Gettysburg Marathon Training, Week 1

Monday, December 24th:

7:20 am, 30 degrees, 70%, calm.  Moorestown.  Nike Pegasus 29 Shield.

7mi easy - Group (7:35)

Nice Christmas Eve morning group run with Tom, Mike, Jim, John, and Rich.  Chilly start, but very relaxed.  Felt like I was walking the whole way.

Tuesday, December 25th:
Merry Christmas!

Off

Wednesday, December 26th:

7:00 am, 30 degrees, 70%, 0-10mph.  Moorestown.  Nike Pegasus 29 Shield.

11mi easy - Group (8:19): including 10x Stanwick hill

Very easy, relaxed pace.  Group did hill workout while I maintained easy pace.  Did the last one hard with them.  Felt nice to run so slow today.

Thursday, December 27th:

5:00 am, 42 degrees, 90%, 5-15mph.  Maple Shade Loop (M).  Nike Structure Triax 15 Shield.

6mi easy - (8:06)

Cold light rain.  Little gusty at times.  Workmanlike run before work today.

Friday, December 28th:

7:55 pm, 32 degrees, 70%, calm.  Garden State-Maple Ave Loop-Garden State-Neighborhood.  Nike Pegasus 29 Shield.

8mi easy - (7:49)

Terrific rhythm the entire run.  Truly felt easy.

Saturday, December 29th:

7:00 am, 33 degrees, 70%, 0-5mph.  Cherry Hill West.  Adidas Adizero Tempo 4.

9mi total - (7:27): 2 mi warmup (8:27/mi), 8x600 w/400 jogs, 2mi cooldown (8:28/mi)
Goal splits: 2:06-:08
Actual splits: 2:07 06 06 06 06 06 06 06

Goal recoveries: 2:05-:10
Actual recoveries: 2:10 10 08 09 09 06 08 09

Absolutely terrific workout.  Took Larry's advice and kept my warmup/cooldown/recoveries in the 8:20-:40/mi pace range.  Really made the faster segments manageable.  Felt a bit "off" on the first two reps, but just locked into the pace from there.  Ran the last rep completely on feel without checking splits.

Interesting sidenote: I averaged 4:15 every kilometer of the workout (2:06 for 600 and 2:09 for 400).  That works out to 6:50/mi pace for 5 miles, so it is almost like 5 miles just off of marathon pace "hidden" in the workout.  Now I know why it's so important to run the warmups/cooldowns/recoveries so slow.

Sunday, December 30th:

10:30 am, 34 degrees, 55%, 15-30mph.  Cherry Hill Loop from Brake's house.  Nike Structure Triax 15 Shield.

8mi recovery - (8:15)

Incredibly gusty day, so it was welcoming to have Kevin/Greg's company.  Pace felt so, so easy, which is a great sign after yesterday's workout.

Weekly Total: 49 miles

First official week of marathon training was a big success.  As Larry recommended, I have found it is very important to hit the prescribed paces (no faster) for each run to accomplish the task at hand.  I also feel better about knowing I have the flexibility to move my workout days around external factors (weather/work/fatigue) without interrupting the larger goals of training.  I feel really fresh and ready for week two.