Ready to put some spring into my spring training
Six weeks into my spring marathon training and I'm just now realizing I never came back to summarize my winter "Coaching Myself" plan. In a nutshell, I maintained my fitness but didn't gain any fitness. I consider it a success because I rested my legs enough to be healthy for marathon training, but didn't lose fitness. I think I'm going to plan on doing a similar running break with lots of cross training every winter.
Spring marathon training is going somewhat well, I guess. The cold weather and snow storms have seriously hampered the amount of running that I expected to accomplish by now. I have also weathered three cold viruses, which is far more than I usually endure in a two month span. Despite that, my training paces have been consistently coming down. My average easy pace now is solidly in the 10:30-11 minute range, where as in the past it would be between 11-12 minute miles. I have a half marathon this weekend, and hope to see a result of 2:10-2:15, but am dubious because I'm still getting over this damn cold, and my last few runs haven't fared well. I also haven't had any runs longer than 12 miles yet (and that was on a fast, downhill route). So I'm trying to temper my expectations for this half.
My plan is to race the half without my watch, mainly because I don't want to get too worried about my time. My fear in doing this is that I will start out too fast and detonate early. Or that in fear of that early detonation, I will run far too conservatively. What to do...
Regardless of this race, I am optimistic about the remaining ten weeks of training. My legs are feeling really good, and I'd really like to get some serious mileage in the next couple of months. There is another half marathon at the end of April that I think I could do really well in if I put in some good work and stay healthy. And of course, the main goal is the Sugarloaf Marathon in May. I'm feeling confident about a shiny, new marathon personal record!
Spring marathon training is going somewhat well, I guess. The cold weather and snow storms have seriously hampered the amount of running that I expected to accomplish by now. I have also weathered three cold viruses, which is far more than I usually endure in a two month span. Despite that, my training paces have been consistently coming down. My average easy pace now is solidly in the 10:30-11 minute range, where as in the past it would be between 11-12 minute miles. I have a half marathon this weekend, and hope to see a result of 2:10-2:15, but am dubious because I'm still getting over this damn cold, and my last few runs haven't fared well. I also haven't had any runs longer than 12 miles yet (and that was on a fast, downhill route). So I'm trying to temper my expectations for this half.
My plan is to race the half without my watch, mainly because I don't want to get too worried about my time. My fear in doing this is that I will start out too fast and detonate early. Or that in fear of that early detonation, I will run far too conservatively. What to do...
Regardless of this race, I am optimistic about the remaining ten weeks of training. My legs are feeling really good, and I'd really like to get some serious mileage in the next couple of months. There is another half marathon at the end of April that I think I could do really well in if I put in some good work and stay healthy. And of course, the main goal is the Sugarloaf Marathon in May. I'm feeling confident about a shiny, new marathon personal record!
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