Calgary Marathon Training

I get lots of questions about my training, so I thought I’d summarize my training over the last few months, and reflect back on what I did, why, and what I might do differently.  I feel like it would be a good exercise in growth for me too, so here goes.

Calgary Marathon 2016 Race Report

I have had a lot of thoughts swirling around in my head regarding Sunday’s race.  I was listening to a podcast last week on Trail Runner Nation with Keira Henninger, it was about Adrenal Fatigue, which thankfully I have not dealt with, but there were a few things that really struck a chord with me.  She said that before her recovery from Adrenal Fatigue, she would always push her body, demand more out of it, that she often wasn’t happy, even after a win. Honestly this is a bit how I felt post-race on Sunday.  I felt like I knew I had more, I could have done better, instead of thinking, WOW, that was a fantastic effort, I’m grateful that my body did THAT.  What the heck?! 

There are no gimmes in marathons

In a way I’m tempted to not publish any goals etc for this race. 

“Training” Update for April

Spoiler alert:  April did not go as planned.  For a while, I was definitely in a “I don’t want to talk about it” place.  Now that things are improving and I seem to be on the other side, I will talk about it, and try to learn and move forward.  If it weren’t for the challenges in life, we wouldn’t learn and grow our wisdom, right? 

Running for a good cause…

I used to run the Calgary Underwear Affair every year.  It was the race where I got to dress up in my underwear, and run 10k for a good cause. It’s especially fun when you’re pregnant 🙂

Lori’s Calgary Marathon Race Report!

I was chatting with Lori (and by chatting I mean texting… 🙂 ) last week, and she was saying that she hadn’t decided whether to write a race report or not.  I told her she totally should!  First of all I love race reports, love reading them, and I like writing them.  It feels good after a race to reflect on your training, the race, the experience, all of it.  So she did, and when she sent it to me, it made me cry!!  If you know me, I’m a bit like a robot and rarely cry, but her report is awesome, and she agreed that I could post it here!  Soooo, get some Kleenex, and read on!

Calgary Marathon Race Report!

Here it is!  My official recap, and race report from the Calgary Marathon.  Spoiler Alert – it was awesome!! 🙂  I enjoyed every part of this race, the training, being a ForeRunner, all the weekend events, and of course the race itself went really well.  It’s also long, so get a snack and a drink before you sit down to read it 🙂

Calgary Marathon – Goals, thoughts, etc…

So here it is, the last week before The Calgary Marathon!! It’s a little surreal that it’s suddenly upon us, but it also feels like we’ve put a lot of work into this training cycle and are ready to see the fruit that it will bear. If you wonder why I am talking as “we” and “us”, that’s because my training partner Lori and I have been training for this one together, with an identical schedule, running together twice a week most weeks. I feel like this has been a team effort in many ways.

A Day in the Life of Lori and Terry’s Strength Training – The Outdoor Edition!

Lori and I have a standing date every week for a medium long run, and strength training session.  We’ve been running up to 16 km’s and then going to the gym afterwards.  Since we’re now tapering for our marathon, our distances are going down, we decided to change up the strength training this week also.  We met on Tuesday night this week, and it was a lovely sunny day (something we haven’t had a lot of this spring)!  Lori suggested that we run in Griffith Woods, which is a beautiful park, but doesn’t have a ton of distance for longish runs, and then she suggested we workout in the park afterwards.  Awesome idea I thought!!

What I’ve learned so far the Recovery Nutrition edition…

I’ve just finished running what have been my biggest mileage weeks ever. I’ve averaged over 73 km’s (45 miles) a week over the last 5 weeks. I know there are lots of people who marathon train who run a lot more than that, but there are also who run less. I’m especially happy because this is the first time I’ve come through a marathon training cycle without a single niggle, injury, concern, etc (KNOCK ON WOOD!!)