Sunday, January 23, 2011

Training for a Marathon!

Just a quick post to say that I'm officially training for the Geneva Marathon! Super excited! I've done one week of "official" training which totalled out at about 37 miles. I'm doing a Runner's World program that the SmartCoach spit out. I realize that because it's an automated program, it may not be optimal in many ways, so I'm willing to tailor it as needed. However, it does seem fairly reasonable, having me run only 4 days a week (I generally have been running 5) and topping out at just under 50 miles a week. According to this plan, I should be able to run a sub 3:30 marathon come race day. Optimistic? Almost certainly. But something to shoot for, I guess.

Week one of said program has been good. I did two 10 milers, an 8 miler and a 9 miler. All but 5 miles of the 8 miler were at a slowish pace (9 min/mi) which has made me feel my left knee a bit. The "tempo" run I did on Friday had me running 5 miles at 7:52 pace. I've discovered I'm pretty good at estimating how fast I'm running, because without the Garmin, I ran almost exactly that. It felt faster than what I've been doing (as I've been doing quite a few "easy" runs recently) but not really all that fast. I have "speedwork" coming up this week and I hope I really get to stretch my legs out a bit.

Did I mention I'm EXCITED!? It's been a lifelong dream to run a marathon. And it appears that this is my year!

Friday, January 7, 2011

Goals for 2011

As promised, here is my post about what I hope to accomplish this year in running.

As one of my selected personal themes for this coming year is COMPLETION, there are a few things I hope to complete, including:

1. Run my first marathon! I don't know exactly when this will happen, but there are some plans in the works that might make this dream a reality. I have always wanted to do this, and after running very consistently for almost a whole year now, I think this is my year.

2. Improve my speed. I'm not very fast over the short haul, so I'd like to train myself for a little bit of speed.

3. Officially break my 5K PR. This is tied to #2, I guess, Speed and endurance.

4. Keep running all year. No peetering out!!