Marathon Training: Week 14/37

Wow, these weeks are going by fast.

I just completed 6 weeks of no running due to Achilles tendonitis brought about by me being generally dumb and overtraining before I was ready for it.

Anyways, I started running again last week doing very short interval runs on the treadmill every other day. Only this week have I started back for reals with the training.

I have now modified my training plan to incorporate appropriate mileage goals on the week. I will be using (a slightly modified version of) Hal Higdon’s Novice Supreme schedule.

Day 1, 04/25: 30 minutes of interval running (4 min running at 5.0-5.5 mph with 2 min walks at 4.2 mph) on treadmill

Day 2, 04/26: 2.5 mile run with 0.5 mile brisk walk followed with body weight strength training. Linus came with me!

Day 3, 04/27: rest day. I find it hard to make myself rest now that I can run again. It helps that there was a Paws happy hour today where we could meet the rest of the marathon team. From this one happy hour, I gather that we are 95% female. So if you like puppies, and like women that run, then Paws is the fundraiser for you.

Day 4, 04/28: I ran 2.75 miles straight today. It was pretty rough because I got a cavity filled two hours before I went and ran. Insensitivity to lidocaine makes for a trying dental visit.

Day 5, 04/29: 2 mile run at a slow pace to get focus on my form.

Day 6, 04/30: rest day. Totally restless instead.

Day 7, 05/01: 3 miles and change run today during the heat of the day. In Chicago that isn’t saying much. I am going to have to figure out how to run in the morning when it is cooler or there will be problems this summer.

Over all, a successful week!

Marathon Training: Week 3/37

Totally sick with a cold the rest of the week. Blech. I at least woke up early on Sunday morning but that was only because I was sneezing. Sadly, Chris is sick with me and my pathetic whimpers are going unheard.

Day 4 03/05: Cardio day again during lunch at work. This time I ran for 25 minutes at a 6.4 mph pace.

Day 3 03/04: Cardio day, got in a brief lunch time workout now that the treadmill is back online at work. This looks like it might work. I ran 18 mins at 6.4 mph with only one 20 second pause when my shoe came untied at min 9.

Day 2 03/02: Weights day. I also do a bit of Cardio on Weights days. For instance, today I ran for 18 minutes at a 6.7 mph pace. I try to make short cardio sessions pretty intense.

I also tried doing sit ups today. I hate sit ups. Like eating a cockroach sounds more enjoyable than one more sit up. But I did a few sit ups. And by a few, I mean I did an embarrassingly low number of sit ups. Somewhere in the neighborhood of ten whole sit ups. I lost count. Anyways, it helps to have an athletic coworker that tells me things like “oh I did 800 sit ups a day in college…” to really get my competitive edge roused up. I doesn’t matter that this person is a semi-pro soccer player. 800? I at least can manage an attempt at doing sit ups. I have my doubts about doing much more than that.

Day 1 03/01: Cardio day. I ran for 28 minutes with a 2 minute warm up period. I did pretty well despite having a cardio stress test this morning. I was super happy to have my stress test come out fine. I had never had one before so I was a bit nervous. I was specifically nervous because I am a pretty slow runner and I have trouble talking during runs. Everyone else seems to be able to talk while running so why can’t I? I thought that maybe a stress test could tell me. All the stress test told me was that I should quit worrying and just run to my heart’s content.

I kinda wish I could run here every day.