My first week of Marathon training didn’t really go as planned. But that isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
Here is what happened:
Monday
Goal: Strength
Actual: Strength
Tuesday
Goal: 3 miles easy (10:17 to 10: 47)
Actual: 3.16 miles at 9:31 pace
Wednesday
Goal: 5 miles pace (8:53-9:16)
Actual: 5 a.m. miles at 9:49 and 3.35 p.m. miles at 11:58
Thursday
Goal: 3 miles easy (10:17 to 10:47) and Strength
Actual: Rest from running and Strength
Friday
Goal: rest
Actual: 3.02 at 9:57
Saturday
Goal: 8 miles long (10:17 to 11:17) with 10 minute Strong Finish
Actual: 8 miles at 9:55, no strong finish
Sunday
Goal: 2-3 miles recovery jog (11:17 to 11:47)
Actual: 1.98 miles at 10:07
I switched things around a little to fit in an evening run and my paces were a little faster than planned. On my Easy run days I want to run at a comfortable level and if that means I am going faster/slower than my goal pace that’s o.k. by me. I’m going to keep including them in my weekly plan so that I can reference this if I need it.
Saturday’s long run was a unique one. A huge thunder storm rolled through our area right when I had planned to wake up and get my run in. Instead I got a little extra rest and enjoyed listening to the storm. So relaxing. After the storm blew through we decided to go to the farmer’s market to get our veggies for the week. I dressed for my run and when we were finished at the market I ran towards the park to get 3 miles in before heading home (which is about 5 miles.) What a fun way to get in my mileage. I haven’t done my weekly speed work at the park and so I’ve missed it.
My new Nike+ watch was working great, except I had it set up wrong. A negative about the Nike+ watch is that you can’t change the large stat on your watch unless it is hooked into a computer. Usually this isn’t a big deal because I make sure it is all set up for my next run before I finish charging it. Today I didn’t double check it before leaving…not sure why because I’ve never used this watch and of course it wouldn’t be set up the way I like it! Usually I like to have the average pace in the large portion of my screen and then I can flip through all the other settings while running to see where I’m at. Today it was set up with the lap time on the big part of the screen. At first I was really disappointed but then I decided to make a game out of it. Try and finish each lap (or mile) within a certain time. This was a great motivator and really kept me at the pace that I wanted to run. I’m happy that I stumbled upon this on accident and I’m sure I’ll use this technique again on long runs and even maybe during a race. It ended up being much easier to see an average pace for each specific mile and it was fun to speed up at the end of each mile to try and finish within a certain time.
Distance: 8 miles
Time: 1:19:18
Average Pace: 9:55
Here’s what I have planned for this week:
Week 2: Wichita Prairie Fire Marathon Training
Monday: Strength
Tuesday: 3 miles easy (10:17-10:47) with 3 strides at the end
Wednesday: 5 miles easy (10:17-10:47)
Thursday: 3 miles progression
Friday: Strength
Saturday: 9 miles long (10:17-11:17) with mid 3 miles at Race Pace (9:47)
Sunday: 3 miles recovery jog (11:17-11:47)
