So I officially started my marathon training this week J After reviewing a few plans and talking to a close friend who has run a marathon, my husband and I whipped this bad boy up. I had to modify from what the original plan looked like because of the races I have leading up to the marathon but am satisfied with what we went with.

This particular week was modified because of World Run Day which was “supposed” to be a cross training day. But, I’m not going to follow the plan like law. If things come, things come up.

Fifteen miles in the books for the week!

Sunday’s run was a 3 miler. That was my first run since resting my legs from the shin splints—which are still achy but I’m able to run through it. My time was 28:43 with a 9:33/avg pace. I was really pleased with this time considering I had taken 10 days off. I think continuing to work out kept my legs fresh as this is the pace I’d like to keep in the half marathon I have in January.

Tuesday I switched the days to make this one the 4 miler on the treadmill. I started off at a warm-up speed and then transitioned to 9:20/mile. I wanted it to be slightly faster than what I’d like to average at my half marathon but not a pace I couldn’t maintain. This was perfect. My end time was 38:11, 9:32/avg.

Wednesday was speed day. I met up with my gym’s run club for the first time! This was especially exciting because I had been lurking their Facebook page throughout both of pregnancies and loved everything they would post. It is a really close knit group and that intimidated me at first; but, they kept encouraging new people to come out and after a few weeks of debating, I finally did it. Best decision ever. There’s something about being around people who love doing what you love. You feed off of their energy.

The plan that day was speed work. We did 200m surges around the track for 3 miles. This was so perfect for me as I never really concentrated on speed work specifically since high school. I was never a fan of track or running in circles jaja!

I timed myself but wasn’t expecting anything spectacular: 3.14 miles, 29:39, 9:26 avg. Yay!! On the easy 200m, I tried to stick to a 10:30 pace and then speed up to 8:30 in the 200m surge. I felt great and actually enjoyed circling the track.

Today, Saturday, was long run day, 5 miles. I met up with my gym run club again J at 6 a.m. and got started. The agenda was an up and back loop. So basically I’d run 2.5 miles and then turn around and come back. We were running along a canal near where I live and as I reached the 2.15 mile mark I noticed a bridge that would take me to the other side and then I could just run back. I figured this was a good place—even though in retrospect, I could have just turned around where I was when I reached 2.5. I wanted to maintain my 9:30 pace and was doing great until I got back to my car and I was only at 4.4 miles. Ugh! I proceeded to run to the stoplight and then into the parking lot again and then resorted to running a few laps of the parking lot. I was mad at myself that I hadn’t thought ahead. 50:13, 10:03/avg. I was a little bummed. Not the way I wanted to end the week but I’m thinking positive and am excited to have completed week one of marathon training. I still can’t believe I’m actually doing this!!

–How do you plan for races?