Napa Valley Marathon Update

With one day under a month to go, I thought I'd do an update on how training has been going and other random tidbits related to the marathon.

First, winter training is not the same as summer training! The weather has presented a few challenges for sure. In the summer, we dealt with heat, but always had the option to head towards the coast for cooler runs, or get out there early in the morning. We've had a huge amount of rain for our area, and other than the treadmill, no way of escaping it! While Brian and I don't mind running in the rain, we'd be pretty bad parents if we drug our kids out for a 3 hour run in the rain! We did break down this weekend and buy a weatherproof cover for the jogger, so at least Bub and Soph will stay dry in sprinkles. They both thought it was the coolest thing that they had their own "tent" to ride in! Em asked for one for her bike...I told her she could wear a garbage bag but she opted out. (She took a muddy shortcut and biffed it, check out her wound!) So needless to say, it has been challenging to get our runs in, but we have managed to stay on track, which brings me to our training schedule.

For both the Long Beach Marathon and Napa we have used the Marathon Rookies 16 week program. We jump in at about week 6, making it a 10 week program. As you can see from the pics, we basically use it as a guide, but we alter it as we need to. One major difference this time is that we have done shorter runs during the week. Last time around we did more 8 - 10 mile runs mid week, this time we have pretty much stuck to 5-6 mile runs, 4 times mid week, then our long run Saturday after service. Shorter runs seem the opposite of what you would want to do, but we have noticed a huge difference when it comes to our long runs. We feel much stronger in our long runs, and continue to shave significant time off of them. Our past 2 long runs, a 20 miler and a 22 miler, we were able to sprint the entire last mile. Seems silly, but to run that far and still be able to kick at the end is a big deal for us! We've also had less over use pains this time around. Knees and hips are holding strong so far.

Miles wise - Long Beach we put in a total of 346 training miles. We are currently at 287, on track to hit 392, which means we will break 400 including the marathon. (418 to be exact) Hard to imagine.


Fun tidbits....this is our last hard week of training. We will do our last long run ( 24 miler) this coming Saturday. After much research we are going w/a 3 week taper this time. Mainly because the latest info we have read has recommended that if your last long run is over 20 miles, you should use a 3 week taper for max muscle recovery....which sounds good to me! We will still keep up our mid week 5's, and Saturday runs of 10 - 13 miles for the last 3 weeks before the marathon....but the end of training is within site for sure!


We booked our hotel finally! Of course we waited one day too long and prices jumped while availability plummeted, but we found a nice little relaxing place about 3 miles from the finish. Why the finish, not the start?? Well, you catch a bus at the finish that takes you to the start, so we wanted to be as close to the finish as we could get. It's kind of a hybrid bed and breakfast slash hotel....has an extra deep soaking tub and a fireplace....what more could you want??


Most importantly, I found our post race eats!!! It would be impossible to top our last post marathon meal....I can still taste the nachos, every last one...the cheese, the meat, the cheese......but this place looks like a good runner up!

Alright, there's your update!!
We are off to finish one last hard week of training! If you guys are training for something, comment and let us know what your training for, and how its going!!