Week 1 Training

I started my training plan for what will be my 6th and 7th full marathons on Monday. Per Hal Higdon’s plan, Mondays are reserved for cross training and Fridays are reserved for rest days. So far, one week in, I got the mileage in but I was kind of off plan already.

Due to the logistics of life I was not able to plan my week in line with the plan so somehow I had to get my long run in before Sunday as that was not an option this week. Hal’s plan called for runs on Tuesday (3 miles), Wednesday (5 miles) and Thursday (3 miles) at an easy pace and then 5 easy miles on Saturday and 8 long distance (slow) on Sunday.

The heat was a big factor this week. The east coast of the US was under heat advisory for much of the week and it was tough out there. I actually ran on the treadmill for my first day but felt I was being too cautious and took the rest of the runs outside. Tuesday’s run was pretty good. I was getting up early in the morning to beat the heat and made a pretty good pace. You can compare that to Thursday when it was much warmer and at a shorter distance and I was almost a minute per mile slower. In fact I ditched my Friday plan of the long run. I took a days rest after four continuous days running (I’m not at Disney yet). Saturday’s long run was later in the morning and I paid for it with the heat and humidity. I ran out of water at mile 7 and slowed down a little. Overall I felt good this week and feel okay going in to next week.  Mileage goes up just one mile for the long run to 9 miles.

I was toying around with Galloway intervals this week and went back to his 4:00/0:35 interval that I used for much of last year. I have run the last two months without using the Galloway method, running up to 14 miles without intervals so I know what I am capable of. The goal for Philadelphia is to stay healthy so I can complete the Dopey in January. No PRs for these two events. Following Jeff’s method to stay injury free.

Luckily it seems the weather has broken a little and it felt much cooler today. Looking forward to next week and staying closer to the plan. Tomorrow I’m planning on 30 minutes on the stationery bike as my cross training. I also recently bought a stability ball and plan to do some ab work (so I can justify blowing up a big red ball sitting in the corner of the bedroom). I also plan in the next couple of weeks to run a Magic Mile to see where I am on pace overall and to measure against how I was against this time last year.

Have a good week. Stay cool and stay healthy.