New York Marathon Training – Week 1

Last week marked the beginning of my training for the New York Marathon. When I made my goals for this year, I wasn’t sure if I’d run a marathon given that I was just a few months postpartum and wasn’t sleeping through the night. Heck, I almost didn’t even make ANY goals. However, I threw my name in the hat for the New York Marathon, one of my big bucket list races, and when I surprisingly beat the odds and got an entry, the decision was made for me.

I wouldn’t normally start marathon training with just 15 weeks until race day, but given that I’ve been half marathon training since March, I figured officially starting one week after the Craft Classic Half Marathon made sense. I’m loosely following Hal Higdon’s Advanced Marathon 1 plan but will only be running 5 days a week and doing 21 Day Fix and 21 Day Fix Extreme workouts as well. I say loosely following because I’m pretty much switching things up to fit my schedule. After five marathons, I feel confident that I can coach myself to a finish. And since simply finishing is the #1 goal for New York, it makes the most sense for me to coach myself.

Posting weekly recaps has always been a good way to keep me accountable, especially when I don’t have a coach to answer to. Here’s how week #1 went:

Monday  – 5 easy miles. My LAST run with Asia before she left for her amazing adventure to South and Central America. I still can’t believe she’s gone! Check out her blog to follow her adventures!

Tuesday – Upper Fix. 

Wednesday – Hill Repeats (5 miles total). The plan called for 1/4 mile hill repeats but the hill near my house is closer to 0.2 miles. Close enough. I did 10 repeats with recovery jogs on the way back down. These repeats make the run go by so quickly!

Thursday – Easy 5 miles. I had a new friend to run with this time – a recruiter who works at the firm that I’ve used in the past. We’ve been meaning to meet up for a run for literally years, but finally did.  Kelly lives just a couple miles down the road so she came over to my house at 6 a.m. and we ran on the trails before work.

Friday – Very slow and easy 4 miles with the stroller. Mike had plans after work so I picked Siena up from day care and headed down to the coast for an easy run with the stroller. I intentionally slowed down and was running close to an 11 min/mile and walked up hills. I really wanted this to be a true recovery run and it was. Afterward we walked to Whole Foods and I tired my very first poke bowl from their build your own poke bowl bar. It was AMAZING. This will definitely be a regular splurge (price wise) for me!

 

Saturday – 13.1 miles with friends. I met up with Brooke and her friends Paige, Jen and Karen, most of whom are training for the Marine Corps Marathon which is just on week before NY for a long run. We ran through Mission Bay which is one of my favorite places to run (the lack of hills, beach/ocean/bay views and boardwalk people watching is pretty much a runner’s paradise). These ladies are all significantly faster runners than me (all ran in college), so I felt a bit like I was chasing rabbits as we spent the majority of the run in the high 8 min/miles (which was probably slow for them!), and then Brooke and I hung back a bit in the final miles as I slowed. It was a sub-2 hour half marathon which I was proud of! I hope to get in a long run with these ladies every other week or so.

Sunday – Rest day. I watched Mike do the Solana Beach triathlon (and come in 4th place in his age group with almost no training!) with Kate and Siena in the morning. We walked a ton but that was the extent of my exercise. We rushed off afterward to a baby shower for our friends Mike and Christie who are having TRIPLET boys in October. It was a fun day but I was pretty tired from a long week of waking up in the 5 o’clock hour every single morning. We spent a good portion of the afternoon on the couch catching up on 3 episodes of the Bachelorette (there was a lot of fast forwarding involved).

Weekly Totals: 

• Miles Run: 32.1
• Yoga/Strength: 30 min

I definitely would have liked to have done more strength training or yoga last week but I have a lot going on and sadly 21 Day Fix has taken a back seat for a bit. Running has to be the priority right now. I actually plan to host two 21 Day Fix groups this month, with another starting August 29th (we are going on vacation the week before). I will be getting back to 21 Day Fix starting then and doing what I can until vacation. In the meantime, I’ve challenged myself to do at least a 1 minute plank before and after every single run this month. That should help some!

Do you want to join me in planking before and after every run this month?