This is the first week of my marathon training plan for the Columbus Marathon. The marathon is October 20, 2019. I’m following the Pfitzinger 18/55 plan again this time.
I signed up for the Columbus Marathon for three reasons:
- It’s flat and a great race, according to my former boss (it was also his first and best marathon)
- It’s not a long drive from Cincinnati – only about 2 hours.
- It’s in the fall. There’s really only three ‘safe’ fall options in the state – Columbus, Northern Ohio/Mentor, and Youngstown. By safe, I mean not-September, since it’s a mixed weather bag, and not trail because the overall goal is still to BQ.
I’m changing a few things this time around. One is more core strengthening. I’ve been wondering if my late-race quad issues is because of a weak core (and I sit all day because work). So I’m going to add one-legged squats, single-leg dead lifts, hamstring curls, hip bridges, planks, crunches, and Russian Twists into the mix.
Monday: 8 miles + 10 x 100m strides. Ran in the park and the neighboring subdivision on a warm and sticky morning. Overall, 9.42 miles in 1:21:58 (8:42 min/mile pace). Finished with stretches, squats, and 4 pull-ups.
Tuesday: 3 miles easy. Ran in the same park, but kept it in the park. Finished with stretches, single-leg dead lifts (body weight only), and single-leg squats. 3.27 miles in 27:45 (8:29 min/mile).
Wednesday: 10 miles. Ran this one up at East Fork, which was a little bit of a struggle due to the heat and hills and due to GI issues late in the run. Overall, 10.28 in 1:33:21 (9:05 min/mile pace).
Thursday: 5 miles recovery. Ran in the township park. Another hot and sticky morning. 5.02 in 44:18 (8:49 min/mile). Adjusted my post-run to include fewer (by one set) of normal squats, but added single-leg squats and unweighted single-leg deadlifts. Later in the day, I did some planks, hamstring curls, and hip bridges.
Friday: 13 miles with 8 at M pace. This was not a run. This was a ride on the struggle bus.
The weather was hot and sticky. There were a lot of sidewalk closures (Cincinnati MSD doesn’t seem to give a damn about anything that isn’t Mud, Shit, or Debris). I ran out of Gatorade. Overall, 13.12 (because one does not run 13 miles without tacking that 0.1 on the end) in 1:55:07 (8:46 min/mile pace). My intended pace for the M pace miles was 7:50 – 8:15, but my average pace for that portion was 8:36 min/mile.
You suck, MSD. 
Damn struggle bus didn’t even supply refreshments. Had to get a water at a nearby UDF after being dropped off.
So that was a week. A hot and sticky week. A week where I ran 41 miles. It’s the end of June, and I ran 145 miles in June. It was mostly a good month (even though the ending kinda sucked).
I didn’t rework my pace ranges for my next marathon. My overall pace at Glass City was 8:07 min/mile, so I’m within the range I trained at, and my goal for Columbus is to drop from 3:33 to 3:25, which would require me to be between 7:50 and 7:55 per mile. That’s possible! I charted my cumulative pace throughout Glass City and found that before the wheels fell off after mile 20, I was down to a 7:59 min/mile pace. Hopefully, the additional strengthening will help.
Cheers!
Upcoming Race Schedule:
July 30: NKU XC Series #2 (tentative- I may have a work conflict)
Aug 6: NKU XC Series #3 / Brian Rohne Cross Country Championships.
Aug 17: Bulldog Blast 5k
Sept 21: Hudepohl 14k Run
Oct 20: Columbus Marathon