Fitness Fatale

Marathon Nutrition for Female Runners

Training for a PR at Every Woman’s Marathon

On Sunday I run the inaugural Every Woman’s Marathon & I have trained for a marathon PR!

Why the Every Woman’s Marathon?

The Every Woman’s Marathon is an women’s focused race that will take place on November 16th, 2024 in Savannah Georgia. I am running the race as part of Team Milk & sponsored by Hollandia Dairy. (This post itself is not required per my contract with Hollandia but for full disclosure I am a paid collaborator with them & have really enjoyed the relationship with them over them last 8 months!)

The race itself is more of a full weekend event catered to women and I’m looking forward to participating in a cooking class led by Olympic marathoner Deena Kastor (and the author of my all time favorite running book, which I am currently listening to for the 3rd time) , pro athlete panels including Des Linden , and shake out runs, yoga and mobility class and even hair braiding! The race itself has a generous time cutoff of 7 hours and there is an epic finish line party that goes all day.

After having a disappointing race trying to expand my BQ buffer at Revel Mt. Charleston, & not getting into the Boston Marathon 2025 I decided I really wanted to run a marathon that is less focused on performance and running fast, and focused more on the community & the enjoyment of running itself. While Mt. Charleston’s downhill course is speedy, as an extrovert I found the long desert mountain road with few turns boring. I had little to distract my mind from the headwind & aching in my legs & I basically put all of my enjoyment in the race on the finish time.

When Hollandia reached out to me to partner with them and run Every Woman’s Marathon, I honestly wasn’t sure if I would run it to try to PR and BQ, or just run it “for fun”. But I knew that I was excited about the idea of running in a women’s focused race, visiting a new city, and being surrounded with so much positivity and excitement for running, regardless of our finish times. It also helped that my run coach partner Jen happened to have already signed up and was planing to go and rent a house for her and some of her run coaching clients!

Once Mt. Charleston didn’t go as I hoped, I knew that despite Every Woman’s Marathon not being a “super fast” course (due to potential warmer weather and a twisty, turny course), that I wanted to train for it hard and run it the best I can. The good news is that the course itself is very flat (300 feet gain total over 26.2 miles which will be nothing compared to what I’m used to in San Diego), there will be a ton of spectators (“Motivation stations” at every mile!), lots of things to look at, and the 103 turns (yes I counted, there are 103 turns) on the course will give me 103 tangents to focus on, which means the race will fly by! And as of now, the weather is looking pretty decent, with a low of 50 and high of 70.

Major Changes in My Training for Every Woman’s Marathon

This year I have REALLY focused on my running and made quite a few changes, all of which I think are really setting me up for a GREAT race and some long term progress in the marathon.

