I've found a marathon training plan I like the looks of - see it here - and today was my first "official" day of training! The National Marathon is on March 26th, giving me plenty of time to get through all of the training the plan dictates.
I like the fact that this plan allows me to do both speed work and distance work but that there won't be a heavy emphasis on the distance. I don't want to put too much strain on my joints, and so doing only one really long day a week is appealing. Also, I like the variety; day after day of the same long runs would probably cause me to lose motivation pretty quickly. I also like that the plan is free.
Today's run was a 6-miler. I did two miles at my goal pace, two at "tempo" (which for me is 8:34 minutes per mile according to the plan) and two more at my goal pace to finish off. In less than an hour, I was done! I found it really difficult to stick to my pace. I kept looking at my watch and realizing that I was 10-30 seconds per mile faster than I should have been - sometimes more! This is not good; I need to get used to the way my goal pace feels so I can relax into it on race day and not have to keep checking my watch every minute to make sure I'm on schedule. Today's run felt really easy at what seemed to be a relatively slow pace, but since I'll have to hold it for 26.2 miles, not just 6, that's a good thing at this point.
These are my sweet new running shoes! The Saucony pair I swore by has been changed slightly, and the new model doesn't fit quite right. While I was sad to move on - I was ready to buy pair #3! - these are working out really well so far. They're unbelievably light and I have yet to get even a threat of a blister, even after several long-ish runs with no duct tape on my feet. They're a bit less padded than the Saucony's, which is taking some getting used to, but all in all I'm happy with my choice.
As far as my pace goes, I'm really guessing here. I have no idea what to expect from the marathon. One thing I do know is that I can't simply double my half-marathon times to get my target full marathon time. There's the fatigue factor to consider, which will slow me down a lot. So I'm going into it with the goal of finishing in under 4 hours. 3:59:59 will make me very happy. As I get farther into my training, I'll be able to determine whether that's way too slow, way too fast, or just about right.
Although following the schedule is going to require that I use a bit more discipline than I'm used to, I'm really excited to get going!
P.S. Never fear, I will not be recording a daily journal of my training runs here. The only thing more boring than watching someone run 12 miles is reading about someone running 12 miles.
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