Week 1 Totals: 31.85 miles in 4:03:59 for an average pace of 7:39.6/mile
Tuesday: Run 1 of the week was centered on a 5k race in Opelika, AL. This are held every Tuesday and it is a challenging course with a good number of hills, which includes a steep climb at about the 3-mile mark. My fastest time on this course was 20:55 and this week my goal time was 21:17, which assuming exactly 3.1 miles for the course would be a 6:52/mile average pace. As the case with most races, the Garmin GPS distance did not exactly match, either due to not running the exact course tangents, the watch having poor signal, or the course just being measured inaccurately. My time this week was 21:36 with my watch measuring a distance of 3.18 miles, a 6:47.5/mile average pace. In addition to the race, I did about a 2-mile warm up and then ran the course after the race at a slower pace to log 8.36 miles for the day in a total time of 1:03:40 for an average pace of 7:36.9/mile. Overall, I was very satisfied with the day’s run and thought it was a good start to my marathon training.
Running Shoes: Nike Free 5.0 V4
Thursday: Run 2 of the week was a hard workout at the old Auburn track. The goal of this track workout was to run 10 by 800 meters (approx 0.50 miles) with a 400 meter cool down in between. This workout is commonly referred to as Yasso 800’s, which are used with varying success to predict an expected marathon race time. If you can run 10x800m at 0:03:10, you should be able to run a marathon in 3:10:00. My goal for this workout was to run the 800’s in 3:07. I had never run more than 7x800m before in trying this workout tonight, so realistically just finishing all 10 would be an accomplishment. My 800m times were 3:02, 3:09, 3:17, 3:15, 3:19, 3:22, 3:17, 3:22, 3:27, 3:25, which comes to an average 800m time of 3:18. The times were slower than I wanted, but again just finishing all 10 was difficult. Running around a track in hot and humid weather for a total of 7.5 miles takes a good bit of physical endurance but just as much if not more mental endurance. For the cool down and warm up, I logged an additional 3 miles for a total of 10.81 miles for the day in a total time of 1:23:33 for an average pace of 7:43.7/mile. This workout means I still have a good bit of hard work ahead of me to get into a 3:10:00 marathon shape but knowing that I have made it through one of these hard workouts gives me a good bit of confidence going forward with the training.
Running Shoes: Newton Distance
Saturday: Run 3 of the week was an early morning steady state long run around Auburn (http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=3841787). The goal was to get in 10 miles at a 7:05/mile average pace. After a short warm up around campus, I took off on the run. I knew a 7:05/mile pace would be very challenging to hold (stretch goals are always good). Instead of draining myself in the first few miles and then running out of gas, I ran at a challenging yet comfortable pace. I was very satisfied with how the run turned out. I hit the 10-mile mark at 1:14:25 for an average pace of 7:27/mile with the mile splits being very consistent. Consistency is something I have to work hard on throughout this training because I have a tendency to run hard at the beginning of a race and then run completely out of gas having to really struggle to the finish line. Using the McMillan Running Calculator (http://www.mcmillanrunning.com/mcmillanrunningcalculator.htm), the 10-mile time corresponds to 3:28:26 marathon. Again still a lot of work to do before I am ready to run a 3:10 marathon but if I can get to the 3:15 – 3:20 range for Tupelo, the 3:10 will be well within reach come December. With the warm up and cool down the total for the day was 12.68 miles in 1:36:46 (7:37.9/mile average).
Running Shoes: Nike Zoom Victory
Recipe of the Week: Vegan Chocolate Protein Recovery Drink
1 cup of Silk Chocolate Soy Milk
1 cup Almond Breeze Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk
1 scoop of True Protein Premium Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Rice Protein Concentrate
Calories: 287
Carbohydrates: 30 g
Sugars: 19 g
Fiber: 5 g
Protein: 28 g
Fat: 7 g
This drink is very tasty after a hard run and it gets some good protein in my system to help the body start rebuilding for the next run.
