Episode 32: Running with Friends Series; 2021 Race Plans & future goals
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Welcome to Chasing Life Podcast, where we talk about fitness, running, career, and life tips to inspire you to live your best life. I'm your host, Sarah Kane, and I hope you enjoy today's episode.

Welcome to Running With Friends. I'm Maddie, and I'm the host of the We Get the Runs podcast. And I'm Sarah, the host of Facing Life podcast. I live in Florida. And I live in New York. But we've decided to collaborate about once a month and build a friendship based on sharing our thoughts on various running topics and share updates on our training as we face our goals. We hope you take us on a run with you and become our running friends too.

Hey, Sarah, how have you been? I'm doing much better since we last talked. I've been able to start running again after my break from running due to tendinitis.

How did that happen? Is it fully gone or are you still feeling it? I'm still feeling it a little bit, but the pain has decreased. I'm running about three days a week now. I'm still doing some run-walk intervals, so that's been helping to kind of keep the pain at bay. I did some research on different injury comeback plans, and so I'm slowly shifting the ratio of what I'm running versus walking.

Like my long run on Sunday, I did one mile of running and then one minute of walking. And I did that seven times. And so far that seems to be okay. You know, the next morning I, my ankle's still kind of tight, but it's much more tolerable than it used to be. So step in the right direction, but still not a hundred percent gone yet. Well, that's definitely a step in the right direction. And that makes me happy to hear that, especially with fall races coming up. Are you signed up for a couple of races?

I do have a couple of fall races on my horizon, mostly half marathons. My usual local half marathon that typically happens actually first weekend in May is postponed until September. So I have that one and then the wine glass half marathon, which I've been running in some capacity, whether it's a marathon or half marathon for the last few years, and

Plus, one of the big upstate New York races is the Boilermaker 15K, and that got postponed from July until the second weekend in October. So those are all races on my fall horizon. Well, that's always really handy that it, you know, they delay them just for you, it seems like. Yeah, right. It's definitely been beneficial to have those races delayed because then I don't feel as much pressure to...

try to force myself to come back to running sooner than my body is ready to. So it's giving me an opportunity to just do some strength training, lower impact, not so much like plyometrics right now,

but doing some running, kind of testing it out and seeing how it's going week by week. But it's definitely more in the one to two pain range than seven to eight. So improving. When I talked to my physical therapist, she said it could take up to a year. So I'm about six months in at this point. It's a long road when you have a tendonitis issues.

I had no idea that it would last that long, actually. I just kind of figured it's one of those where you have it and it kind of goes away. What I've learned is there's kind of two stages. There's tendinitis and then there's tendinosis. And the tendinosis lasts anywhere...

longer than three months. So tendonitis is more in the three month time period and anything beyond that is more defined as tendinosis. So that seems to be what I'm dealing with, but I've learned a lot on how to strengthen my ankles. And so I'm just hoping that all of these things that I'm concentrating on will just make me a better runner in the long run. And I am definitely glad that I don't have races until the fall. So.

Perfect timing. Perfect timing. Can't say enough. Yeah. So that's my running update. What's going on with your running world? Have you been running some races? I've been running a couple of races here and there, but I hadn't really, okay. I'm not, I don't want to say I didn't train for them, but I hadn't trained specifically for that event. So what I've been trying to do is, um, I don't know if I told you that, but last year, I think it was about, it was about July. I got,

got plantar fasciitis and that thing just was so stubborn. It didn't go away all the way till November. So it was crappy running up until then. And then I picked it up a little bit. So now my goal has been just to kind of build a good base 40, 50 miles, which I think is a strong base for a non elite person.

So I've been working on that. And then I've been doing some 5Ks, but mostly because I have friends that organize them or there's one it's called Elite Events and it's a local race. They have a bunch of half marathons and I do podcasting for them.

So we do like a race recap. And so I've been doing their events, but not really going in there trained for the half marathon or 5k, whatever it be. I would just run it to finish it and obviously try to be strong and fast, but yeah,

but not specifically going for a PR and, and, you know, all that because I want to build this big running base and do a fall race. So hopefully the ones I'm signed up for right now, you know, we've got the green light, but who knows? I don't want to be pessimist, but there's one race in Germany and, you know, I'm German. So it's the Berlin marathon and that's the one I really want to do well at.

