The first week of training is in the books! This was a pretty great week; all things considered, the weather was pretty mild (cold, of course, but no snow or ice!) and I had no problem getting all of my workouts in!
Monday – I love kicking a training plan off with a rest day. If you follow me on Instagram, you’ll see that I nailed it.
Boom. I also spy a Wilbur Tail (#whereswilbur)
Tuesday – First run of the week/training cycle! 3 easy miles (33:14/11:05 pace)on the treadmill . I always start out slow on the treadmill and try to finish fast (to simulate a fast finish in a race), so my pace looks normal for me but in reality, it’s usually an all-out sprint at the end!
Wednesday – Strength Training!
Thursday – My first speed session and I decided to take this one outside. Paces always feel so different to me outside than they do on the treadmill. I’m pretty sure I would have a much harder time pulling these splits off on a treadmill, if I could do them at all. Since this is the first week, I eased into it with 3 great progression miles.
Like lightning!
I really love progression runs and hoping they will help me to stay disciplined to start the first few miles of the marathon slower and gradually increase my pace as the race goes on.
Friday – Strength Training, again! Since the New Year, I’ve been really good about hitting the weights 2x per week. I don’t have a lot of equipment since I work out in my basement, but am trying to get the most out of what I have. I’d like to see a few muscles out of this! 🙂
Saturday – Hills. In my downtime, I wasn’t as consistent with hill training as I had been. Couple that with more treadmill runs than I think I’ve ever done in my life and I could see a noticeable decrease in my hill fitness.
I’m not worried though – I’m sure I will bounce back fairly quickly. Just by looking at the numbers, it doesn’t look like I lost a lot but it took some serious effort to sustain that! From now on, anytime I need to run on the treadmill I’m going to start changing the incline around, instead of just the speed. That won’t totally make up for what I’m missing out on, but it should help. I’m also hoping that I will be able to limit my treadmill runs to just once a week on my easy day. I know that won’t always be the case but I can hope! 4 Miles (45:50/11:27 pace)
Sunday – I met Jennifer at North Park for our long run. We were scheduled for 9 miles (me) and 6 miles (Jennifer) so we tossed a few route ideas around, that would accommodate us both and decided on the Frigid Five Miler course. Rather than try to do mid-run math and find a spot to turn around at, I decided to add on one more mile and make it an even 10. The Weather Channel App said it was 42 degrees, so I used the opportunity to grace the other runners of North Park with my pasty, neon white legs and wear shorts.
You need sunglasses for those bad boys
The first 5 miles was great – I will never believe how fast the miles go when you have someone to talk to. As we tackled the little rollers of the course, I was reminded how remote that section of North Park is…and I started to get a little nervous about running another 5 by myself. We passed our cars right before we started our second climb up the mountain and I grabbed my cell phone; I told Jennifer that way you guys could use the GPS tracker on it to find my body when I go missing up there. You think I’m kidding but let me refer you to cases 1 & 2 and tell me how crazy I am. Seriously though, safety first. We reached the top of the hill at the Lodge, and it was time to say goodbye to Jennifer (who crushed the hill both times!) so I could start my last 4 miles solo. I also reminded her of my description – grey and purple shorts, grey and purple shirt, ponytail, aviators….just in case. I ran the last 4 miles a smidge faster than the first time – it was getting cold and rainy and suddenly the shorts seemed like a really stupid idea. I saw a few people here and there, but for the most part it was empty and I kind of really liked it (minus the whole being afraid of a mountain man stealing me and making me his child bride thing, that is). I made it back to my car unscathed, except for a few frozen fingers that took a few minutes to come back to life.
I think it’s obvious where the hills were!
My overall pace was right on target, but my mile splits were kind of all over the place. As many other have said though, that is a really tough course to plan for! I tried to monitor my effort – I was able to truck up the biiiiig hill both times with no stopping or walking, and I was also able to use the level and downhill sections to get my breathing and form under control.
So pretty up there!
I finished the week with 20 miles (1 more than I planned for), and I’m feeling really good! Hopefully the momentum carries into next week. In the coming weeks I want to continue to work on my strength training (that spare tire around my middle seriously needs to go!!), and focus on my nutrition to make sure I’m fueling my workouts!
How was your week of training?
Help me out – what are your favorite things to incorporate into your strength workouts? I’ve started doing single leg dead lifts with just a 10lb dumbbell and WOW! I can always feel it the next day!
The Crazy Cat Lady Runner 
Now that is how you start off marathon training, kudo’s to you. I can honesty say I don’t know too many people that start week 1 with a 10 mile long run. I am anxious to see how you do on race day if you are already up to that
Thank you!! I’m hoping that I can keep this up! If I can keep my pace under control early and not start out like a bat out of hell, I’m hoping for good things on race day! 🙂
Great job on the strength training! You should be able to do a lot with just dumb bells. Single leg dead lifts are great! Single leg squats where your back foot is resting on a step or chair is the toughest for me. Nice job on the solo 5 miles…especially with the rain, cold & thoughts of crazies getting you!!! Congrats on a great first week!
Thanks 🙂 !! I’m nuts and am always worried about crazies getting me, but up there it was really intensified!
I also like single leg/split squats…my balance leaves a lot to be desired but I know they are so effective! I also want to start working my way into pistol squats. They look hella hard, but I can’t even imagine the strength I could gain from them!
Aha! so I’m not the only one who thinks of weird scenarios of mountain men, etc while on a run alone! Glad you escaped the evil Lodge loop with little more than icy fingers. 😉 Nice training kick off week.
Strength training: I love goblet squats. Do you have a stability ball? If you have dumbbells and a stability ball you pretty much have all the tools you need to strength train for a marathon. Core work is important for us runners too. In the later miles our posture and form tends to go to pot but a strong core makes it easier to keep up the good form for longer.
Thank you :-)!! I watch more Criminal Minds/Dateline/Investigation Discovery than is healthy, so I always have those thoughts rolling around my head!
I have a few dumbbells, some weight plates, a stability ball (that rarely gets used because I normally fall/roll off), EZ Bar (because I’m weak and throwing a few plates onto that is about all I can do at this point) and barbell that never gets used because OMG heavy!! My problem is that I’m just so weak that everything feels hard – I normally throw in the towel by now, but I’m really trying to stick with it because I know how beneficial it will be!
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