REALLY Picking Up My Pace

As my training for Marine Corps Marathon has progressed, so have my fitness and my training paces. My June training paces were updated in August and now we are updating them again. I ran last Sunday's Navy-Air Force Half Marathon with the goal of testing my fitness, and since I passed the test with flying colors, Coach Adam has rewarded me with speedier paces.

My pace progression

I'm not going to lie - these scare me a little. But they also excite me! I've been training so hard and seeing my progress is incredibly rewarding. Here is what Adam told me about the new paces:

At 1st glance, you might be surprised by the jump, but don't be. You proved your fitness yesterday and I had a feeling you'd see some big time improvements (and we haven't even gotten the cold weather benefits that will hopefully arrive near race day). Some of the non-easy paces may take a week or two to adjust, but they are much more in line with your fitness.

With regard to marathon pace, I gave you a pretty conservative pace. Most running calculators would have you at a bit faster, but I'd rather you run most of the race at this type of effort and pick up the pace if you're feeling good toward the end (like you did at the half) than to push too hard. Just know that you CAN run these :)

It would be easy to get overly confident from this half and cruise the rest of the way, but don't settle for where you are. These next few weeks are the last pieces of the puzzle and will make you even stronger. Only a few more weeks of pushing until the taper. The end is near!

I find Adam's words, and belief in me, really motivating. I'm looking forward to continuing to train hard for a couple more weeks...and then the taper (I love the taper). And then...Marine Corps Marathon!