marathon training week 1

Let the marathon training begin!

To start off, I decided to follow Hal Higdon's Novice 2 Marathon Training Plan.  Which consists of 3 runs during the week, 1 of those being at an appropriately challenging pace, the other two are there to get more mileage in (I think), and then a long run at a much slower pace during the weekend.

However...during the middle of this week, I discovered a different plan that required less runs during the week, but those runs are more challenging as you need to meet certain paces on each of your runs.  Basically, you run an intervals in the beginning of the week at faster than your current 10k pace, a tempo run slightly slower than 10k pace two days later, then your long run on the weekend, but not much slower than your planned marathon pace. The day before the long run is a rest day, then the other two days of the week that are between runs require high intensity cross training.  This is called the FIRST Marathon Training plan.  I am going to switch over to this one due to the challenge of the plan. The first run I completed via this plan was on Sunday...as you will see.

Monday

Scheduled "rest" day.  Walked on the treadmill for an hour.

It was slightly brisk in the AM.

Tuesday 

3 mile run. 8:30 pace.

At this point, I hadn't run at altitude for a week and a half. Sedona doesn't count. So, this did not feel too good. But..you gotta start back up somewhere.

Wednesday 

5 mi pace run. 8:58 pace. 

I am not sure why I decided to run a faster run on a trail, but alas I did.

It was around 50 but could have used another layer for my core. Being cold while running is not ideal.

Not the pace I wanted in the slightest.. Still think the altitude adjustment was getting to me.

Thursday 

3 mi run. 8:17 pace.

Felt back to normal during this run!

I am incredibly shocked that 1) no ducks attacked me 2) I didn't get pooped on. There was definitely a close call.

It was a gorgeous afternoon!

Friday 

45 mins walking on treadmill.

We had a work holiday party this night. Loved wearing my new sweater dress! Definitely going to wear this when traveling with some leggings.

Saturday

After not getting an appropriate amount of sleep, I decided to postpone my "long" run until Sunday. Fortunately, I had enough time in the afternoon to lift before heading down to Phoenix for the Muse concert.  Apparently I went all out in just 45 minutes...see below in my Sunday notes.

Muse, by the way, was amazing. I have seen them once before in Columbus, but this tour features them performing in the middle of arenas on a 360 degree stage set-up.  They totally rocked it.

We were front row, by the way.

I wish I could have gotten a better picture of this (hard when you're in the front), but the guitarist here and the lead singer would stand in front of these monitors, and then the projection behind them would make it look like they are attached to the projection (the projection being a hand in this case, so like they were being used as puppets).

If I were to get a guitar, it would have to light up like this.

Confetti and streamers really melt my heart at concerts.

Sunday 

8 mi PMP + 30 sec.  Goal - 9:17. Actual pace - 9:10.

Turns out that I may have done too many squats.  Woke up with my lower body completely sore/on fire. But I had to get this run in. Believe me, I felt the pain the entire time.  My goal was to finish in 1:12 but I'll take 1:13.  And yes, that's my wrist band from the concert.

Anyway - 19.1 miles total for the week. Started off slow but finished strong..in many ways. Excited to see how these interval and tempo runs go this week-  weather looks warm too!