TRAINING UPDATE 8/9
Week 2 of marathon training is in the books here is how it went...
Monday 8/3 - Easy 3 with a finish
Today called for an easy paced first 2 miles and then a faster paced last mile, I went to a park that I hadn't really run at before but it was nice as the path was roughly 1 mile long and mostly flat. I always try to finish my runs hard when I'm not following a specific plan so I do enjoy when my plan calls for that, The first two miles I ran at around 10 per mile and I was able to notch the last mile in 9 mins so I felt good with that
Tuesday 8/4 - Cross Train
Today was originally supposed to be a 5 mile run but it turned out to be the hottest day of the year so far and I just was not feeling running outside and while I could have moved it to the treadmill I really hate doing that unless its necessary so I decided to juggle the schedule around and did my cross train day today instead, I did a ufc workout using my Xbox Kinect and while it did get the heart rate going, I didn't feel it benefited me as much as Jillian did the week before so I may go back to another one of her workouts
Wednesday 8/5 - 3 Mile easy run
I got off work at 7 tonight and headed over to one of the parks I frequent for my runs, I did a lap wich equals roughly a mile and then decided to just run down the street for about half a mile then head back and do a last lap in the opposite direction, I really liked the way this worked out as it changed the scenery a bit and helped me not get to bored, my pace wasn't as even as I would have liked but I did manage to run negative splits which is always a good sign
Thursday 8/6 - Easy 3 mile with a finish
This day again called for 2 easy miles and then a faster finish, I headed home from work and decided to run in my neighborhood since there was a threat of rain in the area. My pace was still pretty steady much like my Monday run and I ran the last mile in 9'09 wich felt good. I am still working on slowing myself down during these easy runs as its far to easy for me to take this a little faster since I'm used to running the longer miles but I know has I start heading into the higher mileage weeks I need to conserve my energy on these shorter runs
Friday 8/7 - 5 Mile Fartlek Run
Today was a prime example of how sometimes you just need a good run to settle yourself down. I had been having a little bit of a rough evening and was feeling frustrated with how I had let it bother me and as I headed out the door I was certain it was going to be a terrible run, but after about a mile all my worries faded and I started to really enjoy the alone time this run provided. Today called for the same type of fartlek run as last week just with an extra mile but I decided to change it up just a bit and go by distance instead, this is easier for me to keep track of as my app gives me updates every quarter mile. So I did a quarter mile fast then eased off the next quarter I felt really strong through the whole thing and was able to average a 9'49 per mile pace, now again this is probably faster than I should be going but at this point I can get away with it
Saturday 8/8 - Rest Day
I had originally planned on running my other 5 mile run for the week today before I went in to work, but I just did not feel good when I woke up so I decided discretion was the better part of valor and pushed the run to sunday after work when hopefully I was feeling better
Sunday 8/9 - 5 mile easy run
After a long day of work you might think the last thing I would want to do would be go run but I find for me that its a great way to unwind and let the stress of work disappear. I went to another of my local parks and got a nice easy 5 mile run in. The pace was right around my goal marathon pace and I like that this feels slow to me, it gives me hope that I will be able to maintain it through out training and then race day
The coming week is going to be tough for me as far as getting all my miles in as Ill be flying out Thursday to then help my mom drive across the country as she is moving here to Georgia from Wyoming. I'm hoping to log as much as I can before then but I'm not to concerned as I know ill be adding some extra miles the following week when I have a half marathon race scheduled
Final Thought
One thing that I really enjoy is motivational/pump up style video's and someone posted a great one in another group I'm in so I thought I would share it here for those of you that may need a boost this week