Chandra

Marathon
Written By Mona Angéline

Meet Chandra! Her goal is to qualify for the 2027 Boston Marathon. Running it will be a gift to herself for her sixtieth birthday. Chandra will attempt a qualifying time at the upcoming California International Marathon. But she’s got backup qualifying attempts at the 2026 Eugene and Twin Cities Marathons if the weather gods or other factors don’t permit the feat the first time around.

Chandra showed me her existing training plan. At times, she had to skip workouts. Looking at it, we realized that there were very few easy runs scheduled. Almost every run included at least some strides. Add to that two speed workouts most weeks! To top it off, most runs required a strength workout immediately after, next to standalone strength sessions on separate days. It became obvious that this was unsustainable, and we adjusted her plan by removing most of the strides and some of the strength sessions. Rest is important!

Chandra also inquired about nutrition strategies that might satisfy her sensitive stomach, and we’ll make sure to test different things in her long runs before the big race.

Good luck Chandra!

Mona Angéline

Mona Angéline is an unapologetically vulnerable writer, reader, book reviewer, artist, athlete, and scientist. She honors the creatively unconventional, the authentically "other". She shares her emotions because the world tends to hide theirs. She is a new writer, but her work was recently accepted in Flash Fiction Magazine, Grand Dame Literary, tiny wren lit, Down in the Dirt Magazine, The Viridian Door, The Machine, Whisky Blot Magazine, and The Academy of Mind and Heart. She loves to review books and has written them for the /tƐmz/ Review, the Ampersand Review, and the Beakful Litblog. Sooner or later she will have to condense this list… Mona is also a regular guest editor for scientific journals although she doesn't use a pen name when her engineering PhD degree is involved. She lives bicoastally in Santa Cruz, California, and in New York and savors life despite, or maybe because of, her significant struggles with chronic illness and mild disability. Learn about her musings at creativerunnings.com. Follow her on Instagram under @creativerunnings and on Twitter at @creativerunning.

https://creativerunnings.com
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