Yesterday, Oct. 1^st, I ran my 2^nd Twin Cities Marathon and 3^rd overall. This was my 2^nd marathon of the year. In May, I ran the Colfax marathon in Denver in 4:01. Yesterday, I was able to beat that and score a new PR – 3:49:07 . This was about 18 min PR from last year race.

My training was great, and I challenged my body and legs into new territories. I logged a total of 754 miles (including the marathon) over 14 weeks of training. I averaged 30MPW during last year, 45MPW during Denver, and a little over 55MPW for this one.

I did not use a plan for the two cycles this year. I used the philosophy of the experts at RW – run slow, run more, and race fast. All my miles were easy/aerobic with 1 quality workout a week – either tempo (5 miles) or intervals. I peaked at 76 miles, a number that I never even imagined running a few years ago. And I PRed my half-marathon time – 1:41:47.

Like last year’s event, the race did not disappoint. The weather was nearly perfect in the low 50s at the starting line with some showers. The crowd came out despite the rain, and they were cheering enthusiastically. To those who don’t know much about the race, it starts in Minneapolis and ends in Saint Paul crossing the Mississippi river with nearly 11k participants between the 10 milers and the marathon.

Despite not having a particular number in my mind to finish, I did start aggressively. Last year I averaged 9:30sh during the 1^st 10 miles. In Denver, I averaged 9:10sh during the 1^st 12 miles. Yesterday, I was holding 8:25-30 from the start. It felt really great, but I knew it was not easy. I just kept telling myself that it should not be easy - it is a race after all not a LR- I thought that if I could hold 7:50 for a half, I should be able to hold 8:25-30 for the full. I WAS DEAD WRONG J the wheels fell off right at 22 – 9:12 9:40 9:50 9:55 10:00.

I had a lot of fun though despite the death march. It seems that I keep learning and improving. I look forward to an active recovery period during the next two months where I will run easy miles. The plan is to do a spring and a fall marathon during 18. I guess I could aim to finishing sub 3:40 but who knows.

Thanks for reading everybody,

Mohammed

Congratulations on your new PR - that's a big improvement in a short time!  Run more/run easy is a great plan that will get you quite far.  Since you ran at a faster pace than your PR half, the next thing to do is to PR the half!

Happy to see you here, Mohammed!

 

Great race to top off a great training cycle.  I hope to emulate you.    At least in the training.  

 

I heard it was raining pretty hard at the end of the race and the end was uphill and into the wind! 

 

Cathy

Cathy,

Good to hear from you Hopefully we can make this a 2nd home, and start a training thread.

Thank you very much. It did get a little wet and windy at the end of the race.  I hope these elements won't discourage you from racing TCM next fall 

Oh, sorry, I misunderstood - I thought you said that you PR'ed your half during the marathon. (Which I did myself during my first sub-4.)