But Germany is pretty slow with rolling out the vaccine. So I'm trying to stick. And then of course, this sounds bad, but I have Chicago and Boston as a backup race just to kind of see how things will go and then which one I'm going to make my A race and B race, etc.

So for Berlin, how do you get into that? I haven't really done a lot of research with like major marathons. I know like New York has a lottery. Obviously, Boston has a qualifying. How does it work to get into Berlin?

So they have a qualifying time, which I absolutely do not qualify for. So I played the lottery. I won the lottery. And ever since, I mean, it was supposed to happen in 2020. So then I deferred it to this year. And the race director is saying, oh, you know, 100%, we're going to have this race. Well, he said the same thing last year. And he's kind of known for that. And

And, but you know they just canceled Oktoberfest, which is right around that same time so I'm just trying to be realistic and not get too excited about it and it's kind of dumb because you don't know whether or not you should buy tickets and all that stuff because it's you know it's not like a flight within the US it's planning a little bit of something bigger and childcare and all that stuff. Well.

We'll see. Well, I hope it works out for you. That sounds like it would be a nice adventure, especially to be able to travel again after being limited over the last year and a half. Absolutely. Yeah. And I don't know if you know much about the Berlin Marathon. I guess you said you didn't. So it's a world record setting race.

race terrain or loop that they have there that where Kipchoge has his world record and a bunch of people so it's a super fast race and it's a good time of weather wise in Germany so it would be really really cool but you know again I don't want to get too excited about it yeah

Yeah, I had heard that about the Berlin course, but yeah, I just don't know much about registering for the major marathons because it's never been anything that's particularly been on my radar. That's cool. They have three majors on your schedule of potential this fall. Are you going to do all three? No.

No way. So my goal was I wanted to do Berlin and I wanted to do it fast. And then Boston is, I think about two and a half or I guess three weeks afterwards. So Boston was to me in my head, this is the first time I'll ever get to do Boston. So in my head, it's like, this is the victory, um,

what is it called? Victory loop race. So I just want to enjoy it. I want to take it all in and it's hilly. I live in Florida. We don't have hills. So I was just going to kind of run it, you know, after doing well in Berlin, hopefully. But now that I don't know if Berlin's going to happen, there's Chicago and Chicago is a fast course too. So

I don't know. You know, first world problems, runners problems. Fast runner problems, because if you got into Boston this year, you got a lucky ticket. I did. Did you hear about the cutoff time? I did. Yeah, it was like seven minutes faster, which makes me even more nervous because as we talked about in our last episode, or maybe our first one, qualifying for Boston is something that is on my mind.

goal board now. And so now it makes me even more nervous to have to train for a, say a 10 minute faster time than even the qualifying time. Well, I don't think you need to worry because the field size has been reduced a lot. And I think that's why they had to do that. Also, they had two years of entrance or entry times to count out of. And so they'll also have another Boston again in April. So I think the

cut off time, then we'll just go back to regular, you know, two minute buffer or something. I don't think this is something that's permanent. I hope not. So the goal time that I would be working toward is a 335. And in my mind, I'm thinking, okay, well, maybe it would be good to get around like 330, just to kind of give myself that little cushion. But anything beyond that, like within to train for over the next year seems like really, really hard. So yeah, I definitely hope that the

registration for Boston shifts back to just being, you know, one or two minutes below the qualifying time. I'm sure it will because, you know, they just changed it. Right. And then just like a year ago where they subtracted another five minutes. So it seems like this is the race that it's impossible to age into. Right. Yeah.

I remember when I turned 30 or right before I turned 30, people would be like, oh, you want to train for Boston? I said, no, you know, it doesn't really something I want to do right now in my life. And I'll just age into it. I'll run it 2020. And then it was 2018. And you're sitting there and you're like, my gosh, that qualifying time has just gotten slower. And I mean, faster and faster. Did you decide if you're going to run Boston this year?

