01/12/2026
Here’s a snapshot of my Intervals.icu data tracking training metrics from July 2025 through yesterday’s 2:17:44 at the Houston Marathon.
Background-
Last July, I raced the Bix 7 in Davenport, Iowa for a few reasons. I wanted something meaningful to train for during the summer, I wanted to compete against a deep, tough field, and I wanted to support a historic grassroots race that still deserves attention. This was one of those events.
The race went poorly. I felt awful from start to finish and ran 36:55 (5:15 per mile), an effort that left me frustrated and honestly concerned. In the days and weeks that followed, I tried to figure out what had gone wrong. The conclusion was clear: I had overcooked myself between Grandma’s Marathon and mid-summer. I was burned out, and there was no fixing it by pushing harder. If I kept training aggressively, things were only going to get worse.
You can see that clearly in the early red dips in the chart. Those represent the energy hole I was stuck in. Between that race and my honeymoon about a month later, I kept running but pulled way back on both volume and intensity.
After that, I took five weeks that were essentially rest. I averaged about 10 miles per week, with several stretches of seven-plus days without running at all. I enjoyed my honeymoon, let my body heal, and never once regretted that decision.
Over the next 14 weeks, with a refreshed body and mindset—and working closely with my coach-I put together the best training block of my life. Nearly every week was better than the one before.
That blue line reflects my fitness based on accumulated training load. The green line represents optimal load. There were only two notable spikes early in the block: one marathon-pace long run and one very hot long run. After that, the green line gradually settles into the proper range, which suggests an ideal training stress that signals you are on track to get fitter.
On race week, the blue line sat right at the upper end of the ideal “fresh” range. That told me the taper was spot on from a data standpoint. Based on how I felt in the final two weeks, the data matched reality perfectly.
On race day, I executed my plan as well as I possibly could. The goal was sub-2:16 (5:11 per mile) and a third Olympic Trials qualifier. I hit halfway in 1:07:50 and held pace until about four miles to go. The final stretch was very hard. The wheels did come off a bit, but I kept enough together to finish in 2:17:44 (5:15 per mile), my third-fastest marathon and just 45 seconds off my personal best (only 1.5 second per mile difference).
Could a slightly more conservative start have produced a PR? Maybe. Maybe not. I had a clear goal, I committed to it, and I went for it. I have zero regret about that.
The bigger point is this: in July, I couldn’t hold 5:15 pace for seven miles. I certainly couldn’t hold 5:11 pace for 22 miles.
Knowing when to rest and when to push matters. Trusting that you can go from essentially zero to the best shape of your life in 14 weeks matters too. That process, when done right, is one of the most rewarding experiences a runner can have.
