Fit Friday! Updates on Marathon Training
It's been a week since I posted anything and I'm sorry! I've been quite busy and marathon training is in full swing, so it's taking up a ton of time. I logged 40 miles this week and while I'm not happy with my pace, everything I'm reading is telling me to give myself a break with my first marathon. Not a break from training, but a break from expectations.
A few weeks ago, I decided to go with a more traditional plan, as opposed to a plan that requires a lot more marathon racing experience, like Hanson's Method.
I came across Hal Higdon's marathon training programs this past week - he has a novice and intermediate program. I obviously gravitated toward the novice program because I'm new! Let's face it, no matter how many half marathons you've run, the marathon is no freaking joke.
A point that Higdon makes in the novice program is to scale back your long runs every third week. This seems appealing - especially with the way my log run went last weekend. I got in 14 brutal miles at an 18 second per mile slower pace than the weekend before at the same distance. Higdon's plan allows you to build up your training, but doesn't push your body at the same level as a steady increase would. He also promotes running slow - logging the miles is more important than pace. With that, I'm scaling back my long run tomorrow to 12 easy paced miles.
This week's 14 miles
And last week's 14 miles
Saturday: 14 miles at 8:51 pace. Super tired legs and much warmer than the weekend before.
Sunday: Rest Day
Monday: 10 miles at 8:30 pace. Recovered with ProCompression marathon socks and it definitely helped.
Tuesday: 5.5 "dreadmill" miles. First treadmill run in 5 years and first treadmill run with my Garmin. The mill said I was going 8:35, and my watch was closer to 9. I also only went 4.91 miles according to my Garmin - has anyone else had this problem?
Wednesday: 7.29 miles with 2 miles of hill repeats at an 8:30 pace.
Thursday: 3.58 miles at 8:38 pace.
Friday: My only gym day this week and it was just that - weak. I did 20 minutes of weights and 20 minutes of planks and abs.
What marathon training plan did you follow for your first 26.2?
J