I will only run Boston if Berlin takes place. If Berlin does not take place, then I'll make Chicago my fast race as much as I'm dying to run Boston because the only major I've ever done is Chicago. You know, obviously now I'm kind of, all right, I should do all of them. But yeah,

I don't know. I still, if I'm going to put in a summer full of hard running, then I don't want the hills in Boston to ruin. I want to do it on a fast course and

Unless, I mean, maybe I'll find another race, but who knows? I read something about that wine glass race that you were talking about. They have a full marathon and it's a fast course too. Yes. Yeah. It has a net downhill. So it's used often as a Boston qualifying course, other than it's usually the first weekend in October. So it's a few weeks after what the normal Boston deadline would be. Normally, I think the Boston deadline to run like

The following April is sometime in mid-September. So that year's wine glass would still get you qualifying time, but you know, with the cycle, it wouldn't catch it for that, you know, for the Boston that six months later, it would catch it for the one 18 months later. Okay. I see. I see. Well, that's still fine. I mean, it just sounds like a fun race that I need to look into. Hey, if you come to New York, we can do that race together.

That would be fun. That'd be totally fun. Yeah, I mean, I'll check it out. I'm going to put that on my little bucket list of craziness this fall. Well, there's this other thing I'm going to tell you about. And I think I mentioned it last time. So I have a big birthday, unfortunately, this year, and I can't even believe it's happening because it's so scary. And it's a big four zero.

And so I was trying to figure out something fun to do. And we were thinking, oh, maybe hike the rim to rim. But then there is this marathon in Nepal, which

where you go overseas and you volunteer for a week and then after that you run a marathon with all the locals and all the people that are runners that came with you to volunteer so that's on my bucket list I think I'm actually going to sign up for it and then just kind of see how it goes because that's not until November so all the races will be done with and it's just something I'm

I don't know, I just feel like I need to do something responsible. Yeah, that sounds like a great way to celebrate, though, between the traveling and just being able to see a new part of the world through running, which we've talked about, you know, that's kind of an advantage of being a runner is that you have that excuse to say, well, I'm just going to explore with my own two feet. Absolutely. Yeah, I'm looking forward to it. So hopefully, yeah.

traveling over Zoom as we hope. And by November, we can leave the country and do fun things. I'm hoping at least just to be able to leave the state. I'm just looking forward. I have a running camp in September that I'm really looking forward to.

Probably people who are listening are sick of me talking about this camp by now because several of my guests have been from the camp. I had such a great time there. And like I went without knowing anyone. And then by the end of the weekend, I had met this like group of eight people and we still keep in touch with each other. It's really nice to now have people that I, to look forward to seeing and going to camp again. That sounds amazing. Yeah. Yeah. It's called Camp Runabout because I'm only an

an hour and a half away from the camp. So it's like super convenient for me to go to it or just try to recruit people who like live close enough by that they don't have to buy a plane ticket to it. But some people do buy plane tickets. I have friends in Arizona and they fly into the camp. I'd buy a plane ticket for that. It sounds awesome. It was, yeah, it's really fun. And like some people, you don't even have to be a runner to go. Oh,

How old would you say are the people that attend this? The median age is actually 41. I was one of the younger campers there. You're the younger kid. That's awesome. Yeah, I know. Yeah, it was interesting. Like most of the people I met were in their like mid to late 40s or older and it's 90% female. It's a lot of fun.

They also have a new location. They have two camps in Pennsylvania and they also have a new camp this year in North Carolina. Oh, North Carolina is beautiful. I just went out there on a trip with a trailer. It's absolutely gorgeous up there. Maybe one of these years I'll venture down to that location just to check it out. Yeah, you should definitely, especially as an ambassador. Now you did some traveling recently. How was that? Where did you go? Do you want to tell us about that trip? Yes. So we went exactly there in that area, North Carolina.

So last year when COVID happened, I bought a travel trailer that we can pull with the truck because we love traveling and this kind of felt like I have to do something.

So we loaded up kids. We have two, two and four years old. So it has a bunk bed in there for them. And we just drove north and saw some families, stopped wherever we wanted to and just kind of explored and just seeing the U.S., I guess. And I feel like ever since I've lived in this country, whatever state I live in, I never really know what's around me because whenever I want to go somewhere, I fly. So this has been kind of a good wake-up call to see, look,

look, I know we can't travel abroad, but you can really see what's around you and try to make the best of the current situation and the lack of being able to travel. I think that you are one of many people. I heard like campsites and RVing was way up in 2020 because the outdoors wasn't closed, right? And it's still a way for people to travel safely. You're kind of in your own space, but you can still go and explore. So I think that's pretty neat.

