Marathon Training Week 1

Oh hai. I am supposed to start training for the Boston Marathon this week. I should probably lay out a training plan.

I used some version of Hal Higdon's marathon training plans for all of my marathons. Novice 1 got me though my first 2 marathons. Intermediate 1 got me through my third, and then got me 2 BQs in my fourth and fifth by training slightly faster and farther.

I really like the intermediate plans and don't think the novice plans have enough miles, but I am just not ready for 5 days a week of running. There is a lot that is going to be different this time around. I am coming back from an injury. I have no running base worth speaking of.  I can't just jump into a training plan like I usually do. I need to do more cross-training. At this point, I don't know if my body can handle 3 days in a row of running. I don't *need* to run a fast marathon, and quite honestly I am not sure that I want to.

So I think I am going to use Novice 1 with some modifications. Novice 1 has 2 rest days and 1 cross-training day. I am going to replace one of the rest days with yoga. Seems like a good mix of mileage I can handle (hopefully), cross-training, and rest. Surprisingly, I looked up the plan on Friday and found I was on track mileage-wise. Huh. Funny how that worked out.

My general plan for the week is this:

Sunday - yoga, Monday - easy run, Tuesday - sorta long run, Wednesday - cross-train and strength training, Thursday - rest, Friday - easy run or maybe a pace run every few weeks, Saturday - long run. Plus shorter strength training sessions throughout the week wherever they fit best.

Here's what I did this week:

Sunday - Yoga podcast for an hour. That one sequence of poses is still kicking my butt. Less so than usual, though, so that's good.

Monday - 3.5 miles total. 2.5 miles running at 6.7 mph/9:00 minute pace, the rest walking at 4.3 mph/14:00 minute pace. It was the first run in a long time where not only did my ankle not hurt at all (not even in the beginning) but it actually felt good. Maybe this Boston Marathon business isn't so crazy after all.

Tuesday - 35 minutes on the bike. Shifted cross-training and running days because I ran late on Monday and would have to run early on Tuesday. Didn't want to run too many miles in a 24-hour span.

Wednesday - 3.5 miles total on the treadmill. 3 running, .5 walking.

Thursday - Rest.

Friday - 3.5 miles total on the treadmill. 3 running, .5 walking. Also did upper body strength training, clamshell planks, and foam rolling.

Saturday - About 7.2 miles in Rock Creek Park. Ran 3.5 miles, then fast walked/ran 2.7 miles, then took of my Garmin and walked about another mile to cool down. 

Total miles: 12 running, 17.7 total