Consistency is the Magic Workout: Fall Race Reports from the Fitness Protection Program

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“The specificity you need is the consistency of not stopping.” - Coach MK

In this episode, Coach Sarah and Coach MK listen to the tales of seven runners who raced a half-marathon or a marathon the Fitness Protection way this past fall. Runners who have been training in the Maintain program with Fitness Protection for at least two months are essentially half-marathon ready at any time; all they have to do is reduce their workouts during the week before the race, and they are good to go, as we’ll hear. Members who want to run a marathon and have been Maintaining consistently for at least two months have three 10-week training plans to choose from, all of which are provided for free in the subscriber area of the website. In this episode, you’ll hear all about the perspective shift that this approach brings to marathon preparation and the satisfaction that it brings.

First, The coaches hear from Trisha, who ran the Philadelphia Half Marathon, and from Lana, who ran the Route 66 half, and about how they both surprised themselves on race day with performances that exceeded their expectations despite having basically shown up to YOLO the race. They knew they’d been running consistently, the pressure was off, and they just got to go out there and see what they had in them.

Next, we heard from Emily, who ran her first marathon in Philadelphia a few weeks ago having maintained through summer and started on the Tenacious AF marathon ramp during the month of September. Coach MK talks about why Tenacious is her favorite plan and why the runners training on the Tenacious AF plan deserve to be front and center and always will be. Kristy is another Tenacious AF marathoner who trained for the Amsterdam marathon while also managing an exceedingly busy life of international travel and the schedules of two active teenagers. She still got most of her runs done without burning herself out, showed up on race day, and ran the entire race without stopping and bettered her previous time by several minutes.

Karen ran the Loch Ness marathon in Scotland and Adrienne ran the Mount Desert Island marathon in Maine, just a few weeks apart, both having followed the Dedicated AF training plan. Both races presented a significant challenge in the form of neverending HILLS, and both Karen and Adrienne toughed it out through some difficult patches on race day and finished strong, smiling, and ready for whatever is next. We adore their perspective and the pride with which they describe their accomplishments.

Our final voice memo is from Kara, who jumped into Maintain as soon as we launched the beta test in April and began racking up month after month of consistent running so that she would be ready to run the Pike’s Peak Ascent in August. Even though, as she notes, she lives and trains at sea level in St Louis, MO, she got exactly what she needed to get to the top before the time cutoff and feel fantastic while doing it. Kara is proof positive that the key ingredient to every training journey is the consistency you’ve already accumulated before you start.

MK Fleming is the founder of Fitness Protection, LLC and Sarah Axelrod leads Fitness Protection's #CoachedandLoved Community. Try our accessible, affordable monthly running plans at www.fitnessprotection.com!