With November 20th coming and going on the calendar, it signaled something important could no longer be avoided. There was now less than a month to go before the Irving Marathon. Dun dun duuuun. It could no longer be avoided. My legs would go through 26.2 miles of pain, suffering, and a potential free T-shirt as a reward. What could be better?

So as any good procrastinator would do, I figured it might be time to ramp up my last minute training and see if there was any way I could benefit my future performance. I couldn’t avoid it at this point anyway. Well I could avoid it by saying I was too sick to run or something like that but I already paid the fee and I couldn’t accept not running an event I paid for. Frugality issues you know? Anyways, like any time I had a test or something else important and unavoidable, it was time to cram. Let’s look at what I should and should not be doing with one month to go.

Three things to do a month before your marathon:

Number One: Do not change up your current marathon plan...

These plans build up your mileage in a safe way and many all but guarantee a race day performance that you will be prepped for. You slowly build up mileage over the span of a few months and the plan will help you be prepared for the event by preventing injury and maximizing performance. Did I stick to my plan?

Result: Kinda. I kinda did and kinda didn’t. I mentioned a couple months earlier that I would be following a specific marathon plan for this year end marathon. I ended up starting a particular plan before life occurred (see: lack of mental discipline) and it became my typical plan of doing random runs and wishing for the best. Maybe next year will be different but I technically didn’t go away from a plan the last month because I wasn’t following one at this point.

Number Two: Continue getting in your long runs...

Most plans at this point say that you should be hitting a long run of about 20 miles a month before the big day. This is crucial for getting your legs used to the time and distance of a marathon. Not only your legs need to get used to it but also your bladder. As someone who can only hold their bladder as long as the typical two-year-old, it was training I needed. So was I hitting those long runs?

Result: Nope… I managed to get up to about 14 in one go so far over a span of 3 months. All the plans I look at suggest that this is not enough. Honestly, those plans are right. If you want to make sport predictions, predict against my cardio strength for the Irving event. I’m not sure any running plans say that running half the distance in training is good enough for the attempt. That’s your averagerunnerpaul for you though. On a bright note, I have a week off of work which means extra training time available. In a few days, I would be shooting for a 20 mile run on Tuesday. I’ll try to hold myself accountable to this feat in this post.

Number Three: Just have fun and still get excited for the day!

Result: Success! I am still excited to run and I can’t wait for the event! Janel switched to the 10K and she and I will at minimum, be excited for the free food and beverages after. I’ll be even more excited for a hotel bed nap after with a big slice of pizza or some sort of fried food. One day I will be the person who has a salad after a race but not this year.

Overall preparation – As with any marathon, let’s see!

With just over a few weeks to go, it was time to accept that the marathon would happen either way. I love this sport so at the end of the day, I am happy to run the marathon it whether I did all the right things or not.

How do you do towards the end of your training plans? Do you stick to your plan through the end or do you see through it up in the air and see what happens? Let me know and I hope your November training has been going great!