Training for my 5th Marathon

Words I never thought I would say - "training for my 5th marathon". I often look back to how this marathon madness started: I was one of "those" runDisney people who signed up for the Dopey Challenge (running 48.6 miles over 4 consecutive days, 5K, 10K, 13.1, 26.2) prior to running a full marathon. I made it a priority to complete a full marathon before the Dopey Challenge and thanks to the marathon gods, my first marathon ended up being the 2013 NYC Marathon thanks to getting in via lottery.

2013 New York City Marathon

After I completed the 2014 Dopey Challenge, I swore off marathons for life. I nearly swore off running anything more than 3 miles. It wasn't just the Dopey Challenge, it was 2 marathons, 5 half marathons, 2 10k's and 2 5k's completed in less than 4 months that made me wave my white flag. Did I mention this fell on my 2 year anniversary of running my first 5k? I look back at that girl and say "you are cray cray".

2014 Dopey Challenge, 5K, 10K, 13.1, 26.2

When I received an invitation to run the 2014 NYC Marathon as part of ASICS blogger challenge, my grumpy runner went back into her rabbit hole. Getting that once in a lifetime experience brought me back to why I fell in love with running. Next thing I knew, I was signing up for my 4th full marathon. I knew from past experiences that I will never put myself through the torture of back to back races again. Am I saying I will never do another Dopey Challenge...no.  However I will not sign up for every bling dangled in front of me.

2014 NYC Marathon

This brings me to training for my 5th full marathon. This one will be different from all the others...
Full Marathon #1: I was delusional and didn't train correctly
Full Marathon #2: Dopey Challenge (and see paragraph 2 of this post)
Full Marathon #3: Invitation to run my 2nd NYC Marathon w/ ASICS with only 2 months to train and getting married w/ a 2 week long honeymoon falling in those 2 months
Full Marathon #4: Running a full with my best friend (we don't live in the same city and couldn't train together)

See a pattern there? Not only do I have more excuses than a barrel of monkeys, I didn't train correctly for any of those 4 26.2 mile accomplishments. While no one can take away my 4x26.2 mile accomplishments away from me, I know deep down inside that I can do better.

My goal is something that many runners can do in their sleep with food poisoning but this is what I am aiming for. I want to finish my 5th full marathon in under 5 hours. To complete a marathon in 5 hours, you'll need a mile average of 11 minutes and 27 seconds which is a fairly easy jogging pace for most people, including myself. This is slower than what I average a half marathon in. The problem for me is maintaining that pace for 26.2 miles.

Once again, I will be training with the Galloway Method. I am a huge fan of Jeff and his no injury method. Starting off, I will train at an 11 minute mile pace for 26.2 miles. This pace has me running a a 2:30/1:00  (running two and a half minutes on, walking 1 minute). I have been doing a 2/1 for the past year so bumping up shouldn't be an issue. I know I could easily train with a 3/1 ratio which would be a 10 minute mile pace (4:22 finish time). However, that is not a reachable goal for me at this time and I refuse to put that pressure on myself.

Here's looking to you May:

Due to my work travel schedule, I have to do my runs on Wednesday's, Friday's and Sunday's. To be honest, seeing 9 miles on this weeks agenda doesn't thrill me by any means. Sorry Mom, mothers day brunch will be delayed. Your daughter is a slacker and hasn't ran more than 4 miles since her last half marathon in March. Please save a Mimosa for me....thanks!