Blue Ridge Marathon Training Weeks 3-7 – Track is back. Hills for breakfast (lunch and dinner too).

Woah. Time flies when you’re having fun. I wrote up a post for weeks 1 and 2 and planned on sticking to an every other week schedule for posting. I guess that fell through cause here I am finishing up week 7 today. I plan on an easy 5-6 miles later today, if my legs cooperate. I finished up a highly challenging 16 yesterday and I feel it! Update: I ran 6 and they were NOT easy. The pace didn’t matter at all.

Coach Craig wrote me up a solid training plan. I fully believe it will have me Blue Ridge ready. As any of you who have tried it know, marathon training is quite demanding. You know what else is demanding? Life. I’m thankful that Coach Craig works with me to make changes where they are needed and help me to figure out a Plan B when Plan A just isn’t an option.

Coach Craig and me. I’m in front for a change.

Most of my weeks have been in the mid 40s for mileage. I think that’s a sweet spot for me. I can touch 50s here and there, but I feel like the 40s allow for a nice combination of quality and quantity and keep the injury bug away. My longest scheduled week is 52 miles. Perfect.

I’m not going to bore you to death with loads and loads of data, so here are the training highlights:

• Started on some two-a-days! They are time consuming with both morning AND evening workouts, but it’s nice to be able to get 12 miles in without FEELING like you did. Splitting it up helps.
• Hills, hills, hills. If you’re gonna get ready for “America’s Toughest Road Marathon”, you better run some hills.
• I’m up to a 16 mile long run already! With over 7 weeks to go, that feels pretty good.
• Track is back! I started it out with 12x200m. 200m is the perfect distance to welcome you back to the track. You get that speed work feeling without having to hold on for too long.
• I had a 50 mile week! As I said, that’s a lot for me.
• 8 mile runs have become the new 6 mile runs.
• I used to train alone, but now I think I prefer training buddies. I’m still going to run some long runs alone, cause I almost always end up alone on race day.

Says so right here.

That’s about it for now. I’ll keep posting a few highlights here and there. I’m super excited about taking on Blue Ridge this year. The plan is still an in-person race and that’s even MORE exciting!

There’s a star. You have to climb a bit to get to it.

I’ve been named an Ambassador for the race this year, so I definitely can’t chicken out. I’m really hoping that I can do my part to spread the word about a race that’s only an hour away from my house. If you want to join me, go to https://blueridgemarathon.com/ and use code RANDALL20 to save 20%!