Week 1 Recap

Here we go, folks. Attempt #1,271 of a marathon cycle. AGAIN. Let's keep our fingers crossed that I make it through more than a mere 2 weeks or so.

Starting with last week, I've got 12 weeks until my next marathon: The Sun Health Arizona Marathon. So, I figured that was plenty of time to get myself into half-way decent shape. My goals as of right now, are: 1. To finish and 2. To Finish under 4:30. 

So, that means that I need to actually attempt to train. I feel like I trained OK for the Oklahoma City Marathon back in April, and the wind killed me and I still managed to run a 4:46. Soooooo. Hopefully a sub 4:30 can be in the cards for me in 12 short weeks.

Am I following a training plan? Nope. Am I being coached? Nope. I don't think I'm quite ready for either one of those right now. But, my plan is to slowly increase my weekly mileage and eventually get to a point where I'm focusing on 3 runs a week. (Similar to the FIRST training plan thought process).

Typically, I run twice a week with my buddy Steve. He is WAY faster than me and we generally run faster than I normally would on my own. As the weeks go on, I'm going to start using my runs with him for tempo runs, etc. But, for right now, I'm just calling my runs with him as "steady state" runs. Which, to me, means... running slight faster than comfortably hard. I'm not officially timing the runs, but, I do keep an eye on when I hop in and out of the car, so, I have a general idea.

The other key run of the week, is the Long Run. Which, I hope to incorporate "fast" miles in every week. You'll see what I mean as we go along.

So, here is how Week 1 shaped up:

Mon: Off

Tues: 5 miles around 9:40 pace with Steve. (I was still recovering from a cold, so, we took it easier than normal).

Wed: Off

Thursday: 5 miles around 9:15 pace.This run felt fantastic.

Friday: 3 mile run and 2 mile walk after

Saturday: 10 miles at a 9:15 pace with my drill sergeant Bitch, Melissa. Seriously, she saved my butt on the run and pushed me to get this run done at that pace. I was thrilled!

Sunday: 3.5 mile recovery run. This FELT like a recovery run, which was kind of nice. Been a long time since I've felt like that.

So, I'm starting out slow and I can't say that my mileage will ever hit the 50-60 mpw range. But, I'm just going to do the best I can and hopefully bump up my weekly mileage and get to a point where my recovery runs can be a little longer as well.

Comeback Week ?

So, I kinda of merged Week 11, Week 12, and Week 13 of the plan. (obviously, they number by weeks out from the race). Technically, last week was 12 weeks out.

The best thing about the week, was that after probably 1 and half years or so, Running Partner Steve and I finally got back into a running routine! We met twice last week for runs and since we both have new jobs that are less stressful and less busy, I think we will easily be able to keep up a running routine. YAY for running partners and accountability!

So, that being said, I roped him into doing two of my workouts together:

As a reminder: I'm hoping to run a 3:59 in Oklahoma City in April. That pace is 9:07.

Workout #1:
Was supposed to be 5x1000 m. Steve and I meet at 5:30am, it is DARK out at that time and while I'm still new to the Garmin 105 and it's button placements, I opted to run the Workout 1 from Week 13 which was:3x1600m with 3 minute recoveries (we did 400 recoveries. Again. It's Dark!).

So, I wore my trusty timex, because the quarter miles are marked where we run. And of course, the light is out on the watch. So, I had no idea about my time or if I was getting the intervals marked off right on the watch. I will say that it felt hard. Very hard. I almost quit after the first one, but I was like... ohhh... I can do two more and then I almost quit after the second one, but I was like... ohhhh there's only one more. It was rough.

When we finished the run, I realized that I had recorded our warm up mile: 9:21 and our first interval at 8:21 (I was shooting for 8:40). And then I had one time for the rest of our run that included the last two intervals, two recoveries, and two miles of cool down and that total time was:  40:32 which is 9:00 pace, so, I'm going to assume that my other two intervals were fast and that's why they felt like poop. Oh well. Did it.

Workout #2
From Week 12: 1 mile easy, 4 miles Tempo, 1 mile cool down. Again, I did this with Steve and my plan was to run it at around 8:40 pace, too. (I need to re-assess my paces on my workouts methinks), and we averaged 9:00 instead. So, I guess in the end, it ended up being a Marathon Pace Run, which, I'll take.

