Week 2: Building Momentum
7/16/2019
Week 2: July 8 - July 14, 2019
The second week I was mostly compliant with the marathon training program. Here was the plan breakout:
Monday: 6 mile easy
Tuesday: 6 mile easy
Wednesday: Rest/Crosstrain
Thursday: 1.5 mile warmup, 6 x 800m @ marathon pace w/ 400m jog between sets, 1.5 mile cooldown
Friday: 4 mile easy
Saturday: 4 mile easy
Sunday: 8 mile long
On Monday I had a migraine and wondered how the hell I would get the 6 miles needed, but luckily my nasal breathing was on point and I managed to run 8 miles along the East River in the middle of the afternoon. I was really busy with work and maid of honor duties to help pick out her wedding dress, so I knew ahead of time that I wouldn’t be able to run on Tuesday. It was a planned rest day instead of Wednesday.
My mental and physical game were not on point on Wednesday when I was supposed to hit 6 miles at an easy pace again. The temperature was in the high 80s, and it definitely impacted my run more than I thought it would. It was late in the afternoon, I hadn’t eaten since breakfast, my stomach was doing weird flipturns, and I just wasn’t into it for the day, so I got under 5 miles. I was just glad I made any effort at all.
Thursday was speedwork, so I ran to the Weehawken track in order to better gauge how far 800 meters was (basically a half mile, or 2 laps around the track) at goal marathon pace with 1 lap jog. This was challenging because I noticed that my 800m were more like my 5k fast pace and my jogs had occasional brief walks. It’s fine because the point of it is to challenge the energy systems, but I wondered if that meant I should have a much more aggressive marathon goal (i.e. 3:30 vs. 4:00 to completion). I decided to just trust the process. I will say that training in the summer heat is pretty rough.
After Thursday’s challenging run, the program called for 4 miles easy. I did just that, and the “recovery” pace was technically my goal marathon pace, but it felt good so I didn’t feel the need to excessively slow down.
Saturday was supposed to be another easy 4 miles, but it was hot out and I missed using a barbell, so I worked on my strength instead. It was a recovery for my lungs at least.
Sunday called for 8 miles easy. I was really looking forward to this since I had an undiscovered route in mind. (Well, undiscovered by me at least! I’m sure Henry Hudson himself walked on this land). I usually run along the Hudson River for views of the NYC skyline, but I remembered a few weeks back seeing an overlook along a bus route to my GW Bridge race. I wanted to run in that direction and find it, and I estimated it to be about the distance I needed. I climbed some hills steadily and made it to the top of the overlook on Boulevard East, took a quick photo for the ‘gram, and headed back down, and I got 9 miles in. I had enough energy to do 13.1, but because I had a 5k race the next day I wanted to save my energy.
Overall, it was a successful training week. I ran 5 out of the programmed 6 days and aimed to follow their respective paces. I need to hone in more on some of the speeds to get a better feel, but with practice I know it’s there. I lost a few pounds, but also measured post-run to see how much of it was water weight. I’m going to work on tightening up my nutrition for better recovery since I know I’m not eating enough and feeling “hangry” at some points in the day.
Important definitions :)