This week marked week 1 of 12 of my official build toward the California International Marathon (CIM) on December 7, 2025. Each week, I’ll be sharing data, insights, and other information about my training and process. I did something similar for the 2025 Boston Marathon, and the feedback was positive enough that I decided to do it again!
CIM will be my 4th official marathon and my second this year. I’m going into it with some big goals, this time being a shot at a sub-2:20 marathon. That would be a ~4-minute personal best for me—doable but not easy! CIM is a notoriously fast course, and this year is serving as the USA marathon championships, so the field will be deep, giving me plenty of talented people to run with (or right behind for a nice draft).
Much of this training block will be similar to Boston, but I’m also trying some new stuff, so I’m excited to both see where it takes me and share it with you!
Week 1 (September 15–21, 2025)
I was on vacation in South Carolina this week with family, and oddly, I never find training on vacation to be as easy as one might think. Lack of a normal routine, mild jet lag, and different eating and sleeping patterns always make the transition tough. So I had some grace with myself, knowing it would be a 6–7/10 week. I managed a few quality sessions, some easy bike riding, and ended the week back home with a great long run and some cross-training in the familiar Texas heat.
Weekly totals
Running: 74.5 miles/8 hours 22 minutes (5 days of running)
Biking: 4 hours 56 minutes
Week 1 | Day 1
Workout: 13 miles easy
Shoes: ASICS Superblast 2
Week 1 | Day 2
Workout: 1:43 easy bike ride around the island. Certainly a recovery day, as I was on a beach cruiser, which limited how intense I was able to ride.
Week 1 | Day 3
Workout: 10 miles easy
Shoes: ASICS Superblast 2
Week 1 | Day 4
Workout: 30-minute warmup | 10 miles alternating 1 mile hard/1 mile easy | 1 mile with 6x alternating 30” hard/30” easy | 15-minute cooldown
Shoes: Brooks Hyperion Max 3
Week 1 | Day 5
Workout: 14 miles easy
Shoes: ASICS Superblast 2
Week 1 | Day 6
Workout: 2-hour indoor bike ride on Zwift (aerobic intervals)
Week 1 | Day 7
Workout: Long Run | 20 miles moderate. I ran this one by feel and pushed a little for the latter ⅔. It’s still brutally hot and humid in Austin, and I paid the price a bit for underhydrating.
Shoes: Brooks Hyperion Max 3
Fuel
