My trial today. 58 degrees and just gorgeous! So Thankful!

Each Saturday, as I train for the Walt Disney World Marathon following Hal Higdon’s Marathon Novice 2 training program, I hope to post an overview of the week. This is just the kind of real life info I ate up when I was training for my first full, so hopefully it will take the mystery out of how this works and, if nothing else, it will be a cool way for me to journal and track my progress. I’ll also try to do a quick paragraph called “This Week’s Wisdom” where I’ll tell you what I learned. This is an 18 week training program so here’s how week one went:

Tuesday – 3 miles easy. After not running for over a week it felt great to get out there, despite the 81 degrees and 79% humidity. I had to stop a couple times and walk due to some post-surgery cramping but other than that felt strong and was pretty happy with my pace of 11:07 which is a perfect “easy” run for me. Felt a lot stronger than I have lately which may be because my doctor found out I was very anemic and I’ve now been on the iron pills for 4 days. It’s amazing what a difference that makes. Here’s a great article I found that explains how iron-deficient anemia affects training. SO glad we caught it early!!

Wednesday – 5 miles, race pace. So, the instructions for this run were to do 5 miles at marathon race pace. I knew going in this wasn’t likely since I’m still fighting my way back post-surgery and the weather was GROSS. Got out late and it was 82 degrees and 70% humidity. I still managed to do the middle 2 miles at race pace but paid for it by having to walk a lot of the last mile. Oh well. Got the mileage done. Moving on. Trying very hard to “stay in the run I’m in” and not get intimidated by the upcoming mileage . . . looking forward to tomorrow’s 3 miles easy!

Thursday – I was supposed to do 3 miles today but was really just not feeling up to it after the very hot 5 miles of the day before so chose to just walk and do some strength training today instead.

Screen shot from today. Love the iPhone app for the Hal Higdon Plan!

Saturday – Long Run – 8 miles. Just got back and it was truly spectacular. Maybe my favorite run so far this year. I REALLY had to hold myself back in the first few miles as I have a tendency to go out too fast and was determined to stick to an 11:30ish pace in the beginning which I almost did. I was thrilled with my time, especially since I really was holding back and had more in me so finished feeling AMAZING. The cool weather (58 degrees!!) and my new shoes definitely helped. I saw a few folks out there that I could tell had sat out the summer due to the heat, and as much as I whined about it, I’m SO GLAD I pushed through and trained through it.

This Week’s Wisdom:  It really DOES make a difference when I pull back in the first few miles of a long run. I have known this to be true for years but have the hardest time living it out, especially when the weather is good and I feel strong. But I disciplined myself and really paid attention to my pace and it was totally worth it. Lesson learned.

It was a truly great first week and I’m feeling excited and strong. Today’s run was made even more fun by the fact that I was participating in a virtual 10K to celebrate the birthday of Skirt Sports, one of my favorite makers of running clothing. This is the first virtual run I’ve done and it really added a little extra fun to my miles! It’s not too late to register and you get this adorable skirt (or you can choose from a couple other items if you’re not into this but seriously? Why would you not love this?)

As a special gift from Skirt Sports, you can all get an extra 10% discount until 9/15 by using the discount code SkirtPink10. So why not start your fall off right by treating yourself to a new running outfit and doing a fun virtual run?? I can promise you I’ve loved everything I’ve ever bought from them and more recently, my most favorite running bra EVER.

Maybe you’re training for a big race this week or maybe you’re just dreaming about one, but either way, I hope you found yourself feeling strong and motivated!! And if you ARE in training, I’d love to hear about it so we can cheer for each other!

Happy Running!