Running

Anyone have the experience of racing a marathon shockingly well after a not super great training cycle? 🤣 

*not great defined as* - off on paces in workouts, maybe some illness/injury which cut the training block short by a significant amount, etc.

just wondering what's possible lol

I had a pretty good marathon a few years ago after my training cycle was interrupted by 1) wildfire smoke making it impossible to run outside for a couple weeks, 2) COVID restrictions limiting my indoor treadmill use to 30 minutes a few days a week and 3) my idiotic idea to compensate by running up and down my apartment stairs for 60 minutes which destroyed my calves making it impossible to run for a week. I ran what was a PB at the time, and it was better than other races where I thought I had a "better" training cycle.

Also, in Meb Keflezighi's book "26 Marathons," he talks about several marathons in which his training was barely half of his usual volume (like no runs over 8 miles) in which he raced shockingly well, one of them being the 2012 Olympic Trials. I was coincidentally listening to that audiobook during those treadmill runs.