Yes, it’s official! I registered for the Big Cottonwood Marathon on September 10th. Boston registration opens on September 12, so this will be my ‘last chance marathon.’
It starts at altitude, but it has a LOT of downhill. My coach said I’ll need to do some hard training on the downhill to prepare my quads.
But look at those stats- 25% of runners qualify for Boston at Big Cottonwood. I like my odds!
I’m excited for this marathon!
Speaking of Boston qualifications, I have been reading reports that ALL Boston qualifiers will be able to register this year. Have you heard this? Apparently, so many of the big qualifying marathons were super hot this year (Chicago, Boston) that a lot less people qualified. In fact, usually Grandma’s Marathon has about 1,500 qualifiers and this year there were only about 300! So who knows, maybe my 36 seconds from the Phoenix Marathon would be enough, but I’m going to assume that’s not true and try again in nine weeks.
Yes, only nine weeks of training. Two of those will be taper, so really just 7 weeks to get ready to run a 3:35; I’m ready and pumped to share my journey with you.
Here’s how training went this past week:
Monday: We were still at the cabin. I had my first ‘tempo’ type workout, which was 2 mile warm-up, 6x1200m at a 7:30 pace with 1 minute recovery in between, and 2 miles to cool-down. Dustin did the workout with me. I had sort of set myself up to fail, as I wasn’t well hydrated and cabin running is HOT and HILLY. I hit the first three 1200’s on pace, but the last 3 were a disaster. I suffered through it. 8.5 miles total.
Tuesday: Last day at the cabin. I ran 6 easy miles in the morning and then another 4 once we returned to Minneapolis. 10 miles on the day.
Wednesday: Rest from running. I used this as a strength day and took a [solidcore] class after work.
Thursday: Short speed workout: 1 mile warm-up, 15x200m at a 6:55 pace with 45 second recovery, 1 mile to cool-down. I’ve noticed a pattern where my coach usually does one tempo-like workout and then one short fast speed workout each week. 5 miles total.
I had a second run on the schedule, which I did around 3 pm to mark the 4.0 mile route for Dustin’s 40th birthday run. About 9 miles on the day.
Friday: Easy 7 miles in the morning.
Saturday: 14 mile long run, easy pace (about 9 min/mile average, though we started out much slower and then I worked my way down to closer to 8:20’s at the end.) This was my longest run since Grandma’s and I felt pretty good. The weather was much better; it helps that our run club starts at 7 am now in the summer to try to beat the heat. Twin Cities in Motion had a support stop set up at the Calhoun Executive Center, so we set up the route to hit that stop twice over the 14 miles. Perfect.
Saturday night, we went out to dinner at Upton 43, a restaurant in our neighborhood, to continue with Dustin’s birthday celebration.
Sunday: Easy 7 miles with Matilda. I slept in a bit and then lounged until basically the lunch hour and it was pretty hot. I could tell Matilda wasn’t feeling it, so I let her take a lot of water breaks and breaks in the shade (remembering my tips for running with your dog in the heat.) 7.5 miles total.
Summary: About 56 miles, 1 strength day
It feels great to be back at training. I’m excited for this “last chance” for Boston 2017 and sharing the journey with you guys!
Do any of you have your fall race picked out? Please share! Let’s hope that all this hot and humid training will make us stronger come fall, right?
Good luck! Man I miss living in Utah. It was the best!
Are you familiar with Big Cottonwood Canyon?
Great week!!!!! And best of luck at this next Marathon! I’m pretty sure you will do great 🙂 How do you do your tempo runs? do you use the garmin to keep track of how many seconds you are running in recovery in between? Or do you go to a track so you can see the distance without keep on looking down at your watch? I cannot wait to hear more about your training. Our next race is probably going to be the Maunawili 22 mile relay (I’m still not so sure about this race…we might just opt out) and… Read more »
Thank you Eri!
Do you have a Garmin? If so, you can set up an account on Garmin Connect. Then you can create workouts there. It’s really easy. You can set up intervals, recovery, etc. You set up pace ranges for each and your watch will beep if you are outside the ranges. It works GREAT! Way easier than watching your watch the whole time!
Occasionally I’ll go to a track, but usually I just use Garmin workouts! So easy.
Maunawili 22 mile relay- sounds interesting! How many people do the relay?
It’s just a two person team or you do the entire 22 mile on your own. Maunawili is such a hard course trail in the woods, crossing streams that could go as high as your knees- not once but a couple of times, and just steeeeeeeep uphills. So obviously the person coming downhill has it easier than the other one who has to run/hike back up.
We were thinking of running down and hike up but we shall see!!!! There’s waterfall area too.
Wow, that sounds intense- but fun!
Outstanding! I know how you feel about tempo runs in the heat. I actually prefer speed intervals because you get the recovery in between. I’m a morning runner as well, and that avoids the heat, but the trade off is that you get high morning humidity every day! I just have to remind myself that “Autumn racing doesn’t lie about how you spent your summer.” Look forward to hearing more about how you are going to train for the downhills in Utah. That seems like a really hard environment to train in Mpls, unless you have access to a negative… Read more »
I love that saying Eric! I have to keep reminding myself on these hot humid runs that it will pay off…EFFORT based!
I hope the rumors I heard about Boston are right 🙂
Wahoo!!! Excited to follow your training. I bet quad strength will be really important, and I’d be really interested in hearing details of any quad strength exercises you do.
You’re right about this heat/humidity….I just know it will pay off in the fall, though!
I’ll definitely share more on the strength exercises I do to prepare. Thanks for your support Jess!
Exciting! And I love love love your outfit in the photo with Dustin/dinner at Upton 43!
Thanks Hyedi. It’s TopShop though I got it at Nordstrom’s. 🙂
I was gonna say the same thing… love that outfit, Jessie!
Excited to follow your journey to another 26.2! I have a good feeling about this one 🙂
So crazy about the Grandma’s BQ stat!
Thanks Erin! Love your positivity 🙂
Congrats on picking a race! That course looks very scenic. I am looking forward to following along in your training! 🙂
I think it will be beautiful! Utah is a gorgeous place. Thanks for commenting!
[…] Training for Big Cottonwood is up and running! I am back up to the high mileage again and excited to see what I can do at the Big Cottonwood Marathon. […]