Longer Beach Marathon

With a trip planned for the end of July, interest in attending NSXPO in September, and another big trip yet to be scheduled (but definitely happening) later this year, I had pretty much ruled out signing up for any races in 2025 after The Hills Are Alive 10K...and, with zero control over when my latter trip would actually fly, sticking to my usual marathon training schedule seemed nearly impossible. But, in late June, I learned my end-of-July trip was suddenly off the books, NSXPO no longer seemed fiscally responsible, and I suddenly had a lot more time on my hands.

So I pivoted.

This year's Long Beach Marathon seemed early enough to be a safe date for planning a 26.2 mile run, but I would need to enter my training schedule in week 9 (of 18) and adjust distances accordingly if I wanted to have any chance of being ready to go without striving to do too much too soon (i.e. to avoid injury). My maintenance schedule gives me a solid base, but without the longer distances that help increase endurance (peaks at 10 miles every four weeks), so I knew I would have to ramp up the distances in half the time.  Since I can easily do a 13 to 14 milers at any point within my maintenance routine, I started with a 14...and then went up from there.

That said, the longest run I completed this cycle was only 16.66 miles, 17.76 if I add a subsequent walk to my peak week run...both workouts far short of the 22-23 recommended by my schedule.  If memory serves, I've only once run a full marathon without hitting this peak distance target in my training (when I opted to ride my bike 48 miles because I was too injured to run).  Despite missing distance targets, I have still managed to complete 91% of the mileage of a full marathon schedule...so 22-23 miles is doable especially if I give myself an easy route and don't attempt run at a race pace.  Worse case scenario?  I extend my schedule another four weeks and try again in early November, but I am curious to see what I can do without having fully trained. I am still in very good condition.

So I have driven down to my usual spot near Torrance Beach early on the morning of the Long Beach Marathon.  I should have started as early as the actual race because the marine layer is not present...it could get quite warm before I finish!