Planes, Trains, and Running Shoes

Monday: Rest
Tuesday: 4 miles easy
Wednesday: 4 miles with 2 at Marathon Goal Pace (9:09/mile)
Thursday: Rest
Friday: Rest
Saturday: 4 miles easy in Charlotte
Sunday: Rest

Last week was ok. I still wasn't feeling great on Monday after a bad cold over the weekend and even today I'm still feeling pretty run down. Last week was supposed to kick off my new marathon training plan but I just wasn't feeling great.

I didn't have a long run scheduled for the week so I didn't miss much, but it always seems like I get sick during the first week or peak week of training and that's frustrating. I'm hoping I bounce back quickly this week and can pick up where I've left off but I will say that I'm pretty happy with that MGP run that I did.

My training plan called for a 35-minute tempo run with a 15 minute warm up and cool down. I knew I wasn't going to be able to do that. I haven't run a tempo run in 3 years and I haven't run anything close to a 9:00 mile in as long. My plan was to run 4 miles with 2 as fast as I could and just build from there but I started that first mile and I felt good. It was tough to push the pace, but I did it and that is exactly what marathon training is all about...pushing the pace, pushing limits, pushing yourself. So, I'm happy with the start to this training, even if I didn't get every run in because those 2 miles...while they weren't 26...gave me the confidence I needed to kick off this training.

So, here's to Marathon #7. Here's to my 4th attempt at going sub-4. Here's to a spring and summer of pushing myself and seeing what I'm capable of on July 31 in San Francisco.