Oh, that's the best part about it, Sarah. So my kids would sit in the car and be like, oh, we want to go pee. We want to go pee every five seconds. So we had a porta potty that we're pulling basically. I mean, to us, it kind of felt like that. They use the bathroom all the time, pulling over five times on a freeway just because they needed to go use it. And yeah, what you were saying when we were purchasing this thing.

It was really hard to locate a trailer because everything was sold out. Same with the Sprint vans and all these other mobile vehicles. Basically, everything sold out and we had some issues with it and it was under warranty and we've been waiting eight weeks, ten weeks to just get something very simple fixed just because they're out of parts and we have to order them and just a huge delay with everything. Luckily, the issues that we had with it are...

It's ignorable, I want to say, because you can still use it and still go. We just have to take it back there all the time to get it fixed. Now, how's the weather in Florida and how's that been kind of impacting your running? It has gotten really hot. So right now we have, I have this new app that I found online. I want to tell you about it because I'm super excited about it. It's called Good2Run.com.

And it's an app. It's free. It finds your location. It tells you about your weather condition and whether it's a good day to run or not. And that's based on temperature outside and wind, visibility, humidity, air quality index. So it's kind of funny because our humidity, basically it always says it's not a good time to run because we are at

88 degrees with 81% humidity. So it's kind of brutal to run during the day. So you got to get up early. So five o'clock is my jam right now. Every time I oversleep or I don't do it and I have to end up doing it at some point during the day, it's kind of miserable. But at the same time, I'm signed up for a hundred mile relay, which is happening two weeks from now. And it's from Key Largo to Key West and

So you're basically running down 40 islands until you end at Key West. And we have six people and it starts at six o'clock in the morning, but it's absolutely brutal during the day because it's just so hot and so humid. In my head, I'm like, okay, whenever I miss a run, this is my prep run for this relay race. That really sounds really cool. Have you done it before? I did it when I was six months pregnant and not living in Florida. So I wasn't acclimated.

but I don't really mind the heat that much. I don't really melt as much as other people probably. I'd rather run in the heat than in the cold, but it was pretty brutal. I mean,

We were trying to run and we put ice in socks that we wore around our necks and trying to shield our faces with just anything. And it was really hot, but it was also super fun. So I'm excited to go back with my own friends. You know, I did it with my sister-in-law and I didn't really know the people as much as I know the people that are going now. So I'm kind of super excited about this one. Yeah.

Yeah, that sounds really fun. The relays, I feel like are really fun events, not just because you get to hang out with your friends all day, but it's also that challenge of taking turns running. The only relay event I've done is a relay marathon. So, you know, a quarter of the distance of what you're talking about, but still, still really fun. You did a relay marathon. So how many people were in it? The one I did, there was four people. So the mileage...

range from six to seven miles each. Okay. And did you have to run them all at once? So we, it was like a tag along. So the course that I did, it had a relay marathon on the same day as a marathon. So there was kind of checkpoints along the course.

marathon course where the relay teammates would like think of like a relay on a track where you kind of like tag out and your next teammate goes. It was the same thing with a relay marathon where like I would start as like one, I'd run like six miles and at the six mile marker, I'd see my teammate and then they run the next say six and a half miles to our next teammate. So the downfall of that is that I have to wait around like they bus us back to the finish line, but then the

you got to wait around a couple hours until all your teammates make it back. Oh, right. All right. Cause it's six miles. That's practically, I mean, practically an hour. So yeah. Quite a few hours. Oh, how interesting. Yeah. So ours is a bit different. Um, when I ran it the first time I saw they have a suggested exchange point list and I saw that list and I was like, why would they

that way because if you think about it 100 miles divided up by six people is about 17 18 miles something like that and I was kind of shocked that I saw you know each leg was two miles and I thought oh that's going to be very tedious to continue pulling over but then when I actually ran the race in that heat I'm like there is no way anybody can run longer than that in this type of heat except for you know there's one stretch that's a seven mile bridge that somebody has to run but besides that

I'm really glad that we listened to them when they suggested those are the supposed exchange points. Yeah. It's like, oh, well, I guess that makes sense. There must be a reason why they have so often stops. Yeah. Yeah. And it's written out pretty well too, you know, descriptive for whoever is driving. Okay. Pull in here and there just because it's, I don't know if you've been to the Keys, but it's a

just a street down over all these bridges. So it's not like they can stop traffic in the keys for the runners. So the runners are supposed to run on the shoulder of the street. Mm-hmm.

