It has been 6 weeks since the Seattle Marathon, and although I did run a 4 mile race about 3 weeks afterwards, for the last 2 of those 6 weeks I have really made an effort to focus more on cross training and incorporating more spin, yoga, and weight lifting, and ran as little as possible into my routine. I was left with an itching for some good solid running once the training began.
I am following a training program set up through my running group (NY Harriers), but since I am starting a few weeks after the rest of the group my long runs will be a little off for a couple of weeks. Here is this weeks training schedule:05
If you want to see the full 18 Week General Training Program go to this link:
If you want to create a customize training Program for yourself use this link:
As I was saying, I started this week fresh and anxious to get started. There is a Team Championship Race for all NYC local running groups on Saturday, so to prepare I decided to start off with a low key tempo run at the beginning of the week. I was a little hesitant at first, and worried that I wouldn’t be able to keep a good pace because of my time spent away from running in the past couple of weeks, but was pleasantly surprised in the end. I did a 2.5 mile warm up (across the BKLYN bridge), into a 4 mile tempo along the waterfront, ending with a mile and a half cool down. One thing I have going for me this time around in training, is that I directly have seen what the consequences are of not doing my required runs. Even though I may be a little scared or worried about my performance, I almost always end up enjoying the runs in the end, and it always reflects on better performances later on in races.
Wednesday was the Harrier speed workout at the East River Track. We did 400 kicker intervals, meaning one time around the track (400m) split into the first 3/4th of the track running hard 5k pace, and the last 1/4th sprinting full out. Coach Kevin had assigned 7 to 9 intervals. My goal at first was to not kill myself, but to push myself and finish 8. I decided to stop at 7 and “leave some for Saturday” as Kevin put it, and I am glad I did.
I took Thursday off to recover and refuel. Well that was the game plan, but it was also my birthday on Friday, so I ended up going to the Harrier’s “1st Thursday” social event in brooklyn, and having one glass too many of wine.
I got right back on track Friday, and did an easy 30 minute run across the Brooklyn Bridge and back, with 6 strides along the Brooklyn Prominade. I was really happy with this run, seeing that I made sure to really take it easy on myself, and to really just focus on warming up my legs for Saturday with the strides at the end.
So far it seems like I am still in the “honeymoon” stage of training. Its the first week, there are a ton of people out running & training for this marathon, no injuries, and my mileage is still low. But i know better, and eventually I will be running longer and more often, and exhaustion will start to fall in, but until that point I am enjoying the beginning of the season!
