NYCM Training: Week #1

As many of you know, I started my marathon training plan this week. I originally was going to follow one of the 16 week plans by Bob & Shelly Glover from their book, but then my friend Wallis suggested making some changes to emphasize the mid-week long run. Before I knew it, my plan ended up looking more like a lighter version of the plan from Pete Pfitzinger's book. Therefore, I jokingly refer to this plan as Wallis Pfitz-Glover.  I also got some feedback from my friend Rachel, as well as a few a lot of my other running friends. The plan as written can be seen below:

I was also starting a new job the same week as marathon training began, so I was a little nervous about how having both on my plate at the same time would go. After going to orientation on my rest day, I then started thinking about my first official marathon training run.

 I initially was going to do my speed workout on the treadmill, thinking that I would never hit my desired paces in this heat, but Rachel convinced me to give doing speedwork outdoors a try. I mapped my route so that I would spend most of, if not all of, my speedwork on the reservoir path, which was nice and flat.

After doing two warm-up miles, I started running at what I thought was half marathon effort, except after a while, I realized that there was a problem: I was not running too slowly, as I feared I would do, but I ended up finishing that mile in 8:04, which was significantly closer to what my 5 mile pace should be. Whoops. At that point, I made a decision that instead of running 3 miles at 15K - HMP, I would do 2 miles at this pace. My second mile ended up being at 7:59. I considered doing another fast mile, but didn't want to overdo it during week one. Because I left the reservoir track early, I ended up running into my mother and sister, as well as my mother's friend as I was doing my 2 mile recovery jog. 

I had two other weekday runs, both of which were 6 miles long. The Thursday run was only supposed to be a 5 miler, but I made up the mile that I cut out from Tuesday's run. On Wednesday, I averaged a 9:25mm pace, and on Thursday, I averaged a 9:39mm pace. 

After taking Friday off, I had originally planned on doing my Long Run in Central Park early so that I could get out of there before the start of a 10K that NYRR was running, but instead, I coordinated it so that I could run some of Wallis' 20 miler with her. She was nice enough to change her route so that I could get to my haircut on time. 

I took the express train to the Brooklyn bridge stop, where I met Wallis. The first four miles consisted of loop involving the Manhattan and Brooklyn bridges. The view from those was breathtaking. After that, we ran up the West Side Highway for a while. Growing up as someone who biked occasionally down the path, I remembered when the bikers and runners had to share the entire thing. Now, most of the path has been redesigned so that there were plenty of pedestrian paths through nice park-like areas. The path was mostly flat, so it felt like an easy run most of the time. 

After mile 9, Wallis turned around so that she would reach her mile 20 before having to cross back into Brooklyn, and I sped up for the remaining few miles. I hit 12 miles just after I left the park, and ended up averaging almost exactly 10mm throughout the entire thing.

This morning, I went out, and ran just over 6 miles. Both yesterday's long run and today's run were done in cooler temperatures than my weekday runs were, so I didn't have to get water as often. This time, I averaged about 9:48mm. 

I originally had an idea of what my paces should be, but McMillan changed his paces and made them faster, so while I used to be in the middle, I'm running on the slower side of my paces. I did a comparison in excel, but I forgot to send them to myself from work, so I'll have to post them later as there is a huge difference in some cases. As long as my speedwork is close to target, a bit of variation on the long run is ok as long as I don't go way too slow or way too fast. 

Overall, this week went well, but I do have to learn to control my speedwork paces better. In addition, I realized that I should slow down more in hotter weather, and stop for water a bit less. This may sound counterintuitive, but I realized that at least a couple of the stops were based on more of a psychological need for water than actual thirst. I also should pay more attention to what I eat and make sure that I don't undermine myself by eating junk. I fully expect to eat more as I run more, but as long as it's healthy foods, and lots of veggies, I shouldn't gain much weight if at all. I also have to train myself to get to bed earlier, as well as buy a few hair clips - some of my front pieces are short enough so that they're not staying in my ponytail holder. Oops! 

Only 15 Weeks to go until NYCM!