I'm getting this post out a bit late due to the travel surrounding the Victoria Marathon this past weekend. I made the short trip up north to play the athlete-support role for my wife's first marathon. Based off her training, we both thought a sub-2:50 was possible, even in her debut, but her 2:45 finish was quite a surprise to both of us! Those kinds of surprises are quite rare in the marathon, especially in a debut. It was also good enough to place her as the 2nd female in a competitive and established field. Most importantly, it was a positive experience, and Eva is already looking forward to her second marathon. While I did put together a training calendar for her, she was independent and took most of the training into her own hands. It is a dangerous game to coach your wife, but fortunately for my sake, training went without a hitch and the race exceeded both our expectations! The experiment can continue.
The trip to Victoria was also a great experience on my end as the elite athlete coordinator allowed me to do my final long tempo for NYC during the marathon. I started the first few miles with my wife as a warmup in order to give the leaders plenty of space, and I then started the 16 mile tempo in which I averaged 4:56. The course was more challenging than I expected. It has rolling hills the entire way. There aren't any long sustained hills like the bridges in New York, but it is definitely enough to mess with your rhythm each mile. I actually thought it was a great simulator for the NYC course, so I'm very pleased with my average for the tempo. I was also allowed to place my fluids on the course which made for an excellent race-day simulation. Since I ended up stopping my workout a little after 20 miles, I was left quite a ways from the finish, so I carried my credit card in my gel pocket and grabbed a taxi in order to make it back in time for Eva's finish.
There was one small snag the evening before the race. I was placed in charge of packing the PowerGels which my wife and I would mix into our bottles for our race-day fluids. Somehow, I left them by the door on our way out, and I did not realize this until Saturday evening as I began to prepare our bottles. What an amateur mistake! All the local running shops were closed, and I didn't know anyone there with extra gels. Since my wife had been practicing with these fluids for her entire build-up, I obviously did not want her to experiment with something new on race day. I got up very early on Sunday morning hoping that there would be a booth setup near the start line selling nutrition products, but there was none. I then looked up the 3 running stores in town and starting running towards them in the hope that one of them may open early for race day. The first shop, about 2km from our hotel, was shut, but my second attempt was successful. Not only were they open, but they carried the Tangerine, caffeine enhanced, Powergel that we had been practicing with! A big thank you to the Running Room in Victoria for saving the day and potentially my marriage.
November 2nd and the TCS NYC Marathon is closing in, and the volume is consistently dropping. Last week marked the end of my longer marathon workouts, and I will now finish the training block with threshold workouts of approximately 6-8 miles in length. Feel free to check out last week's training below. Thanks again for reading, and follow me here on Twitter for more updates.
The trip to Victoria was also a great experience on my end as the elite athlete coordinator allowed me to do my final long tempo for NYC during the marathon. I started the first few miles with my wife as a warmup in order to give the leaders plenty of space, and I then started the 16 mile tempo in which I averaged 4:56. The course was more challenging than I expected. It has rolling hills the entire way. There aren't any long sustained hills like the bridges in New York, but it is definitely enough to mess with your rhythm each mile. I actually thought it was a great simulator for the NYC course, so I'm very pleased with my average for the tempo. I was also allowed to place my fluids on the course which made for an excellent race-day simulation. Since I ended up stopping my workout a little after 20 miles, I was left quite a ways from the finish, so I carried my credit card in my gel pocket and grabbed a taxi in order to make it back in time for Eva's finish.
There was one small snag the evening before the race. I was placed in charge of packing the PowerGels which my wife and I would mix into our bottles for our race-day fluids. Somehow, I left them by the door on our way out, and I did not realize this until Saturday evening as I began to prepare our bottles. What an amateur mistake! All the local running shops were closed, and I didn't know anyone there with extra gels. Since my wife had been practicing with these fluids for her entire build-up, I obviously did not want her to experiment with something new on race day. I got up very early on Sunday morning hoping that there would be a booth setup near the start line selling nutrition products, but there was none. I then looked up the 3 running stores in town and starting running towards them in the hope that one of them may open early for race day. The first shop, about 2km from our hotel, was shut, but my second attempt was successful. Not only were they open, but they carried the Tangerine, caffeine enhanced, Powergel that we had been practicing with! A big thank you to the Running Room in Victoria for saving the day and potentially my marriage.
November 2nd and the TCS NYC Marathon is closing in, and the volume is consistently dropping. Last week marked the end of my longer marathon workouts, and I will now finish the training block with threshold workouts of approximately 6-8 miles in length. Feel free to check out last week's training below. Thanks again for reading, and follow me here on Twitter for more updates.
| Week 9 | AM | PM | Strength/Drills | Mileage |
| Sunday | 22 miles in 2:02:42 w/ 3 mile push from 17-20 (4:57, 4:54, 4:55) | off | 22 | |
| Monday | 14.5 | 5 | 30 minutes | 19.5 |
| Tuesday | 12.5 + drills and strides | 6 | 18.5 | |
| Wednesday | 12 | 5 | 30 minutes | 17 |
| Thursday | 3 mi warmup, 4 miles @ 4:46, 4 miles @ 5:50, 4 miles @ 4:46, 4 miles @ 5:40 continuous on road | off | 19 | |
| Friday | 12.5 | Off – drive to Victoria | 30 minutes | 12.5 |
| Saturday | 12 | 4.5 + drills and strides | 16.5 | |
| TOTAL | 125 |
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