how many people usually participate in that race? You know, I don't know what it caps out at. I know there's a cap this time and they've changed quite a bit. They said no finish line party, which that was, you know, the best part you finish in the evening and there was food and music and all that stuff. And supposedly that's not going to happen, but I know they've put, they've changed the number and there's not as many people running it this year, unfortunately. And it seems like it would probably be pretty lengthy. I

mean, probably like roughly 16 out of 14 to 16 hours, depending on the speed that people are running. Do you remember how fast you finished it before? I don't remember. I just remember we started super early six-ish or so. And I remember-

I don't remember if we went to bed at 10 or midnight or something like that, but it took all day long. We weren't the fastest team by any means, but we weren't super slow. There was teams that were running a lot slower than us as well. And then we knew a guy that was doing the whole thing by himself. Oh my gosh. Did he at least have crew support? I can't imagine like self-supported in Florida heat for a hundred miles.

That seems like torture. Well, he had his wife who was on our relay team. And then I remember waking up in the morning and I had to leave because I had to fly out soon. But I remember driving somewhere to cheer him on because after we had gone to sleep and slept the whole night, he was still out there running. And I just thought, wow, that's just really brutal. Yeah, for sure. At that point.

You know, ultra marathons of that length are growing in popularity, but in Florida heat, that doesn't, I mean, I guess they have it. They have a, what's it?

it's not Western States. There's like a Death Valley race where people run a hundred. Yes. Yeah. Where people just run, you know, a hundred miles in this desert heat. I'm like, oh my gosh, like that just seems absurd. Yeah. Right. Like, and no wonder probably like the finished completion rate is probably very low because people just probably pass out. So I don't know. Cause I think they have a really, um,

difficult way of making people qualify. Like you have to show that you've done a certain amount or length of ultras in a certain time and show that you're really serious. You know, it's not like I could just show up there and be like, Hey, I've never done one. I'm going to do it. And they'd be like, okay, sure. Show us, show us your record, I guess. Right. Yeah. I mean, I guess that would make sense, you know, just for the safety of the runner that they would kind of need to prove themselves to say, I've done these types of races. So I kind of know how to handle, you

my fueling or just support it in some way. And a marathon length is good for me. Anything. I mean, but speaking of ultras, there was a pretty cool record set a couple of weeks ago. Did you see that with Des Linden?

Yes. Yes. She did the 50 K. Yes. So that's like 31 miles. She has a new world record and it was a sub three hour 31 miler, which is pretty nuts. Yeah. It was crazy. I've heard a couple of interviews since she's been done and she had some pacers and, but they also made an event for other people who were trying to get some fast time. Sounded like a cool event, but it was like super top secret until like a couple of days before the event. Yeah.

Oh, was it? Yeah. Yeah. They didn't even announce like the date or the location until within a few weeks. Like in their minds when they were training, they kind of had a range from what I've heard, but they also were like keeping an eye on the weather. And they also had to pick a day that it wasn't because they picked...

like a local paved trail and so they had to do it at a time or with weather that wasn't going to be you know so that it wasn't packed with other people and that it would be kind of conducive to running well like that it wasn't going to be too hot or anything so

So that's interesting because I know that for a world record or for a race to be counted as a world record, you have to have the race organizer register it and do a bunch of things to it too. So that could have probably happened. I don't know the timeline of that, but they just maybe didn't publicly announce it until it got closer to race day.

I wonder what type of course it was. If it was, I mean, you said it was paved, but was it flattish? Because you'd be in that case to try to run a world record pace on something that has hills in it. So from what I just listened to an interview that Deslin did on the Alley on the Run podcast, and it was a mostly flat course. So it was like six and a half

miles out and then back. So that would make it about 13 miles. They went back and forth a couple times. I guess going out it was flat but maybe with a slight incline. And then so coming back they had a slight downhill. Nothing super drastic but so it was mostly a flat course. And I think that's why they picked it. And plus there was shade too. So that probably helped to keep the temperature a little cooler.

