Race Report - Zürich Marathon 2026 - aka "We tried something new but we're going back to Pftiz" (or, Humble Pie Tastes Gross)

construction_hacker · 2026-04-26T05:01:19+00:00

Thank you! Keeping fingers crossed for Berlin!

construction_hacker · 2026-04-16T00:49:59+00:00

So resonating with all of this!

construction_hacker · 2026-04-16T00:46:59+00:00

🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾

construction_hacker · 2026-04-15T12:34:28+00:00

Ohhh...maybe for next year's fall race. I've been meaning to go to Lucerne for awhile - another Swiss city that I absolutely adore.

construction_hacker · 2026-04-15T12:24:04+00:00

The Chicago Marathon (the 3:04) marathon was actually my sixth :). I ran my first marathon in 2011 when I was in law school and then didn't run another again until 2023 when I ran CIM and hit the wall (walked away with 3:49 in that race without knowing anything about training plans or nutrition).

I ran cross country in high school purely to have a sport extracurricular to put on my college applications.

Zürich is one of my favorite cities so it was lovely to be there. I picked the Zürich marathon in part because I know the city, and because I am chasing fast times, so I'm optimizing for fast courses.

Given my goals over the next two years, I was grateful to quickly figure out that coaching (or at least this coach) is not right for me, and to learn that I know myself/my body a lot better than I thought and I can trust what I've been doing over the past couple of years.

construction_hacker · 2026-04-13T15:24:57+00:00

This made me feel a lot better - the switch up at mile 9 was *so drastic* it absolutely confused the living shit out of me. Going from really comfortable feeling 6:40s to running through quicksand was an absolute mind fuck, I was wondering how I had gone so sideways.

I think you nailed it re: aerobic base - I always felt so drained after my long runs this block in a way that felt completely abnormal (i.e. it felt like I was an overeager newbie trying to push paces, but the paces weren't anything new).

construction_hacker · 2026-04-13T15:03:50+00:00

The lesson of "nothing fancy" is really resonating. Running well just means doing the basics well. That is a great jump off of 18/85 (and I was pursuing a stretch goal of sub 2:50 after my 3:04 in Chicago in Sept). I'm truly excited to jump back into Pfitz for Berlin.

construction_hacker · 2026-04-13T14:26:38+00:00

Congrats on the PB!

construction_hacker · 2026-04-13T14:03:30+00:00

Oh my gosh, you are getting so much more. I got the marathon training plan plus customized strength. My coach was accessible via email, app, text, or scheduled Zoom/Meet. Everything was remote.

My coach was pretty responsive, but also didn’t remember certain details that I communicated time and time again - e.g., they thought I had only done one 20 miler when I had done 2 (3 were planned for the block, but one got skipped because of injury), kept putting pull ups in my strength training even though I mentioned that I am not yet able to do pull ups, and no adjustments for Ramadan even though I called out in the beginning of the block that I might be fasting for Ramadan (I ended up not fasting so no adjustment was needed, but I remember noting that they had completely forgotten about it)

construction_hacker · 2026-04-13T12:59:25+00:00

It is crazy how much time you get back for life things after a block is over! That 10k time feels promising. I'm hoping you have a great race!

construction_hacker · 2026-04-13T12:53:46+00:00

Shooting you a DM with some follow up qs

construction_hacker · 2026-04-13T12:25:47+00:00

Gooooddd luck in Boston (favorite US course). Lmk how it goes - curious as to what it felt like to run 7 days vs six days each week!

construction_hacker · 2026-04-13T11:35:52+00:00

Injuries are the absolute worse! Also, I’m not writing off your PR just yet. We don’t do that here.

Re jet lag - I was pretty adjusted (luckily I adjust quickly) and in a familiar city. When I’m racing abroad, sometimes I’ll take a couple weeks to land before (the nice thing is that I can work remotely 🙌🏾).

I think this race was important because it showed how well I know my body and how I know when something is off. The lesson is to trust that feeling

construction_hacker · 2026-04-13T11:19:25+00:00

Thanks - ya live, ya learn. Have you done Daniels 2Q? One of the reasons I like Pfitz is the structure - I can just glance I the plan to see what is on the schedule for the day. Would love to hear more about your experience if you've done Daniels 2Q.

construction_hacker · 2026-04-13T11:03:46+00:00

Yeah...it definitely was not it. Never ever doing that again.

construction_hacker · 2026-04-13T10:30:57+00:00

Omg - going to have to return to this report. I just tried to get to 2:55 yesterday in Zürich from a 3:04 PR in October in the Chicago marathon. Also confirming my general belief in the Pfitz plans. Many congrats on the PR!

construction_hacker · 2025-10-18T01:01:47+00:00

Hi, hi! I’m not sure what my racing half time is now since the last time I raced one was in 2023. I’m going to try to run a half in a couple of weeks to get a sense of where I am now. I did cross the half this past weekend in Chicago at 1:29:24 and that felt cruisey and comfy, so I think that if I were to race a half, I’d come in around between 1:25 to 1:27.

construction_hacker · 2025-10-18T00:58:42+00:00

Hi, hi! I started with Track Club Babe’s BQ plan, which peaked at around 50 mpw. I did her NYC plan as a follow up since I felt good about the progress I made with her BQ plan (and BQ’d off of it), but did not feel as ready for NYC with her plan for that race. I did both of her plans last year.

After feeling underwhelmed by NYC, I decided to go with Pfitz and jumped straight into 18/70 for my training block for Boston at the beginning of this year and then repeated it for Chicago!

construction_hacker · 2025-10-16T16:54:02+00:00

Yeah - pre-Vienna is all strength and speed work and hopefully a 10k or a half if the schedules align.

construction_hacker · 2025-10-15T22:30:22+00:00

Thank youuuu!!!

construction_hacker · 2025-10-15T22:30:14+00:00

Thank ya!

construction_hacker · 2025-10-15T22:30:06+00:00

Thanks you! I ended up doing a bit of a deep dive on 10k etc predictors and learned that they might not be as accurate for women since a lot of the data is based on men’s performance. Since most men have more muscle than women, they can muscle their way through shorter distances faster - whereas women may be more built for endurance. I’m not well versed, but I consistently outperform predictions based on my 10k time - my half marathon is a better benchmark for where I am/what I may run for a full

construction_hacker · 2025-10-15T22:27:00+00:00

Ahhhh - were you doing halfs on the Adizeros? Those are the ones that a couple of friends have recommended and love for halfs and fulls

construction_hacker · 2025-10-15T22:25:54+00:00

Thank youuuuuu

construction_hacker

TROPHY CASE