It dawned on me this morning that my marathon PR is almost two years old. After PRing with a 2:44:01 at Boston ‘23, I got a stress fracture in my foot. I decided to take the summer off from serious training for the first time in three years. My fitness returned slowly but my confidence refused. Running a 6:15 per mile pace for 26.2 miles ever again seemed preposterous. I worked my ass off for the next two cycles, but with zero confidence. I went through the motions, expecting the worst from each workout.

Even with all that apprehension and fearfulness, my last marathon, CIM, was shockingly fast. The night before the race, my sister emphatically told me that I was much fitter than I believed. She somehow convinced me that a sub-2:50 was much too slow of a goal. I crossed the finish line only 46 seconds off my PR in disbelief. Clearly, she saw something in me that I couldn’t.

After a victory like that, I have to remember that times are nothing without the intention behind them. My love of running comes from its possibility and freedom, not the finish time. The results matter to no one other than myself so it’s one of the few places I can fail freely without repercussion. It’s where I can dream and express myself and see what I’m made of. I don’t know how many more runs I’d have left in me with the narrative that I’m not good enough. CIM proved that I am the only one standing in my way.

I’ve resolved this cycle to believe in myself fully. Thankfully, last week was proof of this commitment’s positive impact. My weekly mileage has hit a 2 year peak of 75 miles. 5:45 per mile has become a comfortable threshold pace. I hit my first 18-mile long run workout with huge success, finishing with a progression that averaged goal marathon pace. What I needed more than any key workout was a perspective shift and a good old-fashioned wake up call. The past few cycles have felt like a constant game of catch-up, but I think I’m finally hitting my stride.

 Coach's Training Journal - Plan this Week (8/15)

Upcoming races: NYC Half, Jersey City Half, Big Sur Marathon
Goals: 1:16:xx half marathon

Running - 75 miles
Lifting - 2 hours
Cross-Training - 30 minutes
Stretching & Foam Rolling - 20 minutes
Heat Adaptation - 30 minutes

Workout of the week:
5x 5 min @ threshold [90s easy] + 6x 45s strides [45s easy]

We are in the thick of raising that lactate threshold, which will make the faster paces more sustainable come race day. Threshold workouts can be tricky when you’re first figuring them out, but the key is to not go too hard (difficult for us over achievers). While I could have probably pushed the reps to a 5:40-5:45 pace, I kept it comfortably hard at 5:50. By the end of the 25 minutes of work, I was ready for it to be done. I added some strides at the end to both improve my form and practice higher effort while fatigued.

The intended workout was 5x 1 mile at threshold, but freezing temperatures plus crazy wind gusts forced me onto the tread. I kept it at 1% incline to mimic wind resistance and honestly probably should have increased it a little during the faster segments (running faster outside = more wind resistance). But this accomplished all my goals and I ended up having a higher quality workout than if I had hit the track.