Walk.Blog.Run
Diary of a new marathon runner
No Birthday PR
I scuttled around my 3.04 mile course in 23:06 or 7:35 per mile to try to beat a PR for my birthday today but fell short. Today I'm 32 and I wanted to see if I could break my 7:22 fastest mile or 21:55 for a 5k. Despite missing the target I still fell like it was a great way to celebrate.
Over the weekend I didn't make my 5 mile and 8 mile runs per the plan due to the pressures of my bachelor party in Atlanta but I was at least able to run 3.6 miles on Saturday despite a little hangover :-) I'm convinced it's the best hangover cure I've come across.
Happy Birthday! Sorry that you did not PR, but on the other hand, you are still running! I run with a guy sometimes that is 64 years old. He complains about being slow, but runs regularly about 5 days a week. I hope I am still running at 64! I read somewhere that for up to 10 years, depending on training levels and quanity, that performance can increase until you reach your peak...I guess it depends on age too. I am 37 and have been running for 3 years now and have steadily increased performance (distance and speed) the whole time. Of course, I have dropped some pounds since then, but I continue to improve. Last Sunday I posted my longest run ever at 21 miles. When I started running, it actually was not running, I would run three minutes and walk five for a total running time of 16 minutes...now I have run three hours staight and could have gone further. I am amazed that I could do that and that I actually love running. You tell people that and look at you like your are crazy! When in college, I saw a 1.5 mile run as an impossbility! I believe I am in the best shape of my life and still not as fit as I could be...
Have a great day!
Joe N.
Just stumbled across your website first (walkjogrun.net) and then this blog. Like you I'm doing my first marathon this year - Chicago on Oct 22nd. I haven't had a chance to "digest" your blog fully - but it's nice to see a record of your training.
I'm aiming to run a 3hr45min marathon (8.35min/mile). I put together a training plan based on some advice on the www.trainingpeaks.com website - I was using this site to log my triathlon training and races this year.
It's 6.41am MST on Friday, here in Colorado and in about an hour or so I start my longest run to date - 16miles (I'll be running the first 12 miles around 8.50min/mile pace and "hopefully" the last 4 miles @ 8.20 min/mile -- we'll see.
A friend recommended taking a 'cold' bath immediately after the long run - I'll see how that goes.
By the way, your walkjogrun website is great
Rich - A 39 year old man doing his first marathon
Congratulations on training for your first marathon! I live in Chicago so I can tell you that the flat terrain will be a welcome respite for you after what I can only imagine are rough hills out there in Colorado! Good luck with the 16 miles - my lesson learned is that the long runs should be run 1 minute slower than your target marathon pace all the way through to make it comfortable so for you that would be a 9:35 mile. I did most of mine faster and the combination of that and the heat and humidity in the middle of summer meant walking less than a mile towards the end to recover.
As for your mention of trainingpeaks.com - I wanted to let you know that a training log feature to WalkJogRun is in development right now where you can click on the route you ran and then on the link "Log this run". Once logged in, it will record your training runs and offer reports for review. I think it will be a big help to people and, as always with WalkJogRun, it will be free. Does that sound like something you would use? If so, what would it take to make it a killer training log? What would you like to see as far as cool features?
Adam
The training log sounds like a great idea. I have already been doing something similar by bookmarking routes. A dedicate log would be a great improvement.