First day of training program - check.
It was so exciting. There were sooo many people there. Tons of runners, as well. They didn't split us up into training groups yet, so I'm not sure how many people are training to run the marathon, but I'm sure I'll find that out this Saturday for our first long run. Just a measly 5 miles...piece of cake. I know someone in the training group, too! I pulled up to the store yesterday and I saw Bill walking in. I was so happy to see a friendly face. Now we can hold each other accountable on those early Saturday mornings at 7:30 am. Granted, I won't see much of Bill after we arrive because he has the legs of a gazelle, but at least I know someone there so I can complain about how early it is or how cold it is outside :).
Last night they did a whole "welcome" spiel and introduced all the coaches....probably over 20 in all. I got to point Karen Cosgrove (my new idol) out to Bill. And then they laid the egg on us....we were running over to the track nearby and then running a timed mile. I HATE running timed miles. It makes me think back on all those awful timed miles I had to do in gym class growing up. I hated them then and I knew I was going to hate them now. I'm just not a good fast runner. I'm a much better consistently slow endurance runner. I can hold a consistently slow pace forever, but ask me to run 4 times around a track at a "fast but not sprinting" pace, and I'm done. I did finish it though, in 8 minutes, 42 seconds...nothing to be proud of. I felt like I was going to puke around lap 2, so I slowed down a bit. Just to kind of give a picture of what I was doing....my first lap was 1:53, second lap was at 4:06, I don't remember the third lap (I was probably thinking too much about the fact I still had to run a whole lap), and then finished in 8:42. Obviously there was a big slow down somewhere in there. Oh well. Hopefully that's a good indication of what running group I should be in.
They gave us a folder with all the training plans in it (they have a half marathon group, mini marathon group, and marathon group...and each has novice, intermediate, and experienced levels). I'm glad I'm not experienced, I'll tell you that. They are running 10 miles this Saturday. Yuck. I took a peek at the half marathon training program and was slightly jealous. They only have to run 3 miles this weekend. And then there was my training program....on neon orange paper. It is my life on paper for the next 16 weeks. Basically I will run 3 days a week....Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday (perfect with my work schedule), I will cross train on Monday and Wednesday (bike or swim), and rest on Friday and Sunday. After the first couple of weeks, I will be consistently running 5 miles every Tues. and Thurs. until the taper. I will probably do the Tues. runs with the group and the Thurs. runs on my own, unless I'm having a hard time with motivation to get out and run. The group runs are tough though....they do make the running seem easier and go by faster, but I didn't get home until 8:00 last night! It was the first night, so that's probably why it was so late. But on a normal night of running 5 miles starting at 6:30 still wouldn't get me home until about 7:30 at the earliest. So we'll see how things go.
Tomorrow I run 5 miles for my first Thursday run. I could do a group run at 6:30, but I think I might do this one on my own. Saturday will definitely be with the group.
It has begun....
No comments:
Post a Comment