Baltimore Marathon Training Week 1

It's Sunday evening, my feet are propped, my legs feel surprisingly good, and week 1 of Baltimore Marathon training is complete.

As somewhat of a shocker to me, my first week back into marathon training was not the miserable kick in the pants I expected it to be. I was a little apprehensive as I was taking on some heavy mileage, starting an 18 week plan 16 weeks in due to the Buffalo Springs Race at the end of June. But everything went well, despite a somewhat ugly run on Wednesday, and I am keeping my fingers crossed that this is a good omen for the training cycle.

Summary:
Monday: (AM) 3,450 yd swim; (Lunch) 40 min strength/core

Tuesday: (AM) Run Group - 9.76 miles (wu, 2x1600, 6 hill repeats, then another 2x1600, cd)
(PM) 2,500 yd swim

Wednesday: (Holiday) 13.53 mile run @ 8:38 pace. 1,000m Open Water Swim at Lake Pflugerville. This was a tough run for me. Since it was a holiday, I decided to get a little bit later start than I would on a normal workday. I was still out the door by 7 am, thinking I would still be beating the heat. The first half of the run went great, but by the second half my legs were screaming at me, the sun felt like it was frying me and I couldn't stay hydrated. My pace started to fall off, and I cut the planned 14 miles short. It was just one of "those" runs, and I immediately put it behind me. We all have those bad runs, and there is no use dwelling on them; it wasn't my first bad run, and it won't be my last.

Thursday:(AM) Run Group - 11 miles (wu, 2 x 400/800/2400/800/400 Meter Compound Set, cd)
(PM) 2,200 yd swim

Friday: (AM) 5 easy miles, watchless. (Lunch) 30 min core

Saturday:18.23 mile long run @8:23 pace. As bad as Wednesday's long miles went, Saturday's miles were the complete opposite. I credit the great company I had on the run, because not only did the miles fly by effortlessly (thanks Rain and Brenda!), I didn't have any leg/hip pain or discomfort whatsoever. As much as I crashed on Wednesday, positive splitting the heck out of the run, Saturday's run produced negative splits. I came home glowing and excited. I headed to the Lake afterwards for an 1,000m open water swim to shake out the legs.

Sunday: Brick Workout: Cycle 30 miles/17.0 mph, Ran 5 miles off the bike @8:10 pace.
I woke up early Sunday morning to head out to Brushy Creek to bike the hills of Parmer and reunite myself with my bike. I felt really good; no leg soreness from Saturday's long run; and it was a perfect day for cycling - overcast with light wind. I got off my bike and ran 5 solid miles before calling it a wrap for the week. I really want up keep up cross training in the form of biking.  It is really difficult to fit in a decent bike ride – since I need to wait til it’s light out (whereas I can run in the dark) and since it is weather dependent (I run in rain and even storms; biking – no way). But I'm trying to juggle around my schedule to make it work.


Total Running Miles: 62.5

Diet: I ate much better (for me!). No eating out, no alcohol, no candy or ice cream, or Mexican food all week! I really didn't even have any treats (though I was tempted by frozen yogurt several times). It's too early to say if it's making a difference in my running, but I am interested to see if there are changes as I continue this process.

This Week's Schedule:
Monday: Long Swim, Core
Tuesday: 9 mi/speed work, swim
Wednesday: 14 miles, swim
Thursday: 12 miles/speed, swim
Friday: Rest or Easy Cycle
Saturday: "Toughest 10K in Texas" 10k (Lampassas) + 2 mi wu, 2 mi cd
Sunday: 20 miles, swim
Total Miles: 65