Yeah. And plus, I mean, not, not taking away from her accomplishment because that's amazing, but most people don't go for that distance. I guess most people that are serious endurance runners just do the marathon distance. So maybe that kind of played for her advantage too.

Yeah, that the bar was maybe not as low. Yeah, right. And she's at a really low bar. So like anybody who's going to come after her, they got some work to do. Yeah, that's right. Because she, I mean, I don't know how fast her full marathon time is. I know she won Boston during that monsoon, but her Boston time during that monsoon wasn't

the fastest time. I think everybody else, she was just the one that was the last standing soldier, you know, in the rain and the cold and all that craziness. She was the one that had the most grit, I guess, to finish it. And just by sticking with it, she won. Not saying I could run anywhere near right time. I'm just saying,

I know that she's probably done a lot of races that were faster than that Boston time. Yeah. I don't know her marathon time off the top of my head. I do recall that she won Boston in 2018. Um, and she mentioned in the interview that she was interested in competing in the major marathons again. So I think that's on her horizon. It's like, I think she maybe did the 50 K just to see if she could do it. Um, cause it seems like an attainable time for her. And

And now she's kind of go back to attempting to win the majors. - Just that, you know, easy. - Yeah, right. I'm just looking to qualify for a major here. She is like, I'm going to run it or win it.

I know that's so crazy. That's nuts. But she seems to be a super humble person and just really nice. I like her a lot. I'll admit that I haven't followed many pro runners, but what I've heard her on interviews and just kind of read articles about her 50K attempt recently, it does seem like she's just kind of very humble and I

I think that's why she has a big fan base too. And some people maybe would have criticized her by kind of calling her shot before the run to say, you know, I'm going for this world record tomorrow. And some people maybe actually, I know not me personally, but like when I was reading articles about it, that people were criticizing her for saying like, well, why did you say you were going to do this? Why don't you just go and do it and then celebrate it after? And I feel like that's kind of like backwards. Like,

I feel like in order for kind of people to cheer you on, you got to tell them what you're trying to do. And that's what she was doing, right? She was sharing her journey so that people would support her. But think about it too. I just kind of thought of like calling your shot, right? Like one of the most famous things in baseball was Babe Ruth pointing out to the outfield and, you know, calling his home run. And, you know, that was kind of what Des was doing when she was

saying that she was going to break the world record that she was going to attempt to do it but there's nothing wrong with that i mean i completely agree kipchoge did it he said he was going to try to break two twice the first time it didn't work for him but he didn't shy away and

Just to show you, I mean, maybe it's a mindset too, when you're putting it out there that maybe you can attain it more because of the pressures that you put on yourself. I mean, obviously going hand in hand with your training, she probably didn't say that at the beginning of the year, but once you know your training is going well, you kind of have to put it out there for yourself.

yourself to hold yourself accountable when you get tired and maybe that's something that she hung on to when she got tired like okay I put this out there and it's it's there am I turning a point and if I really try hard I can do this yeah I think that's a great point too just that like sports psychology aspect of it right just like you know reminding yourself like this is the goal I'm working toward and if this is going to be hard work to get here but this is

you know, why I want it and just making sure you're picking the right goal to one of my recent podcast episodes, I interviewed Brian green, and he had some really great tips about goal setting and how you want to make sure that you set a goal that you connect with, not just a goal that someone says that you should do so.

That's part of kind of just being a runner is making sure that you're working toward a goal that's attainable, but challenging. And also one that speaks to you and connects with you because otherwise when the days get tough, you are more likely to want to throw the towel in and that's not going to get you where you want to go. So with that in mind, Sarah, I want to end this by putting you on the spot. Okay. What is your goal?

when and where are you going to do it? Let's talk about your Boston marathon. So my Boston goal, it's interesting you bring that up because I, about a week ago, it kind of came to me that I'm thinking I'm going to attempt my Boston qualifying in about a year. So Memorial Day weekend, 2022, I'm thinking of there's a race in Vermont. That's a Boston qualifier that it's a pretty flat course and