  • I hired a new run coach, Andrew Snow, who wrote the book Run Elite., in April. Andrews book gave me so much hope that I have so much more potential to unlock, that I was eager to work with him. So far it has been a really rewarding experience , though Andrew does NOT coach traditionally as most coaches do. He doesn’t use training software – instead we meet every few weeks and create my plan together. We also use these lengthy phone calls to tackle mindset and nutrition. Much of the training changes I mention below are related to Andrew’s guidance. Andrew has helped me believe in my capabilities & also helped me overturn some major roadblocks that were keeping me mentally stuck .
  • I took a lengthy base building season to increase my mileage to the point where 50 miles per week is very manageable. In past training cycles, I would run in the 35-45 mile range & peak with a few 50+ mile weeks. As I was building mileage, I was also adding in hard workouts. In retrospect, it as really hard for my body to adapt to both the increased mileage and workouts at the same time. Instead, starting in May, I started building my mileage to 50 miles per week. It took me a while to get the hang of it, since I wasn’t doing any super long runs yet. I have never run 6 days per week in the off season, but I have run 6 days per week pretty much this entire year. While building mileage, Andrew didn’t have me doing any speed workouts – just 20 second strides at 5Kish pace. I ran my easy runs slow – usually in the 10-11 minute mile range.
  • Some mileage stats:
    • I ran over 50 miles 16 of the 26 weeks of training.
    • I peaked at 60 miles in a calendar week and 72 miles in a 7 day period.
    • I have run 2,169 miles in the last year, up 36% from the prior year. (I heard on a podcast that to reach marathon potential you should try to run at least 2,000 miles per year – obviously this is also personal & no one should jump up too fast, but I must say I’m proud to have hit that!)
    • My highest mileage month was October with 238 miles.
  • My speed workouts were slower but longer. (aka more specific to the marathon distance) In past training cycles, I’ve done speed workouts with my running club. Due to the nature of a group workout, we often did shorter intervals (400s, 800s, 1200s and miles), mostly a 5k, 10k and half marathon pace. Once Andrew started adding in workouts, we did the opposite – I started with a larger QUANTITY of shorter intervals, but at a pace closer to marathon pace. I also started running longer intervals (4 x 2 miles ) at just slower than marathon pace & we repeated this workout and got faster each time. The idea was that we were training my body to get ready for peak training. In the final 6 weeks of peak training, I did the majority of my speed workouts at marathon goal pace (8:05) Almost all of my speed workouts were between 10-13 miles in total & I did them on Tuesdays. Here are some of my biggest speed workouts:
    • 4 x 2 mile at 8:00/mile
    • 3 x 5K at 8:05/mile
    • 6 x 1200 at 7:40
    • 6 x 1 mile at 7:40
    • 4 x 2 mile at 7:50/mile
    • BIGGEST WORKOUT: 13 miles, alternating 7:50/mile and 8:20 mile. (overall average 8:04, 15 miles included w/u and c/d)
    • 10 miles at MPG (actual: 8:04)
  • I had pace work in every long run. In previous training cycles, I would do 2 workouts per week – a Monday tempo (usually tempo intervals, not continuous) , a Wednesday speed (with the group) and a long run. Sometimes the long run was supposed to have pace in it, but often the pace work was kind of loosely prescribed. I often found that my long runs were really slow and I couldn’t hit pace. Likely this is because I was over-doing it in the week. When Andrews and I started working together, I told him that I really wanted long run pace workouts and we decided i’d have ONE speed workout per week (Tuesdays) and ONE long run with speed (Usually Saturday but sometimes Friday) . During my training for CIM, which is my standing PR, I used the book “Run Faster’ by Brad Hudson, which had a good amount of pace work in every other long run and it not only built my fitness but it built my confidence that I can actually hold race pace that long. This training cycle, here are some of the biggest long runs I did:
    • 1st long run with pace: 13 miles with 10 easy, 3 miles 8:30 (this was in July)
    • PB Half marathon. 1 mile warm up, 13 miles 8:01 pace, 3 mile cool down.
    • 20 miles with 6 x 1 mile at 7:45 pace
    • 22 miles with 3 x 3 miles at 8:10-8:15
    • Last long run: 22 miles with 10 miles at 8:05
  • I listened to my body & modified or skipped workouts when needed. This is likely why I never experience ANY pain or injury during this training cycle. Although I just listed a ton of amazing workouts, there were some I skipped or modified. I really focused on listening to my body during training as I knew we were pushing it with the workouts and the mileage. there was one 20 miler where I was supposed to run 10 miles at goal pace and I just dnd’t have it in me mentally. I was going through some serious stress with the announcement of BODi eliminating the coaches, and I just didn’t have it in me to push. Also, since Andrew doesn’t schedule in cutback weeks, when I was feeling run down (and often my Garmin confirmed that with lower HRV/training readiness!) , I took the rest I needed (and slept a lot!) As an advanced marathon runner, I know my body better than any plan, though I will say at times it was hard to make this judgment call!
  • I ate better quality nutrition overall – ate 95% vegetarian, less alcohol, more whole foods. This year I have focused more on nutriton than ever. Not just my performance fueling, but my every day fueling. I cut back on alcohol (though didn’t completely eliminate it), dramatically reduced my meat consumption (I’m now having meat about once every other week, usually In n Out with my kids), am eating more leafy greens (I try to have arugula every single day), more whole foods, and less processed foods. I have lost 12 pounds and have maintained the weight loss through marathon training even while eating a loaf of sourdough a week (unlike 50K training where I gained weight!). I also NEVER got sick once the entire training cycle. I am even more passionate than ever about fueling and nutrition when it comes to running and that’s why I’ll be launching my Run Fueled & Faster community in December to create community & long term support for female runners over 35 to eat healthier, fuel better & run faster!
  • I worked on my running form with Paul from the Balanced Runner. I need to do a whole blog write up on this. My husband Mike is the one who encouraged me to invest in private 1:1 coaching with Paul from Balanced Runner to work on my form. I just KNEW that something in my mechanics was holding me back (and this was confirmed after my shin splints last December when the PT did a gait analysis) . The 3 main things Paul has helped me fix is 1) arm swing , 2) my anterior pelvic tilt (which prevents my knee from being able to drive, puts pressure on my low back and almost makes me lean back while running, which is a braking action) and 3) reducing over-striding by focusing on my leg movement . Just look at this before/after photo – the new way is so much better!
    I HIGHLY recommend this program. You can either join Paul’s self paced membership or hire him for 1:1 monthly coaching. Go to ⁠https://www.tbrunner.com/⁠ & use code Fitnessfatale for 25% off first month for the TBR membership & to give me credit for your referral on the 1:1 coaching if you go for it (highly recommend).

This Has Been SO FUN!!!

Wow, writing this all out really boosted my confidence. One of the things I do every training cycle is review my training and write a list of all the best workouts and ways I’ve made progress and man, I’m proud of all the hard work I’ve put in this year.

But even more importantly, I’m TRULY enjoying the process. I’ve been running with so much joy. I run with friends at least 4 days per week – my friend Jen, the run club on Saturdays, my friend Megan, or my best friend Asia who has been in town (we’ve been running Mondays and Fridays). I’ve finished multiple long runs and speed workouts with a HUGE smile of my face.

And this year as I’ve expanded my run coaching offers beyond my Run Strong and Run Fuel programs, and into 1:1 run coaching as a certified RRCA run coach, I’ve also brought my joy of learning & curiosity into my coaching.

I know I am privileged to be able to train at the level I do and I am so incredibly thankful for the flexility in my work and family life to get to do this. I love that running is literally my job – after years of sitting behind a cubicle as an accountant, thinking that was the only way to achieve success -I’ve shown myself that my passion combined with hard work IS enough.

And while I’ll never be an elite athlete, I certainly can enjoy training with the focus of one. And I can go out there this weekend at Every Woman’s Marathon and give it my best. No matter what the result ends up being. (though yes, I am shooting for a sub 3:35 which would be a PR and a BQ), I will feel really good knowing how much progress I made this year. The race will be an epic celebration of that hard work!!!

If you want to track me this weekend, watch out for my bib number in my Instagram stories and Ill be sharing the entire race weekend experience there too!