Distance: 3.00 mi
Time: 0:28:39
Avg. Pace: 9′32″
Max. Pace: 7′52″
Avg. HR: 69
Max. HR: 186
Recovery Delta: 54
Wow. Careful what you ask for! I ran this morning with my friend Mark, who has completed one marathon and multiple half-marathons. He hasn’t been running routinely recently, but still was able to set a pace that hammered me. I asked to dial it back a couple of times, and we did, so he would have run at a faster pace without me holding him back. My previous fastest average pace for a 3-mile route this year was 10′40″, so we shaved 1:08 per mile off of that pace this morning. I can benefit from someone pushing me like that in order to achieve my goals, though. He definitely pulled me to another level.
Distance: 3.03 mi
Time: 0:36:25
Avg. Pace: 12′02″
Max. Pace: 9′04″
Avg. HR: 156
Max. HR: 174
Recovery Delta: 47
Ran with my friend Brian again today. He has set a goal to run the same race I am targeting, so if we both can manage to avoid injury and complete the training, that would be a huge help to have someone encouraging us to get out and do it every time. It was a very muggy morning – it actually rained just a few minutes after I got home, which was not surprising given how the air felt while we were running. It was a nice, easy pace again today – or it should have been without the humidity. It still wasn’t bad, though. I did run considerably faster up the largest hill on the route than I had any day prior to today, which is when my max HR occurred. I’m looking forward to this weekend’s longer run to see how I do.
Distance: 3.06 mi
Time: 0:35:59
Avg. Pace: 11′45″
Max. Pace: 9′13″
Avg. HR: 151
Max. HR: 169
Recovery Delta: 48
Nice, easy run. My friend Brian ran with me this morning. He hadn’t been out in a month or so, and is fighting with a nagging injury, so we took it nice and easy. He did great for his first time out in a while, though. I never would have thought that I could progress to the point where 3 miles (at any pace) could be so easy after just a couple of weeks of running regularly. I’m very encouraged by that.
This is day one of my defined training schedule for the marathon. I’m very excited about working toward that goal and seeing progress.
I’m training for a marathon. I’ve never run a marathon before, so there is certainly some intimidation in those words for me. Why this? Why now? Good questions, both. I’m doing it now because I’m at an age where complacency leads to sedentariness. I’ll find it much easier to persist and persevere in working out if I’m working toward a significant goal. I’m doing the marathon because it is a very significant challenge, will require a lot of work, and will be an achievement which I think I will always remember. I’m not ever going to bench press 400 pounds. I’m not going to run a 4.2 second 40. I’m not going to win Wimbledon. I’m not going to shoot 68 on Bethpage Black. But I can, and I intend to, discipline my body and mind to train until I run 26.2 miles.
I am approaching this much as I do most things upon which I embark: as a student. I know that there are many people who have accomplished similar goals in running, so as I have opportunity I am learning from them. They may be clerks in running and fitness stores, or they may be authors. I will take in ideas, and seek to sort out the profitable ones from the many. There are quite a number of philosophies where preparation for your first marathon is concerned. Many are quite similar, while a few are novel in some way.
I’m pretty well settled on the specific training program I will follow as far as when I run, how far I run on a given day, and what days I rest. It is one developed by Hal Higdon for the novice marathoner.
The majority of my posts here will be run summaries, but I will periodically post something in the vein of this piece. Fair warning: I’m keeping this particular blog primarily for my own reference. If someone else finds it interesting, so much the better, but I am chiefly interested in capturing my thoughts and experiences in preparing for this marathon.
Total Mileage, 6/8 – 6/13/09: 14.5
Distance: 5.3 mi
Time: 1:01:00
Avg. Pace: 11′20″
Max. Pace: 6′42″
Avg. HR: 160
Max. HR: 180
Recovery Delta: 44
This was my first run longer than ~3 miles since I started running again, and I did take two walking breaks. (About 8′20″ were spent walking total, so that affected my average pace significantly.) The first running segment was 33′23″ and 3.1 miles, which is longer than I’d done continuously any prior run. Being able to add another couple of miles to that was fun. I am working on learning a new technique, and this was my first time trying to get my arms around that. It’s hard to stay focused on different posture, stride length, etc when running. I did reasonably well, but I have a lot to learn to be able to practice it consistently. I felt really good afterwords considering the distance I covered, which was a big jump over my previous longest distance.
Distance: 3.0 mi
Time: 32:00
Avg. Pace: 10′40″
Max. Pace: 8′21″
Avg. HR: 164
Max. HR: 186
Recovery Delta: 50
Included no walking break! This is my first time to complete an entire 3-mile route with no walking. The weather today was very muggy – it poured down not long after my run. Felt like running in Houston, only with hills!
Distance: 3.0 mi
Time: 32:44
Avg. Pace: 10′52″
Max. Pace: 8′30″
Avg. HR: 164
Max. HR: 182
Recovery Delta: 50
Included a walking break of 2:43. Unsure why pace data is apparently off when comparing total distance and total elapsed time between 6/8 and 6/10 runs.