Workout #3
From Week 11: 13 miles @ :15 seconds over planned marathon pace. Since I was running a half marathon on Saturday, I figured this long run from week 11 was perfect. And it would have been, except, I never got a mile that was 9:22 pace. I started off with a couple of miles at planned marathon pace, but after those first two miles, it was a shit show. I finished in something like 2:18. With walk breaks, and miles where I vowed that I was quitting running forever.

So, here's the deal. I haven't been as diligent with the training plan as I should be. So, I think that doing 2 of the weekly workouts and then attempting an aggressive long run is just assuming that I'm wayyyyy more fit than I am. So, I think, moving forward, I'm going to try and make sure that I hit my long run goals and that means, maybe scaling back for a week or two on the weekly workout paces. Still pushing them, but, staying away from 8:21 miles.

I'm not too concerned, there are still 11 weeks till the marathon and if I can string together some good solid weeks till then, I think I can put myself in position to attempt the 3:59(and lose a little weight. YES, still working on that. Failed for awhile. Trying to get back on track).

But, my focus for the next 2-3 weeks is going to be the long run. That's always been my weakest link in training, and so, I want to make sure that I'm focusing on that part of improving.

So, not a great week. Not a terrible week. One foot in front of the other.

The Comeback Week 2

This week re-cap is actually from December 7-13.

The plan called for the following:

Workout 1: 
13 min w/u
6x (1 min fast then 2 min easy)  (Fast miles 45 secs faster than current 10K pace)
10 minute cool down

Workout 2:
2 miles easy
2 miles Tempo (15-30 seconds slower than current 10K pace)
2 miles easy

Workout 3: 
9 miles at Planned Marathon Pace + 15 sec/mile.

I did workout 1 and workout 3 and then I ran a 25K trail race that weekend, as well. My friend Liz met me for the 9 miler at 9:22 pace and we pretty much nailed the workout. I was NERVOUS to run that many miles at that pace and thought it was an aggressive workout/long run for week 2 of a training plan. That's the thing with the FIRST plan, though. It doesn't mess around.

Workout 1 I did on The KoB's treadmill. I could tell a difference from the previous week with the shorter recoveries.

Workout 2 I ATTEMPTED the day after the 25K Trail Race. But, uhh.. there was no way it was happening. 

Overall, I'm still loving this plan. Having only 3 main runs to have to worry about is such a relief and low stress.

The Comeback Week 1

So, I've titled this training cycle... The Comeback. It's an effort to kick this thing off in a positive direction. I guess we won't really know if it's truly a Comeback until Late April. Hoping for the best here, people.

So, week 1 of the FIRST Plan called for the following runs:

Key Workout 1 (The fastest of the workouts):
10 min warm up
6x (1 minute fast, then 3 minutes easy) (Pace: 45 seconds faster than current 10K pace)
10 minute cool down.
Completed this workout like a boss.

Key Workout 2:
2 miles easy
2 miles @ Tempo Pace (Pace: 15-30 seconds slower than 10K pace)
2 miles easy
Bailed early on the cool down, but nailed the warm up and workout.

Key Workout 3:
8 miles at 30 seconds over planned marathon pace.
Ran 8 miles. But, mostly likely not at 9:30 pace.

Now, the first thing you need to know is that this plan bases itself on what your current 10k Pace is. And I'm choosing to go optimistic here, and saying that my current 10K pace is about a 9:00 pace. Now, to make things easy (or confusing depending on how you look at it), that is also my planned marathon pace time (what I'm hoping to run in April). As the plan goes on, I will hopefully get more fit and there will be a greater distance between those two paces.

And as I am writing this now, I realize that I did my Key Workout 2 at the wrong pace (I did 15-30 FASTER than my current 10k pace instead of slower). Oops.

Overall, the week went really well. I had a bit of a botch job on the 8 miles at 9:30 pace. I ended up not having a working watch for the run, and I was not dressed properly for the weather, so, I think I ended up with 8 miles at 10:00 pace.

Anyway, in general, the first week of the plan seemed manageable and I was super excited about it all week. I did Key Workout 1 and 2 on the treadmill and while I know that running on the treadmill isn't as good as running outside in the elements, for now, it's easy to get my runs done on it and it's easy to make sure I'm doing my workout right. Or wrong, I guess. Ugh.

I've also fallen off the Weight Watchers Tracking Wagon for a couple of weeks (thanksgiving thru yesterday), but, I'm getting back on it today. I'm hoping that continuing to lose a little weight here and there will also help my running. I'm still down 10-11 pounds since I started WW back in September, but, I've still got a little over 15 more pounds to lose. FUN.