My First Marathon (x2)

Inevitably for triathletes, people start talking about the "off season" and "off season" training as soon as the last race of the season is over. Some runners do as well, and in Indy there are a large number of people who take off between Monumental (early November) and time to get back to training for the Indy Mini (early May). I've never been one of those people and diabetes don't have an off season...but the other day there was a good reminder from coach that there is no off season. This is a time of year to work on weaknesses, but keep training, its how we hit goals and beat others (if that's what we're trying to do).  My past few weeks have been 30-60% of the volume I was training at the peak of Ironman training, but still putting in 5-10 hours a week, usually in the middle of that. I took a few weeks out of the pool since I got a tattoo, my swims since then have been short and my November volume will be 1/3 of what it was most of the year...b

By all accounts this has been a pretty spectacular year for me. I have run several personal records and changed jobs to something I love with a great team. Finishing Ironman was the culmination of three years of focused work. The half marathon at Monumental was supposed to be a "parade lap" of sorts, with no time goals and just having fun. I had recovered from Ironman remarkably well and was running pretty peppy. I have had some pain in my foot since July, and finally went to the podiatrist (had an MRI and am waiting for follow up) and we'll see what happens, but I am not making it any worse by running. I decided that as long as I felt good on Monumental day I was going to try to crack 2:20 and have a little PR. On race morning I started near the 5:00 marathon pacer, which wouldn't take me out of hitting my goal but wasn't too aggressive to start either. I had planned heart rate targets for chunks of the race and had a pace band to spot check where I was, but