Six Weeks to Race Day

When the Calgary Marathon announced it was welcoming runners back more than two years after its last in-person race, Jocelyn Fredine enthusiastically signed up for the marathon. Though the Airdrie, Alta. runner was dealing with a niggling hamstring injury, the marathon was more than six months away, and Fredine figured that was enough time to get healthy and fit.

But a little over six weeks before the race, her hamstring was only tolerating about 40 kilometres a week of running – far less than the 70 kilometres she wanted to be doing. She called her coach to say what she’d known for a long time: she wouldn’t be ready to run the marathon. “You can’t fake it in a full marathon,” Fredine says. “You’re either ready for that distance or you’re not.”

Because she was feeling good with a lower-volume plan, Fredine worked with her coach to pivot to a half-marathon. Instead of cramming in the miles, she focused on shorter speed workouts and efforts at half-marathon goal pace. And rather than setting her sights on a personal best, she aimed to complete the race comfortably without further aggravating her hamstring.