Client Chris (no, not me) began 2021 with an ambitious goal: his first marathon. Chris has a strong cycling background, and he had some big bike plans for the year as well. He’s relatively new to running, but he had raced several times up to a half marathon.
We started working together in March, and his goal race was in October, so we had a little time before we needed to start the full marathon build-up. We used that time to work on his speed. His training went well, and in early June Chris recorded a big PR for the half.
Next up was a bike focus, featuring some big climbs in the Alps. At the start of July, he was prepared to be all-in for marathon training for the final lead-up.
Then the wheels came off. Some long-term muscular issues surfaced, starting with a painful adductor strain. Chris found a great PT who recognized the pattern of his imbalances, and correctly predicted that Chris would run again just fine… in some number of weeks.
Chris turned himself into a PT beast, and by mid-August he was able to run again. But his bad luck was not over – he had not one, but two hard falls while running and missed some more time. By September we decided to go to plan B, a half marathon at the same event where he would have done the marathon.
Chris wrote a colorful and much more entertaining version of this story, which you can find here, but I’ll just skip to the bottom line: after all those setbacks and many weeks of missed training, he finished the half in October within a few minutes of his recent PR.
A big win, in my book.
Right now, I’m working through a setback of my own - a broken collarbone – and I’m drawing heavily on the inspiration Chris provided this year.