Life in the 9′s: Marathon training week 1

Last Monday began training for marathon training cycle number 4. I have been referring to all my marathon training plans as cycles and this one always throws me when I type MTC4 because, yes, this is my 4th go at marathon training. However, this plan will cover 2 marathons. So even though its only my 4th time training, I will be running marathon #4 and #5. Yeah, still wrapping my head around that one, too.

With 2 marathon’s looming over me, both in May, both 2 weeks apart, you think I would be panicking over numbers and miles. And oddly, I’m not. I should be at least a little, but I didn’t really get out all the training days that I should have in week one. I am hoping the urgency hits me with my second week. But here is what Week 1 was supposed to look like…

Monday: Hot Powerful Flow at Inner Bliss. I am taking this cross training/strength training pretty seriously and am making sure that I get an alternative type of exercise in as much as possible. Monday’s yoga class kind of kicked my butt and made me question all my feelings on yoga. So maybe I will find a good spin or strength training class for a while.

Tuesday: 3 mile run. I made it a rule a long time ago that I wouldn’t run less than a 5k on a given day so getting out for a 3 mile run was easy. However I was pretty surprised at my times. My garmin lost satellite in the first quarter mile, I should just spring for the Garmin 610, but the splits I did get we pretty good.

I am not usually a consistent runner under 10. I am usually more in the 10:30 range. I tend to fade at the end of a run but somehow managed to stay strong on this run.

Wednesday: 5 mile run. I got my 5 miles and then some in like a champ. With more surprising splits.

Thursday: On Thursday I was supposed to run another 3 mile run. But I just didn’t have time to get it in. I didn’t get up in the morning to run, which, I have no idea why I thought I could. I am not a morning person at all. Usually I try and go out on my lunch hour but I didn’t have time. After work I had an appointment and then went to Julie’s for her Stella and Dot trunk show. So where I didn’t get my run in (shame on me) I did try on some pretty awesome jewelry. I still plan on devising a way to get my hands on this piece…

 

Friday: This is supposed to be a rest day, but instead I ran the 3 miles I should have ran on Thursday night.

(Brownie points to anyone who noticed this to a be a sub-30 5k – and a PR for me!)

I am starting to feel a little shocked over my pace in the 9′s. I remember training for the Chicago marathon with the intention of getting fast, but I have never saw this much improvement. I was always happy to see 10:30′s. Anything under 11 on a consistent basis made me feel like I was getting somewhere. Here I am running a week in the 9′s.

Saturday: Another training fail. I was supposed to run 5 miles and 8 miles on Sunday. I am thinking I am going to swap Saturday’s for Sunday’s miles anyway, but due to an OBA event at NoodleCat followed by night out with one of my fav blogger buddies, I was completely immobile on Saturday morning. Which was stupid because it was about 45 degrees outside.

I know this is not how anyone should start their marathon training and it was a pretty yucky first week, but I will be recapping the event soon, and it will be obvious why what happened happened.

Sunday: Ran 9.6 miles. It was significantly colder on Sunday. I wasted that beautiful day on Saturday and Mother Nature was punishing me with temps around 25 degrees. I don’t fear running in the cold, I don’t love it, but it doesn’t bother me. I’ve run in colder temps than that, but on Sunday the wind was still high from Saturday. Between the low degrees and the wind, I decided just to hit the treadmill.

There is really only one way to survive the treadmill and that’s a movie. I downloaded Pitch Perfect to my kindle and set out to run the 8 miles I should have done on Saturday. But then I wanted to finish the movie rather than cut off the end so I ended up on the treadmill for almost 10 miles.

Other than me having to swap a day and then totally sacking my Saturday run, it wasn’t a bad week of training. I am running faster and better than I ever have. I just hope it wasn’t a fluke. I am hoping to keep it up.

Only 17 more weeks to go.

How is your spring training going? Do you follow you plan 100% or do you allow for needed changes? I hate missing and changing days, but sometimes life just happens.