Week 2: Marathon Training

Before I update on this week’s training – I did a 10K this morning! I was super excited because, right now, 6 miles is my sweet spot – not too short, not too long. I don’t feel dead after running 6 miles but also feel like I put in some work. Anything LONGER than 6 miles (right now) is challenging for me. Don’t get me wrong, I love a challenge (as you can likely tell), BUT it’s nice to do a run in your comfort zone sometimes.

Anyway, I aimed to keep about an 8:30 pace the whole way but ended up averaging 8:40something. To my surprise I placed 5th in my age group! Woo hoo! So what was this race? It was the Skyline Half/10K/5K (I did 10K) in Dallas. I had never done it before but will DEFINITELY be doing it again next year… it was great! Well organized, BEAUTIFUL day, great route, awesome view of Dallas, not too crowded, nice post-race snacks and natural photo ops… the list goes on. I had a LOT of fun. I did review the race on BibRave, so if you’re into knowing details, feel free to check it out here!

So, back to the training deets – it went really well this week! The hamstring is feeling fine and my legs finally feel back to “normal” after the half marathon a few weeks ago. So, this is what my week looked like:

[ week 2 / 28 weeks until 26.2 ]

Sunday – long run (1:15/7.05mi) hamstring still felt a little tight

Monday – easy run (30min/3.1mi)

Tuesday – tempo run (39min/4.06mi)

Wednesday – 45min indoor bike (22.5mi), easy run (29min/3mi) – legs felt GREAT after today, back to “normal”

Thursday – “Fit Test” (4.34min/4.06mi)- dynamic warm up, 10min easy, 20min all-out effort, 10min easy – this was for my coach to see where I am – during both 10min easy I was at about a 10-11min pace, and surprisingly not too much faster during the 20min “fit test,” I thought I could go faster than I did for 20 min but my average pace ended up being 9:50/mi.

Also swam (875 yds/21min)

Friday – easy run (38min/4mi)

Saturday – recovery day!

So, I felt good about this past week and am excited to keep at it! Tomorrow will be doing an easy run and a “Gold’s Fit” class to get some strength training in (Gold’s Gym’s version of crossfit) – I’ve never done a class like this before, so I’m excited to give it a try and let you guys know how it goes!

HUGE thank you to my coach, Andrew Simmons with Lifelong Endurance for setting me up with these workouts and being in constant contact with me. He even took the time to send me some special exercises that should help with my hamstring and my knee issues. Thanks for being there to answer my questions and adjust my workouts according to my needs! Though I have a ways to go, I feel truly confident about my upcoming training and am positive that I will feel prepared on that marathon start line! (Andrew also has a blog! https://runwestward.wordpress.com/)

I hope you all are well and had a wonderful week! Don’t forget I’ll be posting more updates (and mini-workout videos demonstrating some of Andrew’s “super duper strength workout for runners”) on my IG and Twitter!

Thanks for reading!

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