Marathon Training Weeks 1 & 2

Saturday May 25
First of all yes, my week starts on Saturday because that's when my coach supported long runs will be :p This run did NOT happen. This was supposed to be the first week in my marathon plan, but the boyfriend threw a hammer in my running plans in a really good way. Surprise trip to ATX! This was however a really fun little getaway. This week will be calm and the real training will start next week. This was bad planning on my part for not sharing my schedule with him in the first place. Oops!

Monday May 27
This run was hot and awful. Worst 4.24 miles of my life, but at least I got out there and put down 4.24!

Tuesday May 28
This run was fantastic! Oh, the difference a day can make. This is actually my new 5K personal best verified by Garmin. Since it was on a mile marked trail that I'm very familiar with, I can be confident in the results.

Friday May 31
No Running since I had some social Cycling to do. I did a 21 ish mile Critical Mass bike ride. This is a relaxed fun ride with about 1700 other people. We rode on downtown city roads, highway feeders, through neighborhoods, pretty much everywhere. If you've never riden a Critical Mass, I'd recommend that you find one in a city near you and hit the pavement. I didn't wear a helmet, but I know that was a mistake. I won't go on another CM without one. I saw a few nasty crashes, one in which the helmet was an absolute necessity if the rider wanted to live life the way he's used to. General bike safety goes a long way.

Summary Week 1: No schedule, about 11.5 miles




Saturday June 1
This long run was 4 easy miles @10:43 min/mile. My marathon is not until March 2014, so this is more of "base building" than "marathon training". I really don't care what its called as long as its mostly fun most of the time.
This was a pretty cool first run. I got to hang out with new people and also it was the first time I've enjoyed waking up at 5 AM to run despite getting two hours of sleep. This is not what I'd recommend and I know I need more sleep, but I'm trying to transition. As a recent college grad, I'm also trying to figure out how to get to bed  at a decent hour on Friday nights! I tried waking up for workouts during the semester I was in the Air Force ROTC at school. I really didn't like waking up to workout, listening to people yelled for whatever reason, and then going to class to try to figure out engineering. (Military life is obviously not for me).


Tuesday June 4
Run with my local Pub Running Club.
I don't know if all Pub Runs are like mine, but this is incentive based. The more you run, the more swag and local discounts you get and its free to join, you just show up. This is also awesome because I run that route anyway and the presence of all the people showing up for the free swag makes for a secure and friendly running environment.



Wednesday June 5
Run at the park by mi casa. I took my mom along and she sat around and made posters for my graduation party on Saturday.  This went okay I guess.


Friday June 7
Run at the park by my boyfriends casa. He's such a stud, but he doesn't like running. He walked the dog while I ran around like a madwoman. This is kinda fun, because he plays this game I'll call fetch and sprint with the dog. When she sees me, she wants to run with me so he has to try to distract her by throwing the frisbee the other way so he doesn't have to run too. He's a gym guy, but the dog loves to run like me ;)


Summary Week 2: 13 miles total.

This has been a nice easy start. The running so far is easy, but actually getting out there to go run and adjusting my life to accomodate running is a lot harder. Saturday mornings are easy so maybe I'll try to make more of my runs early. Also a lot of these runs are not terribly close to my house right now. These runs are where I'll spend most of my time in the Fall and I'll hopefully move around that area sometime soon-ish. For now I'm at my parents house and trying to get this city figured out again.