2:40 before 40

I have this void that I cannot avoid. 

For the past several years I've been "forcing" myself back to the sport of triathlon. I enjoyed those 4 years of training/racing so much and I think I was chasing that. It seemed like every time I started getting into a training groove I would run into big life changes and I would put it all on hold for months at a time, get out of shape and do it all over again.

As you can imagine, that became exhausting and frustrating. During these past 3 years...wow, 3 years since I last raced - I have always thought about the idea of doing an open marathon. But not just for fun and games but to actually train for one and RACE it. I've thrown down a decent half marathon of 1:14 about 4 years ago and a bunch of sub 1:10's in regular lactate threshold training runs in college lol (I never even knew that was very fast at the time).

So fast forward to now! I started my own business, our baby girl Juliet is one and after discussing it with Amy - we think now is a good time to go after my new goal of breaking 2:40 in the marathon before I'm 40 years old which gives me 1 year and 4 months to train and accomplish this goal. I always tell my high school team that you have to have big goals to accomplish big things. 2:40 isn't necessarily super fast but for how out of shape I am right now and the little time I have, it really is.

It's not going to be easy. I'm definitely out of shape and have years of abuse on these legs. So lots of aches and pains as I get back to speed...pun? In the past my build up has been pretty aggressive as I think I'm still a young kid chasing dreams. This time, I'm putting on my coaches hat and training myself the same way I would train one of my athletes while incorporating key workouts that I know I respond well to.

I'm 3 weeks in back to training. Just easy 30-45 min runs each day ~20-25 miles a week (you can follow all of my workouts on Strava - link on the left). Mileage will slowly increase each week for the remainder of the year with zero intensity other than occasional runs where I feel good and increase pace a bit. Basically, giving what my body craves, whether that means taking a day off or going a little longer/faster - it's smart that way.

I'm targeting the San Diego Rock & Roll Marathon in June. I don't run well in the heat so that's not in my favor with a time goal but it's a local race where I can train and sleep at home during race week which will give me my best shot of doing it in my first attempt. I will have 2 build phases starting in January with some 5k, 10ks and a half marathons leading up to June. I'm excited to race in the local scene again - a lot of familiar names/faces are still racing and I can't wait to line up with them again like old times, with old legs and gray hair slowly starting to show.

So 2:40 before I'm 40. That's 6:06 / mile pace. Back to my first love. Let this new journey begin!

Thanks for reading -