Day 1

Happy Monday All! I made it home last night, and my puppy was certainly happy to see me!


So I am sure as you have seen me mention a billion times, my marathon training cycle starts today. I spent a pretty good amount of time formulating a training plan to fit my needs and schedule. This plan was based loosely of the plan that Smart Coach spit out for me, but I am pretty comfortable with making my own.

Unlike the training plan I made for my spring half marathon, this plan has specifically schedule tempo and track days in addition to all my other runs. I actually made 2 sheets to this plan, 1 that displays the general mileage and a detailed break down of each run with paces- yes I realize that this makes me neurotic, I don’t even try to hide it anymore.

You can check out my training plan here.


Today was another thing I had been waiting for, it meant it was finally time to open up this box…

I was excited to get into my new shoes, they are a little bit more neutral than my last pair which I think will be good since my gait has changed some, more on this later.


There is something I think about a new training cycle that makes you wake up with a fervor to go out and run, and not just run, but kill it.

For some reason I still have a lingering cough from last week, so I knew since it was a deep in my chest cough I needed to keep myself in check and not get too crazy. I also did not get a ton of sleep during my relaxing vacation, so I knew today would be about hitting what I needed to and capping it there.


I had a 5 miles progression run planned for today and it was intended to look like this

5 miles- 9:30,9:15,9:00,8:45,8:35

I basically started myself at goal marathon pace and finished at my recent 5k race pace, it seemed like a good build-up.

Here is how it turned out:
5 miles- 44:42
Mile 1- 9:26
Mile 2- 9:11
Mile 3- 8:54
Mile 4- 8:41
Mile 5- 8:30

Each miles was at least a few seconds better than my intended pace, but this run was tough. My cough was definitely still present and it kept messing me up because my breathing pattern would get interrupted and made it feel tougher than it probably should have. My legs faired well, the step-ups for each mile I feel were challenging enough to still be effective but not too crazy. I feel like my next one I will probably drop all the paces, I think I can handle it.

It is still flaming hot here, but it rained this afternoon so hopefully that will cool it down some. Off to spend time with John and the Peach before bed. See you for Day 2!