I waited all the way until Sunday evening to do my long run. Barry joined me for 6 miles on the roads around our house. That means automatic hill training.
Sunday’s run reiterated the fact that I do not have a stomach or digestive system of steel and I need to be careful about what I eat. Other than that the run itself went alright. We held a pretty good pace (and by that I mean 9:50/mile or below) until I got tired during the last 2 miles. Bet you can’t guess why, looking at the elevation profile above. It was relatively cool outside, due to afternoon thunderstorms, and it was raining lightly during our run. That was nice.
After doing my long run in the evening I have decided that I prefer to do my weekend run in the morning. I like starting my day off that way and I like not having to spend the whole day wondering when I’m going to go for my run. During the week I run in the evenings, but that’s the norm. I get up in the morning knowing I’m going to go to work and then come home and go for a run. So I think I will remain an evening runner during the week but a morning runner on the weekends. Even when I’d rather sleep in.
So that wraps up week #1 of marathon training! It went fine. The training plan actually only had me doing a total of 12 miles, but I doubled the weekend long run and totaled 15 miles for the week. This is still a bit lower than what I have been averaging over the past few months. I think it’s strange that this training plan has such low mileage for the first 4 weeks (12, 13, 14, and 12) because it said you should have been running 20+ miles per week over the past 2 months in preparation. I’m just keeping my long runs where I want them until they mesh with the training plan.
How am I actually feeling about this marathon thing after the first week? I flip flop between the expression on Buzz Lightyear’s face and the one on Woody’s:
Week number two of training kicked off today with a 3 mile run. Shocker! My training plan is a big fan of 3 mile runs during the week for the first 4 weeks. I don’t mind so much, as long as I can go longer on the weekend.
Do you ever do your long runs at a different time than normal?
When it comes to exercise, do you have a stomach of steel? Or are you like me and have to be careful about what you eat?
When you follow a training plan, how closely do you follow it?
Turkey Runner 
Woohoo one week down 🙂 I keep going back and forth on whether I want to do one!! I can’t wait to keep hearing how it goes!
You totally should! 🙂
Way to go, Meagan! I always switch my long runs up, depending on my schedule. I definitely do NOT have a stomach of steel, though I dream of it one day. And I am terrible at following plans step by step. I need flexibility in my life 🙂
I think it’s important for us all to be flexible on our training plans. You have to do what feels right for your body, and be willing to adjust when life gets in the way.
Just keep your eye on the prize.LUD.
10-4!
Yay for having week one behind you! Like you, I have to really watch what I eat before I run. I’m sure that doesn’t surprise you considering my obsession with porta-potties! 🙂
The two kind of go hand in hand 🙂
Yay for week one! Getting started is the hardest part, right?
That is true! As long as this doesn’t turn out like that book ‘Holes’ “first hole is the hardest” then the next day they tell him “second hole is the hardest” so on and so forth…
That’s some serious elevation!I always do my weekend runs in the morning and weekday runs in the evening, for the very reasons you give. I also find that my stomach’s usually much tamer in the morning because I haven’t had time to ruin it with, like, Mexican food or whatever. But my stomach’s gotten a LOT better when I run. I used to dread tempo runs because they would ruin me, but as time has gone on I’ve adjusted really well and don’t really have any issues anymore. I read somewhere this isn’t unique to me so hopefully it’ll work for you!
Same here with my stomach behaving better in the morning – unless I trash it the night before with greasy pizza or something. I’m glad your stomach has gotten better about tempo runs!
I generally have a stomach of steel, but sometimes it surprises me! I’m curious what your normal total elevation gain for a run? We just moved to a new apartment that is at the TOP of DC, so it’s all downhill from there (and thus, all uphill back)…I sense some good hill repeats in my future. If I run on the weekdays (which I am supposed to), if I don’t do it in the morning, there is a 90% chance it’s not going to happen at all. I loose all motivation after work. On the weekends I still like to do it in the mornings, but am more flexible with it. BUT I almost always do my long runs on Saturdays so that I can relax a little more on my Sundays
I just looked at my stats from my Garmin, and usually my runs are between 900 to 1,000 feet in “total ascent”, but it can be as low as 350-400 feet on shorter runs. My recent long run had a total ascent of 1,340 feet. I know it’s hilly where I run, but I really don’t know how the actual numbers compare to other places. The elevation profile for the Thunder Road Marathon indicates a total climb of 1,168 feet for the entire race, so it at least looks like I’m training on the right kind of terrain.