04.21.08
So do you think you should put your training up on the blog?
Oh, yeah…
Howdy everybody. I guess for this to be a living testimonial, I have to keep adding things to it. Some days I think it would be easier to carry an audio recorder with me, and put together an mp3 mix of my thoughts on training each day. It would be easier, but I don’t want to edit out all the swearing. (That’s a joke, Mom… I’d definitely leave the swearing in)
I just finished up my fourth week of steady running (at least 4 days per week), and let me tell you… it’s awesome. Most of my runs are around 3 miles, so I’m just working on consistency and putting some miles on my legs. As I begin to feel comfortable, I’m going to be adding more distance. But for now, it’s almost all easy.
If you’re interested in seeing what’s coming up for me in training (and I know this is in high demand), I’ve created an online sheet that details upcoming runs. You can see it by clicking here. I’m not a slave to my training, and I’m okay with moving things around if necessary, skipping a day if I’m not feeling well, and occasionally running a little harder than expected. At this point, it is intended to serve as a guideline, not a contract. As things move into race specific training in mid-summer and some workouts have goals, things will get a little more solid. But I subscribe to the belief that if I’m not having fun, then I’m doing it wrong.
If you’re interested in seeing what I’ve done in more detail, you can look at the data in my online running log, which can be found by clicking here. The summary page has some nice bar graphs, and if you click on the workouts you can look at individual run details. I usually put some notes with each run talking about how it went, felt, etc. I find this type of tracking to be particularly helpful for me.
As you can see on my log, I’ve already hit more miles in a month than I have since October. And yet, it hasn’t been overwhelming. It’s not hard for me to build up a tiny volume of training, and once I’m feeling comfortable at this level (15-20 miles per week), I’ll be ready to move up to marathon training levels which are a little heavier in volume.
Tomorrow, I’ve scheduled a mile time trial for myself. I set a new Personal Record in the mile in February, finally breaking the 7 minute barrier, knocking out a 6:51 mile. I’m going to run another hard mile tomorrow, and see how/if things are progressing. I’m not expecting miracles, and won’t be disappointed if I don’t do well. My plan is to shoot for 7:00 pace the first 3/4 mile and then see what’s left in the tank. I’ll be sure to let you know how it goes.
Thanks for stopping by, I’ll be making it a point to update a bit more frequently as I progress in my quest to conquer the Monkey.