Last week and this upcoming week are serving as pre-season to marathon training. A sort of trial period before I move on to the big leagues–aka: the official marathon training plan. I don’t know, this is how I work things in my head 🙂

Anyway, last Monday, my schedule had me running 6 miles, a warm up and cool down and 4 miles at medium tempo pace. But, ever since my 27k a couple of weeks ago, I’ve been nursing a sore right foot so I decided to take it easy and run a total of four miles, 1 warm up and 1 cool down with 2 miles at mid tempo pace.

That was the plan and I started out milking the warm-up going at a pace slower than I’d done in a long time. I was feeling the heat and was just having a case of the tired Mondays. After the first mile beeped, I picked it up knowing I “had” to make the next two miles at pace. While I increased my pace considerably from the warm up mile, I was still 20 seconds away from the tempo pace.

Same thing happened with mile two. I was at least glad that the middle two miles were close in pace and I milked the fourth cool down mile almost exactly as the first.

Mile 1- 10:26
Mile 2-9:07
Mile 3-8:54
Mile 4-10:27

At least I was consistent lol!

This is what I was dealing with at 7:22 p.m.

Tuesday was supposed to be a cross training day according to my Run Less, Run Faster plan but I decided that I could bend the rules considering it was still pre-season. So I ran. (You’re doing it wrong, Helly!) Whatever.

I met up with my run club for the Tuesday evening run but I knew before it even started that it wasn’t going to go well. It was so freaking hot!

6:05 p.m.

I wasn’t even thinking of going out fast, instead just focused on maintaing a decent pace. I was doing okay the first 3 miles (of five) but the last two I was just so light headed and weak from the heat; I had to slow down. I’m honestly surprised at how I kept myself from walking.

Mile 1-9:57
Mile 2-9:54
Mile 3-10:01
Mile 4-10:37
Mile 5-10:37
Average-10:13/mile

Again, at least I was consistent jaja!!

Wednesday was speed work at the track but my husband had a late day at work so I took it to the gym where I did a 3.5 mile interval run finishing at an average 9:43/mile pace (def no speed work there!). It was a nice, relaxing run and doing the intervals helped pass the time on the treadmill. I don’t mind running on the ‘mill and with temps how they’ve been I think I’ll probably be on it more this summer.

Thursday was a cross training day so back to the gym I went and I hopped on the bike for a 10 mile ride. I loved sweating and the feeling of having just had a good workout. It puts me in such a good mood!

Friday was a rest day but I did squeeze in an ab video 🙂

Saturday was my first crazy o’clock run of the summer. My alarm went off at 4:30 and by 4:45 I was out the door for my “long” run with my run club. My pre-season plan had me going 6 so that’s what I went out with the intention of doing.

I could definitely feel the difference in temperatures running at 5 in the morning versus at 6-7 in the evening. It was a cool 77 and it felt SO great.

I hooked up with a friend who runs at a pace I like. She was going 8 and I figured I’d stick with her until it was time for me to make my return. We chatted and went along and before I knew it, I was at mile 3 ready to head back. I debated sticking with her since I felt so good but decided to be conservative and think about my foot so I said good-bye and turned back.

I was glad I did this. Normally, I would’ve kept on going because a.) I felt so good and was going at a good pace and b.) I had great company but I reminded myself that I had a long training season ahead of me. I think that I’ve matured in this way since last/first marathon..

Mile 1- 9:23 Mile 4-9:14
Mile 2- 9:25 Mile 5-9:16
Mile 3- 9:27 Mile 6-9:07
Average-9:18/mile

Again, I was really happy to see consistency. I felt like my splits were always all over the place last marathon attempt and I wanted to really work on them this time around. I was also very pleased to see the second half of the run be faster than the first half.

Sunday on my plan has a rest day/optional cross train and yesterday I chose the former. I wanted badly to meet up with my buddy Jeremy who was hosting a Run Tweet Eat social on the trails but my foot was super achy and I decided to rest it (and sleep in). Of course I saw all of their fun pics on Instagram and Facebook and wished I’d gone lol! Oh well, next time 🙂

Overall, it was a great week– 18.5 miles run and 10 miles on the track. I did an okay job with sticking to the training plan and like that I have next week to continue testing it out. After that, it’s game time!

–Did you have race this weekend?

–How was your running week last week?

–Are you good at keeping a consistent pace? (My splits are finally looking sorta normal!)

P.S. If you’re also training for a fall race or will start soon, check out my sole sister Salt’s Fall Race Training Directory for training friends!