Capital G Goals

I love my BRF. Let me just preface this post with that declaration, although I'm sure it's not the first and probably not the last. I'm 100% a planner and she's 95% down with whatever I say. Haha, that maybe sounds like a dictatorship, but that's cool. We were spectating the Twin Cities Marathon and she asked what our "plan" was for next year when it was our turn.

J: Well, we run 26.2 miles. That *is* the plan.

T: But we always have a plan. Like what's the goal?!

J: It's your first, so you finish. I want to PR. Ideally I'd like to be under 4, but a 20 second PR would even make me happy at this point.

T: Well what if we ran it together and did sub-4??

And then I shrieked. We talked about it, and I said that at this point, I really think I could run a sub 4 in a year, but I don't know for sure.

But it's important to have BIG goals, right? The worst that could happen is that it doesn't happen, and then I try again.

#marathontimesthatstartwith3

#prparty

#sub4

Fall Marathon Debate

It's that time of year again where we play "What's Jerbear's next big race?" In our last installment, we toyed around with the spring race calendar and landed on Operation: get our speedy legs back via ALL THE HALF MARATHONZ! In this blog post's discussion we will figure out my fall marathon plans.

Ooooooooooooooooh.

What's behind Door #2 for the winner??

Hopefully a marathon PR.

The only thing I know for certain regarding the fall marathon, is that I won't be signing up for anything until my spring races are done and over. Training for, and running a marathon at my current speed is miserable. My enjoyment from running comes from pushing myself to become a stronger and faster runner and having my race finish times reflect that. I wish I was someone that just loved to run all day everyday just because it is the greatest thing ever, but I'm not. I do love running. But putting in a monster training cycle when every run takes a million hours longer than it "used" to is just not fun. So my plan is to get my running and racing game back to where it was in the fall of 2011. Or at least get it close. It'll take a lot of work, but I'm up for the challenge. If this doesn't happen, and it takes longer than I'm expecting, I may scrap the fall marathon idea and keep on working on half marathon speed.

The next time I register for 26.2 miles I want my sub-4 finish time to be a given, not a question mark. I want to go in to training knowing that my speed is clearly sub-4 and that after a monster mileage marathon training cycle the question will no longer be if I *can* go sub 4, it'll be how sub 4 I can go.

Breaking 2 hours in the half was such a huge deal to me. I think I tried and failed 4 times before it happened. The time I finally went sub 2 I had already run sub 2 for a half marathon training run, so I knew I had it in the bag. I ran a 1:54 that fall. I have such a mental block with 26.2 that even on the few occasions that I'm convinced I was in sub-4 shape, I never had the confidence in myself and my running ability to execute it.

On to the fall race plan:

I love running marathons late in the fall season. It almost guarantees cold conditions (thanks Madison!). I'd prefer to not race a super hilly course (sorry Madison, that counts you out). I'd be willing to travel. GIVE ME YOUR SUGGESTIONS! INVITE ME ALONG FOR YOUR RACE PLANS!

The Sioux Falls half marathon in September will be my 10th consecutive year of running it. The weather is always atrocious, so depending on which marathon I choose this will either be a longer tempo run or I'll run some miles before the race to make it a long-long run.

My two strongest contenders are currently the Philly Marathon or the Twin Cities Marathon.

TCM is normally good weather, but it has been hot, which freaks me out. I'd have to start training in June for the marathon, which blows. I wouldn't be able to race a half during the training cycle (like I usually enjoy doing) because it's too hot to race a half prior to mid-September and with an October 5th race date, that doesn't work. It's close enough to home that I could drive, and Kyle could maybe come and spectate! And a friend of mine is considering it for her first full! She's pretty close to the speed I was before grad school started, so I'd have a built in training buddy!

Philly was my favorite marathon course and conditions ever. I know it was a lot warmer this year, but it's late November which is in my favor both weather wise and when I'd need to start training mid-July. I'd like to think I could convince Megan and Jenn to join me for another bff runner weekend, but I'm not sure! Flights+hotels are always spendy so this would definitely be the more $$$ option.

The other back up idea would be CIM. It's an ideal time of year, similar to Philly, but I'm always concerned about doing the final month of my training when it's freezing here and then going somewhere with mild weather and it feeling tropical because my body is now used to the 20 degree training runs. A California trip would also be $$$. [CIM is clearly vying for my attention with the race weather this past weekend. 27 to start, 40 to finish.... where do I sign up??]

Please weigh in. What are your plans??

Run-domness

Attention:  I apologize slightly for the randomness of this post. You see, I've been practicing doing everything in 9 minute increments to prepare for my SUB 4 finish on Saturday, so clearly my brain can only fire in quick 9 minute flashes as well. ;)



Kudos and threeve bonus points to Bree and Sarah who were brilliant enough to get my sweet Will Ferrell SNL Jeopardy! skit quote.  There was a time in college (really a full semester and a half) where Will Ferrell's Best of SNL dvd was playing on a loop in our dorm room. 

This weekend I was the laziest runner girl tapering for a marathon in the history of the world (bold statements... I LOVE EM!)  Seriously, I went from Thursday to Saturday without a run.  It was a pretty easy decision given the dark/cold/gloomy/rainy/windy conditions.  And likewise, the taper crazies have been lifted as well.  I (and mostly KK) am/are seriously beyond thankful for that.  KK cracked a joke that I should never plan to run a marathon while pregnant, because the crazy hormones from pregnant plus the lose-your-mind insanity of the taper would cause me to end the world.  I told him to shut up and stop joking about me being knocked up.  So that's that.

Go figure, I was rewarded for slacking off on my runs all weekend with a gorgeous sunshiny day on Sunday.  Ignore the fact that it was 20-30 mph winds throughout, that's just come to be expected, ya know? (working on my Canadian/Fargo-ian accent for next weekend!)  I did 8 slow-ish miles for my last long run.  During the last mile I was bored so I did some 100 m. stride/pick ups to keep me from falling asleep on my feet.

Sounds like the plan for the expo on Friday is to be there in the 2-2:30 range.  This gives us 30 minutes of potty breaks en route to the great north.  This will probably not be enough.  Neat.  Let me know (if you haven't yet) if you want to meet up with me and Miss Megan!

And finally (as if this post weren't random enough), I have a fun little poll for you guys.  Except it's not truly a poll at all, but merely a question that I hope you will answer via comments or tweets.  When do you typically start to doubt yourself and your finish goal time in a marathon?  My thoughts: I'm hoping your responses will calm me and prepare me for when those doubts creep up on Saturday, and I'm able to say (in my head of course, because I don't want to be that creepy girl talking to herself while running a marathon), "Well [insert super fast runner friend here] wanted to give up at [insert mile marker here] and didn't and went on to run [insert super fab-o marathon time here] so suck it up and sub 4!"  Annnnnnnnnnnnd go!