2015 Marathon Training – Week 2

Week 2 brought much cooler temps and small glimpses of my old running self.  Taking training one day at a time is working wonders and I stop myself if I start thinking too far ahead.  Dare I say that I’m enjoying myself?!  Yes, that is the old marathon training Kristy speaking.  I hope she hangs around.

I wanted to mention where I’m getting some of the speed workouts and target times from.  Although I don’t agree with the philosophy of the book, Run Less, Run Faster has great no frills speed workouts with target times based on your goal finish time.  I’ve used these workouts in the past and had a lot of success.  I also want to keep my training simple – track, tempo, and GMP work.  Sometimes I completely alter the workout and sometimes I look at the target time and laugh (this usually happens during a track day).

Monday
AM workout 1:  8 miles easy
AM workout 2:  2.5 miles of hills + plyometrics

So workout 1 was at a super easy pace.  My Garmin died halfway through but I swear my pace was around 10:30.  I was pretty tired so I ran whatever I wanted.

A few weeks ago I started teaching a Run Strong class.  Think running (different workouts each week) + strength training (sometimes prehab-type stuff, sometimes good old squats and lunges).  I often run with the class and generally don’t “count” those miles.  Today was an exception.  2.5 miles of hills and then plyometrics.  I slept very good on Monday night!

Tuesday
7 miles with 5 miles at 8:23 (8:22, 8:23, 8:14, 8:06, 8:04)
prehab

Guilty as charged on this one.  This was supposed to be a GMP tempo (although GMP should be closer to 8:15-8:20).  I held back for the first 2 tempo miles – the pace felt really easy.  Then I just let it go.  Definitely not a smart move – GMP workouts are supposed to feel easy – but it felt damn good.

Wednesday
Rest (and Fiona’s newest trick)!

Thursday
6 miles with 4x800m @ 3:23 (3:27, 3:28, 3:32, 3:30)
prehab

This was one of those workout where I looked at the target time and laughed.  My raw speed is not there…yet.  I rallied hard for the last one – fueled by sheer frustration over the 3rd repeat.  I looked at my training log from Summer 2011 (the last time I did 800s with any consistency) and my times were 3:24-3:27ish.  So today wasn’t awful but there’s definitely room for improvement.

Friday
3 easy miles with Fiona in the BOB
arms

I leave the Garmin at home on these runs and take it very easy.

Saturday
15 miles (9:13 avg pace)

A really nice run!  I started with 10 miles of rolling hills and then a few miles on flat, gravel trails.  Perfect prep for the Via marathon.

Sunday
barre

I’m enjoying my Sunday barre days but my legs are shot the day after a long run.  It’s funny – I never realized how tired my legs are from running until I did barre.  Every time we begin the legs segment, I need to stop and rest.  Today was heavy on quad work and I wanted to cry.  See how attractive I make barre sound?!  I did lots of modifications today.

Overall mileage was 41.5 for the week which isn’t much different from week 1.  All those extras take time and I will gladly sacrifice a few miles for them.