Hopefully this will be a series of posts where I'll reflect on my marathon training. This post will sum up week one of the training and I intend to write down some of my experiences over the weeks to come.
After having a hard time deciding whether I could/should run a marathon or not I finally made up my mind. I decided to give it a try. The Marathon that I have in mind to try is the Athens Classic in November 2013. I am going to follow the Galloway marathon training program and I have chosen the time goal program. I am not going to set myself a time goal though but will run the marathon with a "to finish" approach. The reason why I picked the time goal program is that I think I have a good enough base to start from and feel that I will enjoy the longer distances involved in this program.
I have never run a marathon before, I have done a couple of half marathons and in order to prepare for them I have run slightly longer distances. The longest distance that I've covered is probably around 25km, so in a way this will be exploring uncharted territories. I have been run/walking the Galloway way for a few years and have found that it suits me well. I am confident that the Galloway program will guide me through the training and later on also the race.
Ok let me sum up week one of the training.
I've had a fantastic week of running.
My intention is to run on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays but this week I had to swap the days around a bit.
Tuesday: I started my training by running a local 10k race and manged to squeeze one second off my old PR. I finished in 54:03 which I'm very happy with. To me that's a fantastic start to the training. I ran/walked the race with a 3/1 ratio with minor adjustments.
Friday: My daughter Ellen joined me for an easy run/walk which turned out to be more walking than running but after running hard during the race I didn't really mind. She brought her camera and produced the great video that can be seen in the last post. We had a great time together in the forest and I really appreciated her company.
Saturday: The plan called for a long run of 12.1km and I went for a loop that I have used for several weekend runs lately. It is slightly longer but I thought I'd run slow and easy and that one more km would not be harmful. I ended up running a bit faster than I intended but felt good through most of the run. I ran/walked 3/1 this time also. That is the ratio I have come to use on most of my runs and found to be good. The distance for this run turned out to be 13.8km and the total distance for the week ended up at 28.6km/17.8miles. That puts this week among the top 5 distance wise so far this year but probably as number 1 when it comes to the having fun category.
1 comment:
Nothing to it, Krister!
Run 3 times a week...2 mid-week runs and a long run...with the long run slowly increasing to that 20-22 mile range. Then just run the marathon as if it were a long run! Works every time.
if you want to try for a specific goal time then you have to pay attention to the mid week runs as for pace. Use the long runs to drop in a 3-5 mile tempo . This way you get your needed "speed work."
Lastly, increase your mid week runs during the course of the summer and fall so eventually you are doing 10 milers.
I didn't run my first marathon until I was 45 and this past spring at 61 years old I did a 3:25...and followed this kind of a plan!
Good luck!
Jim J
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