know, have talked about a little bit before, but that was in 2024.
• 54:01
  SPEAKER_00: And um, that was a time of time of about exactly three hours, and it was a tough one.
• 54:07
  SPEAKER_00: I was trying to, I really was like kind of now my goal was really to get a PR in the marathon.
• 54:12
  SPEAKER_00: So that one was it was tough, it was fun, it was overwhelming, it was inspiring.
• 54:17
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, there it was so many things because there was so many crowds out there and it was a beautiful day.
• 54:23
  SPEAKER_00: But I think the hills, the notorious hills of New York kind of got me.
• 54:27
  SPEAKER_00: I felt pretty good, you know, for the first half, but by mile 20, I was stuff struggling, and then there's some hills there near Central Park, and I I struggled a little bit, but I was really happy with that time because it was the first, it was a big long break between running in 2017 and 2024, and I was just happy to kind of have that time on a on a tough course and be able to run New York City, which was an experience um that I'll never forget.
• 54:59
  SPEAKER_00: And so I did that, and then I actually did six weeks later, I was hoping then to like, because I felt actually surprisingly good after New York.
• 55:06
  SPEAKER_00: So I was like, I'm gonna, I'm gonna take advantage of this and I'm gonna do the Tucson marathon, you know.
• 55:12
  SPEAKER_00: So I actually was able to train, I was actually doing great with my training.
• 55:16
  SPEAKER_00: I was able to like take a little time off and get right back into it, kind of ramp up into having a like a good three weeks of like back at, you know, my marathon mileage that I try to hit.
• 55:27
  SPEAKER_00: I was actually feeling really great.
• 55:28
  SPEAKER_00: And then my son got a stomach bug about a week before, and then I got it, and I didn't really realize I had it because it wasn't like a severe stomach bug where I was vomiting, but I had a lot of like other GI issues, just didn't feel well, kind of had lethargy and just kind of unwell, and was just hoping it was sort of one of those like pre-marathon.
• 55:50
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes you don't feel that good the days leading up to your marathon.
• 55:54
  SPEAKER_00: And I was just kind of kept telling myself, well, maybe that's it.
• 55:58
  SPEAKER_00: But it ended up being that I had a GI bug.
• 56:01
  SPEAKER_00: And even though I felt okay the morning of the race, by midway, it was like my body was like not taking in any gels.
• 56:09
  SPEAKER_00: I wasn't able to like really tolerate any more food.
• 56:12
  SPEAKER_00: I was hit, I was hitting the porter potties.
• 56:14
  SPEAKER_00: It was not pretty, it was a bummer.
• 56:16
  SPEAKER_00: Like that stuff happens.
• 56:17
  SPEAKER_00: The marathon is such a challenging thing because you have weather, like obviously, that's been a factor for me.
• 56:23
  SPEAKER_00: Train how well you train, whether you get there feeling great or you get there maybe overtrained.
• 56:29
  SPEAKER_00: And then obviously illness, and that's what got me there.
• 56:32
  SPEAKER_00: And I I had a good first half and then slowed down.
• 56:35
  SPEAKER_00: I just it was rough the second half, having a lot of potty breaks at the border bodies and 1229.
• 56:41
  SPEAKER_00: So not a bad not a bad time, but I felt ill and it took me a long time to recover.
• 56:46
  SPEAKER_00: So arguably somebody might have been like, you probably shouldn't have run that, and then probably you're right, but I didn't feel terrible.
• 56:52
  SPEAKER_00: So it was one of those things where I'm like, I signed up and I paid money to bring my family here to run this race.
• 56:58
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we did get to go to Sawaro National Park, but so it was a little trip there too.
• 57:04
  SPEAKER_00: But it was kind of like, well, I better just run the race, you know, I don't feel that terrible.
• 57:08
  SPEAKER_00: It ended up, it ended up being rough.
• 57:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then my lot my most recent marathon was the Vermont City Marathon again.
• 57:17
  SPEAKER_00: I've done that one four times out of my 10 marathons, and that was May 24th of 2025.
• 57:23
  SPEAKER_00: So last year in that one, um, it was the one I got a 259.02.
• 57:28
  SPEAKER_00: I like matched my time exactly from 2010.
• 57:32
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, like 15 years later, I got that same like same exact time, like chip time anyway.
• 57:38
  SPEAKER_00: And uh I find that pretty ironic.
• 57:40
  SPEAKER_00: Unfortunately, during that one, I did have to take a porter potty break.
• 57:44
  SPEAKER_00: I had some issues at the start of the race being able to access the the bathrooms.
• 57:50
  SPEAKER_00: I just they didn't have enough, I don't know.
• 57:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I was hoping I would be okay, but at some point around mile 18, I did have to use the porter potty, and that cost me probably like 30 seconds.
• 58:01
  SPEAKER_00: So without that potty break, it would have been like a 258 30 or something like that.
• 58:07
  SPEAKER_00: Uh but you know, it's okay.
• 58:10
  SPEAKER_00: So I you think maybe I would just be happy with that, you know, kind of okay, like you're 41 at the time or 42, actually.
