Week 3

This week was tough. As mentioned earlier I felt some pain after my 9 mile run. As the days went on the pain got progressively worse. I ended up doing my speed workout but skipped my Friday run to try to save myself for the 10 mile long run. I ended up completing the 10 mile run, which in hindsight was probably a bad idea. Ramsey came into town and we did it together, in pretty good time. It was nice running with him and having some company for a change....but probably should have given the leg the day off. I scheduled a doctor's appt for a couple weeks from now and in the mean time Im not running at all. Ive been in the gym riding the bike and lifting, but its killing me not to run. Im at the point now where I have to be careful or I could jeopardize the whole marathon. Keeping my fingers crossed that the injury will clear up soon.

1. Speed Workout - 4 x (2 min fast/2 min slow) - AVG HR 174
2. 10 miles - 1:35:18 - AVG HR 176

Week 2

Another week in the books and the muscles are a little sore as I type this tonight. Part of the problem is that during my non-training time I was busy installing a new patio at my house....so I think that added to the pain. The long run went up to 9 miles this week and I continue to see improvement. My average heart rate on the long run stayed about the same as last week, but I knocked some seconds off the average time per mile. I did feel some pain in my left leg this week after the run.....mostly tightness and some discomfort every now and then. I took today off to rest the leg and will be doing cross training the next two days to give it some more "down time".

1. Speed Workout - 6 x (1 min fast, 2 slow) - AVG HR 172
2. 6.06 miles 52:38 - AVG HR - 162
3. 9 miles 1:24:44 - AVG HR - 166

1 Week Down....17 More to Go!!

Well the 1st "official" week of training is complete and it was fairly successful. I did my first speed workout on Wednesday which consisted of running 1 minute at an elevated pace, then 3 minutes at a slow pace. I cycled through that 6 times. At this point I think the purpose is to just get my body used to changing paces, repeats, rest intervals, etc., so when I get to the real speed workouts Ill be ready. A 6 mile run on Friday and then an 8-miler early Sunday morning (0500 start time) rounded out the week. I can already tell I'm getting stronger even in the short time I've been training. 8 miles doesn't feel that much different from 6 miles I ran a couple of weeks ago. Now all that I have to do is keep at this for another 17 weeks.

1. Speed Workout - 6 x (1 minute fast, 3 slow) - AVG HR 169
2. 6.06 miles 54:00 - AVG HR - 179
3. 8 miles 1:16:11 - AVG HR - 165