I’ve defined 2023 as the year I take on the marathon.

In high school my two loves were violin and running. Obviously I have taken violin quite seriously and continued to play it in college, in graduate school, and then in teaching and performing since. Running did not get the same treatment.

In high school I was the captain of our cross country team and attended the regional meets beginning sophomore year. I had a real passion for the sport and pushing my perceived limitations. 

I loved that our sport was another sport’s punishment. I loved that we did more than most before most had even gotten up for the day. I loved spending time with a group of people who voluntarily chose to wake up and run at six in the morning– while in high school.

Some of my clearest memories are races, practices, and recovery sessions with my cross country team mates.

When I started my undergraduate degree I left that consistent training and community behind. However, that did not mean I wasn’t active. From 2014-2018 I rode my bicycle everywhere and in 2018 even went on a 600+ mile bicycle tour.  My junior year of college I trained and participated in a half marathon race in Austin (13.1). In Ithaca my partner and I did extensive hiking and zone 2 heart rate training. Beginning in 2021, in order to recover from a playing related injury, I started strength training in the gym.

I yearned for a long time to get back into distance training and the marathon distance, one I’ve never done before, seemed like an inspiring enough goal to get started with.

I wanted to do it right and gave myself an entire year to build up.

Here is the plan currently in progress…

• April 15 – Half Marathon race (Austin, TX)
• August 12 – Half Marathon race (Brooklyn, NY)
• November 19 – Full Marathon race (Philadelphia, PA)

I’m doing a build for each race using Jeff Cunningham’s beginner racing formula. I’m allowing fitness to creep in slowly but surely. I’m doing my best to run easy days easy and hard days hard.

The first race in Austin went great! I met Jeff Cunningham there and thanked him for all of his help. Even with only 4 months of serious preparation I ran the race in under 2 hours (around 9 minutes per mile). The race showed me what I was capable of.

Each week I do 5 runs total.

• 3 easy. (HR below 152)
• 1 long run. (HR below 152)
• 1 track workout. (Any HR)

The mantra is, “Consistently good > occasionally great.”

The biggest challenge has been planning ahead for every run so that it happens. I now have the gear, the know-how, and the ability to do every run, but I have to adapt to whatever the day holds so that the run really happens. 

Sometimes that means waking up at 5:30am to run. Sometimes that means running in the evening after I finish teaching.

The rest of the summer is quite consistent, and the goal is to run at 6am and lift at 7am every morning.

It feels exhilarating to be pursuing something difficult and pursuing something I love. If it is worth doing, then it is worth doing well. Running is an area in my life where I’m trying to do both.

Next week I’ll discuss some of the core principles I’ve learned from marathon training that apply perfectly to violin study.