Unfortunately I did not keep up with my blog to journal about my training journey, so I will try to remember the highlights now. I started my training in June of last year. There are many different marathon training plans out there. The most popular for runDisney is Jeff Galloway. He uses interval based running based on the run walk run method. I have never been an interval runner. I know it works for a lot of people, but after running several half marathons continuously I wasn't sure I wanted to switch. The miles after 13 did make me nervous so I thought well I will take it week by week and if I start struggling when I get into the higher miles maybe I will try out some intervals. I did loosely follow the Galloway schedule. He has you run for 30 minutes twice a week and than run your long run on the weekend. The long run would increase every other week until the end and then it was every 3 weeks. I am also a member of Orange Theory Fitness. OTF is an interval based work out that is a 1 hour high intensity workout that incorporates treadmill work with rowing and weight training all while being monitoring while wearing a heart rate monitor. The workouts goal is to maintain a target heart rate zone that will stimulate your metabolism and increase energy so you will burn calories upto 36 hours post workout. Since the majority of the classes you spend 30 minutes on the treadmill, I used my OTF classes as my cross training days. My schedule was to attend OTF classes twice a week. Run fast 2-4 miles once a week, my long run on the weekend, and I also incorporated some weights and ab work. For the most part I stuck pretty closely to my schedule. I always made sure I hit my long runs, but life does get in the way sometimes.
The first big milestone was completing 14 miles, since my longest past runs had been 13.1 miles. 14 went pretty decent and I was definitely proud of the accomplishment but nervous about all those miles ahead! At this point the every other week long run was increasing 2 miles each time. Miles 16 and 18 went well, I was surprised that I was still able to continuously run. I think during my 16 mile run towards the end the dreaded wall was approaching and I did end up taking a few short walk breaks. My pace was still staying between 12-12:30 minute mile, which I was happy with for my first marathon. I remember 18 felt really good, the last half my time was even improving into the 11:30-12 minute pace! Experimenting with fuel and water was also incorporated with these training runs. I found that fueling early when I didn't even feel like I needed it worked best, so every 4 miles I started taking in some carbs. What ended up working for me was a Gu every other 4 miles and the other was a combination of pretzels, Honey Stinger Waffles, and sports bean.
My biggest dreaded mileage was that 20 mile run. A lot of training plans only have you train until 20 miles. These plans have you running a lot more miles during the week. Galloway has you run to 26 because of the low weekly millage. Since I was running a little more than Galloway plans, but not as much as others I decided I would train to 24. I really wanted the first time I hit 26 miles to be at the actual marathon. So the day before my planned 20 mile run, my husband and I went to the Epcot Food & Wine Festival. We spent the early afternoon eating around the countries. I didn't really eat too much since I am a vegetarian and the pickings are slim! Then that night we went to a local fair and I never ate dinner, just munched on some fries. I also did not drink enough water at all! Needless to say the 20 mile run was not pretty... I did okay up until the 13 mile point, but after that I didn't just hit the wall I ran with that wall the rest of the time! I ended up walking a lot miles 16-20. I would run a portion of each mile, and walk the rest. But somehow I finished. After I felt awful, I got home collapsed, and almost passed out. I definitely learned my lesson about the importance of fueling the days before!
Miles 22 and 24 went much better since I learned from my mistake and fueled and hydrated correctly the days leading up to the long run! It is amazing how a year ago the idea of running 26 miles seemed absolutely impossible and by the end of the year I had actually did it, I completed 24 miles and now had 3 weeks to taper and prepare for the race! I learned a lot about myself and my ability to complete something I set my mind too. I was scared about training for this alone, but the hours I spent out there training alone ended up not being that bad. Not only did I add quite a bit of songs to my collection, I learned how to rely on myself when things got bad and no one else was around. I had to fight off those negative thoughts and that little devil on my shoulder telling me to just stop and go home. I am really proud of myself for sticking to it even when getting up at 6am to go for a 3, 4, and 5 hour run was the last thing I wanted to do! I truly believe that if you put your mind to it you can accomplish anything!
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