And it's in an area that I used to live. And so I think it would be kind of nice to train for a spring marathon and not have to train through a hot, humid New York summer. That's kind of what's on my radar a little bit right now. It depends on how my ankle goes for the next couple months. But I wrote it on my fridge. I wrote the name of the marathon. And I wrote 330, my idea, because this is what I do, is I write things down and I date it. And then my idea is I'm going to bring that piece of paper to the

to the race right and then when i finish if all goes well i'm going to pull out that piece of paper as like my self-fulfilling prophecy right of getting a 330. so so that's why in my mind i'm thinking okay the next year like it's kind of the goal like i recently actually just got a calendar and i was debating like we're four months into five months into the 2021 and so i didn't buy a calendar for this year i bought one for july to june

Because I feel like that's more going to be like my race calendar, right? I got races in the fall. I got maybe a spring marathon. And so I'm going to like put this calendar up in my basement, which is my workout space, putting races there and then blocking off when my training blocks are so that I kind of just am picturing this every day and be like, okay, well, July will be when I start training for my half marathons. And then like December, January, maybe February, depends on how good of a shape I'm in.

we'll be start training for a marathon. So you get yourself the student calendar. Yeah, it's an academic year calendar.

That's awesome. But it makes sense. You work at a university anyway. I do. We need you to take a picture of the sign on your fridge and post it so we can see it. And then next May, we want to see that same sign all sweaty or whatever piece of paper. Yeah. You holding it up while you ring the Boston bell, because I think most of those races that are big Boston qualifiers have that big bell that you can gong or whatever that's called. And you, you know, have that

So yeah, let me know what race that is. Maybe I'll come up and pace you. Oh yeah, that would be great. What's a goal that you're working toward right now? So right now I'm going to put it out there and it's a pretty aggressive goal because it's shaving off a little bit of time, but I'm trying to run. If I'm running, then I want to run a sub 310 marathon. What's your current marathon time? 318. Okay.

So, I mean, currently though, if I were to run one right now, I wouldn't have it in me because I haven't done anything with that distance, but I know that's something that I've done a few times and that's something where I'm comfortable at and I just have to keep growing and, you know, while I can, while my health is still good. And so, yeah, that's my very aggressive goal, but I

I definitely, I'm going to start marathon training next week and it's going to be a longer plan. I'm going to try to ramp up the mileage by a lot.

Um, because that's something that really works for me. I remember Chicago in 2019, I had a very crappy summer of training, but the last three weeks prior to the marathon, I would do double runs every day. And it was like six in the morning, six at night, six in the morning, six at night. When I came to Chicago, I had no idea how strong I had gotten and it just happened. I was just trying to shoot for a sub three 30. And so I've kind of implemented that before my marathon since then. Um,

to, to, you know, be stronger and then have that endurance. I can't wait to have these check-ins with you too, to see how your training's going and get updates on, you know, what our races is. Um, in the short term, I have a 10 K next month, um, that I'm hoping to bring my time down a little bit. I ran a 10 K, uh,

in January, which is the last race I ran before I actually gave my legs a little bit of a break or my ankle break from running. And I ran that in 48 minutes and some change. And so I would like to bring my 10K time down a little bit because then that will give me a bit more confidence and

I guess pacing or seeing how realistic it is to get to a 330 marathon. I would like to bring my 10K down to like 46 minutes. I don't know if that'll happen in June, but that's kind of like in my mind. No, that's definitely a good way of approaching your races. That's what we implement in...

runners training all the time that you use races kind of during your training without you know without tapering and building up to it just kind of make things making them part of your training I think that's great and I think you'll do I think you'll do wonderful once you start running

And then, you know, you pick it back up where you were, obviously you're not in that same condition, but you will be there. Yeah. And I'm just hoping I've been focusing a lot on strength training. And even I did some intervals with a friend yesterday and we were running like, granted, they weren't very long. They were like 30 seconds or a minute, but we were running sub six pieces. And I was like, wow, that feels like pretty cool just to like hit those pieces, even if it's just for a little bit, but it was like fun to run that fast. So yeah.

Anyway, that's perfect. And they say you're supposed to do strides anyway. Strides are what people do and implement into their training all the time. I feel like we should probably maybe have a future episode about just our different training experiences, share tips on that. Otherwise, we could probably go another hour talking about. Yeah, no kidding. Yeah, let's do that. Let's do the next one.

in a few weeks on training methods and we'll just discuss our experiences and our viewpoints on them yeah that sounds good because i haven't done doubles before but clearly they have an impact because not only did you find success with them but pros do them too so more to come soon yes right so stay tuned for future episodes sounds good sarah

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