Yesterday, during my day off, I went through a few different training programs, trying to see if there is one that may be better suited to me for this stage. My goal right now is to get myself in shape and run a 10K to establish my pacing for the FIRST marathon training program that I will start on September 10.
I went through about 5 or 6 different 10K and 5K plans. My biggest problem with most of them is that they require running on consecutive days and include only one rest day during the week. I’m not necessarily averse to only one rest day. I’d happily throw in another cross training day later on in my training. I’m just thinking that running on consecutive days would not be good for my shins.
I went back to the FIRST 10K plan and recalculated the paces for the various runs based on the first 5K I ever ran (28:30), instead of my most recent 5K (22:28). The reason is that I’ve just lost a lot of fitness since my last 5K back in October. I was injured for a while and I didn’t run anything over 2 miles between October and 3 weeks ago. As embarrassing as it is to admt, I think the 28:30 time is a better measurement of my abilities at this point.
This week, I’m repeating week 2 of the 10K program with the newly calculated paces and I’ll continue on from there. Because of the timing, I’ll have to cut the peak 3 weeks out of the program. My long run will still peak at 10 miles, so I’m pretty comfortable with that. The long run in the first week of the marathon program is 8 miles.
Planned workout
1 mile warmup
5X800 m intervals at 8:42 pace with 400 m rest intervals
1 mile cool down
Actual workout
1 mile warmup
5 X 800 m at 8:42 pace with 400 m walking rest intervals
1 mile cool down
It certainly feels nice to have finally finished a workout as planned – even if I made the plan easier. The workout felt a little strenuous, but not horrible. I could have done another interval or two, certainly. My left shin was a little sore during the rest intervals, but it felt fine while running and feels fine now. My heart rate during the running intervals went from about 150 BPM to 170 BPM and got down to the 125 BPM to 135 BPM range during the rest intervals.