• 58:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, 15 years later, you did that, you know, maybe you're satisfy should be satisfied, but I'm still I haven't given it one more go.
• 58:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um that race was a challenge.
• 58:28
  SPEAKER_00: I definitely am feeling I'm getting older.
• 58:30
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't like easy breezy the whole time.
• 58:33
  SPEAKER_00: I definitely had some sleep issues I've talked about a little bit before, just struggling to sleep well the nights before the race, kind of having some anxiety and trying to work through that a little bit for this race.
• 58:43
  SPEAKER_00: I think the biggest thing for me is resting, the being able to recover in time.
• 58:47
  SPEAKER_00: There was some issues being able to feel good.
• 58:52
  SPEAKER_00: I just didn't feel like great.
• 58:54
  SPEAKER_00: And I think there was with the lack of sleep or the poor sleep, because I only slept a couple hours the night before the race, and I was struggling even in the days before to really get some good sleep.
• 59:03
  SPEAKER_00: I wasn't getting the best sleep.
• 59:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I think the perceived exertion issue, like when you don't sleep well, everything feels harder.
• 59:11
  SPEAKER_00: And so I felt like at mile eight, like this is hard, you know.
• 59:16
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I'm like, this isn't this is challenging.
• 59:18
  SPEAKER_00: And that's when you're already feeling that at early end of the race, you know, you've got a you've got a mental battle ahead of you.
• 59:25
  SPEAKER_00: And that is what that race was for me.
• 59:27
  SPEAKER_00: It was like a mental battle of just hanging on and you know, I got my fueling right.
• 59:32
  SPEAKER_00: They actually, I was in the um elite like race because I was like made the time for masters for that.
• 59:39
  SPEAKER_00: So I had my bottles on the course, and that was like probably excellent.
• 59:43
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if it would have been quite so good if I'd had to hold all my own gels and everything, because I was able to like grab my bottle and run with it and drink it and then kind of like toss it and didn't have to slow down to get waters.
• 59:56
  SPEAKER_00: That part of it was excellent.
• 59:58
  SPEAKER_00: I think I that kind of thing saved me because I was just able to like fuel really well.
• 1:00:04
  SPEAKER_00: That was probably the first race where the fueling was awesome.
• 1:00:09
  SPEAKER_00: Like I got that part right.
• 1:00:11
  SPEAKER_00: Like, absolutely right.
• 1:00:12
  SPEAKER_00: It took me this long.
• 1:00:13
  SPEAKER_00: I think maybe New York was pretty good too, but it took me a while.
• 1:00:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I think I I mean I feel like I was getting better at steamboat and then Boston.
• 1:00:22
  SPEAKER_00: It was kind of the the trail marathon I did really good fueling because you have sort of time to do it.
• 1:00:26
  SPEAKER_00: You're just kind of running and you you know you need a fuel, it's four hours long.
• 1:00:30
  SPEAKER_00: But that was the first time I was like, yes, I had I had like practiced it, I had planned it, and it executed it almost perfectly.
• 1:00:39
  SPEAKER_00: I even think I grabbed an extra gel at one point that had caffeine in it, or something like a maple syrup gel with caffeine and it took that because I was like, okay, I need more.
• 1:00:50
  SPEAKER_00: And I think it just overall really great execution on that particular race.
• 1:00:55
  SPEAKER_00: And I was very, very happy with it.
• 1:00:57
  SPEAKER_00: I just wish it would have been a little bit faster.
• 1:00:59
  SPEAKER_00: I think if I had slept better, maybe not had had been able to go to the bathroom one last time before.
• 1:01:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, my rig, my my sleep, the nights going into it was just a little better.
• 1:01:08
  SPEAKER_00: I think I could have definitely gone at least a couple minutes faster.
• 1:01:12
  SPEAKER_00: But I think that's why I'm like, I need to try one more time.
• 1:01:15
  SPEAKER_00: I have to have one more go at this whole marathon thing.
• 1:01:19
  SPEAKER_00: And um, that's that's what I'm doing now.
• 1:01:22
  SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm going for grandma's.
• 1:01:24
  SPEAKER_00: So let's see.
• 1:01:24
  SPEAKER_00: I'll keep you all posted.
• 1:01:26
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna go ahead and wrap it up.
• 1:01:27
  SPEAKER_00: I've been talking a long time about all my marathons, but I don't know if any of that's useful information or if that if you'd like to kind of hear my journey there through those marathons and what I've done so far with my, you know, my training and kind of what I've learned from each of them.
• 1:01:43
  SPEAKER_00: But I thank you for listening.
• 1:01:44
  SPEAKER_00: I think, you know, if you're curious to learn more about me, you can always check out my website, Katie at FuelTorrun.com, or you can always check out my Instagram at the dot running dot dietitian on Instagram.
• 1:01:58
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, thanks a lot.
• 1:02:00
  SPEAKER_00: I appreciate you listening.
• 1:02:02
  SPEAKER_00: I hope you get something out of it.
• 1:02:03
  SPEAKER_00: All right, bye.