To Lift Or Not To Lift? My Seven Marathons
To Lift or Not To Lift?
My Seven Marathons
In 1998, when I was 20 years old, I ran my first marathon in New York City. I had my worst time to date, finishing in four hours and thirty five minutes and while I was able to rely on youth, I did no cross training whatsoever and ended up with a stress fracture and severe knee tendinitis.
I took a nine year marathon hiatus and in 2007, at the age of 29, when my close friend, Lindsay, asked me if I wanted to run the NYCM with her, I first hesitated. I did NOT want to get injured. However, I had developed both a consistent yoga and HIIT with weights practice, and when I ran my second marathon that year, I remember feeling the strength of my core and upper body, knowing that because I had developed those muscles, my legs took less of a beating. When I finished four hours and seventeen minutes later, running the second half way faster than the first, I felt almost too good- like I could have run the entire race much faster.
New York City Marathon November 2010. Age 32. Married, no kids, desk job. Laser focused on training for marathon #3, I could run when I wanted to, cross train when I wanted to, whether it be 6am, 8pm. I didn't have to worry about being home at a certain time for children, nor saving certain "prime" working out hours for clients. Aside from running and cross training with weights and yoga, I did not have to move my body otherwise.
Goal: to break four hours. Crushed it by finishing in three hours and fifty minutes. (for my running friends, at age 32 a BQ would have been 3:40 but for age 41 it would have been 3:50 they have since dropped the time).
Motherhood and Marathon #4
January 2015. My first marathon as a mom. Three weeks shy of my 37th birthday, I ran the Houston Marathon in three hours and fifty three minutes. A flatter, much less crowded course than NY, I had decided I was going to run only 6 weeks beforehand. I was a fitness professional at this point, teaching 15-20 classes a week. I was so strong from all the strength and HIIT workouts plus yoga I was doing on a regular basis that yes, I had to get the mileage in. But, similar to 2007, I felt so good the entire race, on minimal training, that I have to believe that my consistent strength from everything else played a significant role.
Marathons 5, 6, and 7: The Age Factor
Truth. Age is just a number. I DO NOT believe that just because you are older you are slower. I have seen way too many examples of people getting faster with age, and as my marathon times range from 3:50-4:35 and are not in order of age, it cannot just be about age.
That being said! I have now done three NYC Marathon in a row, age 39-41. What have I noticed?
It takes more time, and more effort, to achieve results.
Fact: starting at the age of 30, we lose a pound of muscle a year.
Fact: as we age it takes longer for our muscles to recover.
What does this mean? It means it takes longer to train; as our muscles need more recovery time, it also means we need a longer training period to pile the miles on and do our quality/interval runs as well as our long runs.
And....yes. As we age and are losing muscle mass, we need to strength train to fight against the natural order of things.
Debunking Marathon #7
This year, I was laser focused on breaking four hours. During the previous two years, I struggled to get all my long runs as well as my tempo/quality runs and while I continued with strength training and finished 14 minutes faster in 2018 than 2017, I was often finding that I was only able to run 3-4 days a week and I thought I may be just not having enough miles on my legs.
This year; I got a running coach 11 weeks out. I told her my goal; taking that into account and previous races, we did long runs, quality runs, intervals, hills and hills and hills...I was consistently running 4-5 days a week and, most important, felt good, stayed injury free AND was able to do every single run at the speed I was supposed to.
Standing in Staten Island prior to start two things occurred to me; one was, that in the previous years, I was so anxious about time that I didn't enough it. I wanted to make sure- no matter what- I took it all in, and when I knew someone was going to be at a specific mile I wanted to say hi and see them. I also had a realization; I had been sooooo focused on the running during my training that, I had neglected the ONE THING I always tell my clients NOT to neglect. I had stopped with strength.
The past two years, around mile 16, just off the Queensboro, my legs started cramping. Last year, I recouped around mile 19 and had a strong finish. This year, the more focused running training plan helped me get to mile 21 before the leg cramps. However, unlike in previous years, I did not have the strength elsewhere to pull from. I just felt immobilized in my legs, and had to significantly slow down.
Time: 4:21- 21 minutes slower than my goal AND 8 minutes slower than last year.
"You can't go for time AND have a (four plus hour) block party," my husband told me that evening when I was vacillating between pride and gratitude for being healthy enough and able to finish my seventh marathon and frustrating for being so off my goal. "You stopped and said hi to everyone you knew, which definitely affects time. If you want to do that, great. But then you can't go for time. Commit to one."
So what's next?
There will be another NYC marathon for me in my future; its home turf , the crowds are incredible and I truly am grateful for everyone who was able to come out.
That being said, I do have time goals which I cannot ignore.
Where will Marathon #8 be? NOT in New York. Location and Time TBD.