San Antonio Stroll: Week 1 of 23

Week 1 of my training plan for the San Antonio Rock & Roll marathon. This is going to be a good indication of my commitment to the cause because I'm going to be traveling to Flower Mound all week, which probably means I'm going to have to hit the dreaded treadmill at the hotel. To counter that, I've loaded up the ipod with a bunch of podcasts, including Marathon Talk, This American Life and the Jillian Michaels Show.

I hope it works because I hate the treadmill!!!


Saturday

Required Mileage	Required Pace
12 miles	8:30 to 9:00
Actual Mileage	Actual Time/Pace
12 miles	1:42:39 (8:33 pace)

Notes: 5:30am, 76F, Mueller. A nice breeze this morning, kicked off my season with a relaxed 12 miler with Clea.  Warning to all Austin residents - I suspect most of my runs for the next few months will be shirtless!!!


Sunday

Required Mileage	Required Pace
7 miles	7:59 to 8:30
Actual Mileage	Actual Time/Pace
7 miles	57:28 (8:12 pace)

Notes: 5:30am, 69F, Danish route with Clea.  Another nice run - we picked up the pace the further we went and definitely pulled a negative split.  Once again comfortably in the middle of my pace range without expending too much effort - we never pushed to the extent that we shifted out of conversation zone.  I seem to be in a lot better shape than I was this time last year - this bodes well.


Monday

Required Mileage	Required Pace
4 miles	7:42 to 8:20
Actual Mileage	Actual Time/Pace
4 miles	29:26 (7:21 pace)

Notes: 5:30pm, hotel treadmill at 1.5% incline.  OK, so I cheated and ran faster than I should have, but I hate running on the treadmill so I give it a bit of "hurry up".  Long day today - was on the road at 4:30 this morning to drive to Lewisville.  Checked into the hotel this evening, unpacked and headed straight for the fitness room - had it all to myself, and wondered why it felt so warm.  When I finished, I discovered that somebody had turned the heater on - it was 85F in there!!!


Tuesday

Required Mileage	Required Pace
8 miles	7:59 to 8:30
Actual Mileage	Actual Time/Pace
4 miles	27:33 (6:53 pace)

Notes: Time is a strange beast.  When you're watching your family grow it moves so quickly, when you run a race it can be your enemy, and when you're on the road you sometimes don't have enough of it.  Today I was supposed to run 8 miles, but I didn't get back to the hotel until late so I decided to do a fast 4 miles on the treadmill instead. Managed to hold marathon pace for the whole distance, and beat yesterday's time by nearly 2 minutes.  I still hate running on the treadmill.  Good run though - gives me some hope I can actually go out and hold that pace in November.


Wednesday

Required Mileage	Required Pace
4 miles	7:42 to 8:20
Actual Mileage	Actual Time/Pace
4 miles	29:21 (7:20 pace)

Notes: Beautiful blood red sunset tonight.  I drove into Dallas for dinner and a few beers with my buddy and his wife, so I really had to steel myself to go run when I got back to the hotel.  But I did it!!!  I dialed the pace way back from yesterday and ran really comfortably while catching up on my Marathon Talk podcasts.  Maybe I'll make my weeks away from home my speed weeks.


Thursday

Required Mileage	Required Pace
8 miles	7:59 to 8:30
Actual Mileage	Actual Time/Pace
4 miles	27:21 (6:50 pace)

Notes: Ah, the irony of the treadmill - it makes me push the pace to get done before I die of boredom.  But it seems to be working - tonight I ran 4 miles just under marathon goal pace (6:50) and it felt a lot easier than a few days ago.  I really think that doing these short, hard, fast treadmill runs are helping me.  I think this will become my plan for those weeks I'm on the road.  All in all, pretty satisfied with my first week of marathon training.  Now I'm off to enjoy a real gem of an Italian restaurant I found here in Lewisville.  I ate there Tuesday night, and it was wonderful - the only Italian restaurant I've ever been to that I can confidently say makes a better pasta dish than I do.


Friday
Rest Day