My Marathon Training – At Week 11

My training has not been consistent in the past few weeks. My family and I took a trip to Disneyworld and I did not get any runs in – however we did get a lot of walking in so I can’t call it complete wash however I have to say I am no more ready for my marathon than I was before. For the week back, I got a couple of my runs in but not the long ones that I should have. Oh well, rather than dwell on it I have a plan going forward.

I have a young family and all the pressures on time that a young family brings with it – soccer, a wife at home with the kids that needs me as much as possible during the weekends in order to remain sane, lawn and yard work, a social life, work, etc. – that makes it difficult to get all my runs in. I have read, as we all have that you need to make time to do the runs no matter what. I think we all know how that works – family is more important than even running. So, I was thinking how I could make it work. The thing that comes to mind is incorporating my training with something I do every day…commute to work. The distance from my home to the office is about 13 miles which is a great distance for biking and will also be a pretty good long distance for my long runs. I will need to up it a bit by running further on some of the longer days as the Hal Higdon program dictates, but I think I can make it work. So I am going to give this a try of the next few weeks as I prep for the marathon. Of course, I will update my progress as I go.

Here are my running stats for Week 9 – 11:

Date: April 29- May 19, 2007
Days until race: 47
Weekly Mileage: 12 miles
Weekly Average Pace: N/A

My Marathon Training – Week 8 Complete

I started out on my 13 mile run today and at about 0.5 miles I felt something in my knee that wasn’t good – it hurt. The funny thing was it hurt only while running and was ok while walking. Fast forward a couple of hours later and things feel ok but not perfect. So, I did not get my long run in today and I am pretty upset about it. What are you going to do. I have a plan though. As I am off from work on Wednesday prior to leaving on vacation for a week, I will do the 2 hour run then. That should at least keep my miles up. Next week will be another story however – I will get to that in my next report!

Here are my running stats for Week 8:

Date: April 22- 28, 2007
Days until race: 69
Weekly Mileage: 24.05 miles
Weekly Average Pace: 10.30

My Marathon Training – Week 7 Complete

This was a tough week to get all the miles in. The weather in Calgary was absolutely awful with Tuesday and Wednesday night filed with rain/snow and cold winds. I actually missed one of the runs. Being the perfectionist that I am however meant that the guilt of not running took over so I turned on one of my wife’s exerciser DVDs and I did 30 minutes of squats, pushups, and lunges. Man I was sore the next day. It actually was a good thing and I may incorporate this into my weekly training regiment – still keeping Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursdays, and Sundays as running days and Monday and Saturday doing the 30 minute DVDs. I will watch for over training but it should help with my strength and flexibility.

Here are my running stats for Week 7:

Date: April 15 – 21, 2007
Days until race: 76
Weekly Mileage: 16.05 miles
Weekly Average Pace: 10.48

My Marathon Training – Week 5 Complete

Really picked up the mileage this week – the long run was 10 miles and it felt good. I was traveling but still managed to get all the runs in, on different days but at least I got them in!! The long run as super windy and a bit cold but in retrospect the wind was probably a good thing as it made me work a bit harder. The stats below look higher than normal as there are two long runs in here as opposed to just the one, as a result of traveling.

Here are my running stats for Week 5:

Date: April 1 – 7, 2007
Days until race: 87
Weekly Mileage: 30.34 miles
Weekly Average Pace: 10.51

See you next week!

My Marathon Training – Week 4 Complete

This was a reduced mileage week, which was welcomed and left me feeling refreshed and ready to build it up over the next couple of weeks. The form feels good, however my hamstrings seem pretty tight so I am going to focus on stretching them really well over the next few months. I am under 100 days until race time and looking forward to it.

Here are my running stats for Week 4:

Date: March 25 – 31, 2007
Days until race: 95
Weekly Mileage: 14.78 miles
Weekly Average Pace: 10.40

See you next week!