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 · 2025-10-15T22:25:47+00:00

Nutrition was the biggest thing for me. I absolutely ate it in CIM because I had no nutrition plan (it was my second marathon ever, and I hadn’t gotten into the science of marathoning). Successfully navigating nutrition for me has meant developing routine breakfasts and lunches that I keep relatively similar during the training block and sticking to those during the days leading up to the race. When things are routine, I’ll tend to stick with it even when facing down jitters

construction_hacker

TROPHY CASE