Recently it was announced that the local marathon here where I live, the AACR Philadelphia Marathon was cancelled outright with no virtual option due to the COVID-19 pandemic. While this was initially disappointing as this was the race I have been training for and hoping to run I fully respect the public health concern and also recognize that there are numerous other virtual races available around the same time. While the feeling of running with a crowd and being surrounded by hundreds of cheering fans along a route will be missed this year, I have not lost my motivation to continue training and making my own route, on my own day and time! I am still targeting to run the marathon in the 2nd week of November and there is a marathon still scheduled to be held in person in Richmond, VA that weekend which also has the option of a virtual entry. Additionally, I recently learned of another local half-marathon and 25k event that was moved virtually so I now plan on adding one of those runs (probably the 25k) to my training schedule. It's good to have something to look forward to and I find that the financial investment of entering a race, even a virtual one is a good commitment to keep training.
In week 6 we got up to 8 miles for the long run and had two shorter runs of 2 and 4 miles. I also walked quite a bit on the days I was not running for an apparent total of over 13 hours of what my Fitbit quantifies as "exercise". Just yesterday, now in week 7 I ran 5 miles and plan to do two short runs of 2-3 miles before a long run of 9 miles this Sunday. For both the 8-miler and 5-miler I wore my new hydration pack which definitely jostled around a bit (probably need to mess with the straps for a more secure fit) but was a welcome boost to staving off my thirst with temperatures in the 80s and high humidity, despite running in the early morning or late evening hours.
You may be noticing a pattern by now - that each week I am adding a mile to my long runs. Adding mileage up to the point of a half-marathon is sustainable but from my experience, adding beyond that point it can be good to take a rest week with lower mileage to recover and continue gaining in the subsequent weeks. I am tentatively going to target the 25k (~15.5 miles) race I alluded to above and incorporate that into my training in a little over a month from now. However, immediately before and after that race I plan to drop down before building back up to a maximum of 22 miles prior to tapering for a November marathon. Here is my tentative training schedule for my long runs between now and then:
02Aug - 9 miles
09Aug - 10 miles
16Aug - 11 miles
23Aug - 13.1 miles (half-marathon)
30Aug - 14 miles
06Sep - 8 miles
13Sep - 25k
20Sep - 12 miles
27Sep - 16 miles
04Oct - 18 miles
11Oct - 15 miles
18Oct - 20 miles
25Oct - 22 miles
01Nov - 16 miles
08Nov - 10 miles
14Nov - 26.2 (marathon)
While it's good to set a long-run goal for each week, it's also equally important to continue doing at least 2-3 other mid-week runs. Many guides say you should run about 6 days per week towards the peak of your training even if it's just for a couple of fast-paced miles to balance out a slow, easy run. I plan to incorporate different paces during my mid-week runs more and sharing those in the future. For now, I've got some runs this week to look forward my fingers crossed that this heat wave starts to diminish.
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