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Monday, August 13, 2012

Richmond Marathon Training - Week 1

Now that I'm back in marathon training, I thought I'd bring back weekly recaps. I know they're not very exciting, but I like to be able to go back and see what I've done.

Monday August 6
Run 5.1 mi
I was originally thinking about hitting the pool on Monday morning, but some car troubles on Sunday meant that I had no way to get there. I settled for a very easy run instead.

Tuesday August 7
Run 8.5 mi
400 (1:43), 800 (3:27), 1200 (5:12), 1200 (5:07), 800 (3:19), 400 (1:36)
My goal for track workouts this fall is to make sure that I'm running in the right range based on the CAR interval chart and my tentative marathon goal time. I'd like to think that I could run these intervals slightly faster, but I'm focusing on maintaining a hard, but not too hard effort, and trying to hit the times on the chart. My secondary goal for the day was to be slightly faster on the way back down the pyramid, so I was very happy with how I executed this workout.

Wednesday August 8
Swim 3000 yds
Run 5.15 mi
A nice IM heavy swim with Beth in the morning, followed by the CAR fun run at night.

Thursday August 9
Rest

Friday August 10
Run 7.3 mi
5k tempo - 23:08
This was a decent tempo workout for me. Each mile was slightly faster, which is always the goal. I experimented a bit and tried to significantly pick up the pace for the third mile. Normally I wait a little bit longer to do so, and it was definitely too early during this run. I wasn't able to sustain the effort and dropped off during the last lap and half. Still, I was happy with the run overall and figure there's no better time to test out different pacing strategies than in a workout.

Saturday August 11
Run 10.0 mi (8:40ish avg)
Originally my schedule called for 12-14 miles this week, but since I was planning to race the mile on Sunday, I cut it back to ten. I tried to keep it relatively relaxed and didn't focus on making it a progression run. For some reason my Garmin decided to misbehave on the way back and I ended up with a total distance of 9.7, instead of ten. This was after going out five miles and turning around and everyone else's watches recording the proper distance. So, because I didn't feel like doing actual math, I'm guessing at my average pace when the additional .3 was factored into the total distance.

Sunday August 12
Run 6 mi
PVTC track meet 1 mile - 6:25
A two mile warm up, 1 mile race and three mile cool down. This race didn't go quite as well as I had hoped, and I was kind of frustrated right afterwards, but 24 hours later I don't feel too bad about it. It was good to get out there and push myself and try a different race strategy. Official results aren't up yet, but based on what I saw on the clock I think I finished right around 6:25. Race report coming.

Week 1: 42.05 mi

8 comments:

LAPT said...

6:25 is an impressive mile time, especially at the end of your first week of marathon training!

Jessica Karazsia (@irun26at8) said...

I love weekly recaps. Mostly, as you said, for your own reference. Looks like you had a solid first week.

Totally unrelated...what is the picture of in the header of your blog?

Victoria said...

Those are some really speedy paces. Isn't that 5k tempo run close to your 5k PR? Impressive.

Teamarcia said...

Very solid week! Wow those are some impressive intervals times. Go yoU!

AKA Darkwave, AKA Anarcha, AKA Cris. said...

Like Jessica, I like weekly recaps. And I totally agree with using workouts to try different things. Workouts aren't fitness validations, they're practice, so what better time to play with different things.

And I'm also a big fan of doing down the pyramid faster than you start. Of course, I cheat by viewing the first rep as a warm-up.

Elizabeth said...

Great work this week! Your paces have dropped so much in the past month. You have a lot to be proud of! Woot!

Beth said...

Ok, you are really motivating me now!! You are going to be kicking a lot of ass this season!!

Rachel said...

solid first week of training! i know it's early, but i have a feeling you're going to smash your marathon PR ; )