Tag Archives: pittsburgh marathon

Okay. We’re about to let the #realtalk roll. Phew. Tomorrow afternoon I’m head to Pittsburgh for a few days of harassing Lynne…and partaking in the Pittsburgh Marathon races. Initially I had high hopes for a crazy successful marathon. When I signed up I imagined a strong training cycle with speed work, confident miles, a PR + possibly a BQ. I was optimistic, and a little delusional. And then…reality happened.

More than once [all the times?] I opted for rocky trail runs over speedy road runs every. single. time. This lead to a fair bit of “oh crap” moments as the marathon date approached. Today I officially took a step back. My bib has officially been moved from the Pittsburgh Marathon to the Pittsburgh Half Marathon.

Cross training is essential for a successful, injury-free race…right?! I sure hope so, because that is currently my game plan for this upcoming marathon. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still running! But I’m not running nearly as much as I thought I would be considering how many times I threatened myself + my lack of training during the Steamboat Marathon last year. I’ve been active + playing outside a lot lately, more often than not with my running shoes on my feet; however, I’m not always doing the whole arms pumping + legs churning running thing while I’m out there. #GameOnPGH, right?!

So, running + marathon training. I’ve actually been doing it, lately. With varying levels of success…but considering everything else going on in my day-to-day life I’m feeling pretty good at where I’m at with running. I’ve been getting #GameOnPGH 4+ days of running in each week, I’ve sprinkled in a few days of snowboarding/hiking to spice things up and I feel pretty good about the amount of effort I have to put into my runs, physically + mentally. Not bad, right?!

I’ve only topped out at 12 miles, so far. And while I had a minor “gah, that’s not enough” spaz the other day I’ve done a little counting + scribbling and I feel pretty good about it. My upcoming weeks of training [only 10 left!] are going to look something like this, in terms of long run mileage…14, 10, 16, 18, 14, 20, 22, 16, 14, 12, race day. Seems like a solid #GameOnPGH plan, eh?

Soo…last week I went on a tangent about who I am as a runner vs who I sometimes pretend to be. I’m still sticking with that “running for fun” mentality but in the name surviving the Pittsburgh Marathon I’ve decided to pull together something that resembles a training plan. Since this past weekend was the official kickoff of #GameOnPGH in Pittsburgh it only seems appropriate that I cobbled together my training with Monday being “Day 1” for me here in Colorado.