Marathon Training week 1 recap

Week one of marathon training is officially done.

As a Run4Hope charity runner (for Team Fox) at the BMO Vancouver Marathon I was provided with the opportunity to sign-up for a Running Room training program free of charge. Since I don’t live near a Running Room I chose to sign-up for the online marathon training clinic. Part of the clinic includes a training plan based on your goal finishing time (4:30 for me and Krista although at this point that seems a tad ambitious). Manuals are provided as well as support from our coach. There is a tool to track your progress but I have yet to log any information – for now I am simply crossing off the days on my training plan that I have on my fridge. I also track all my mileage and which running shoes I use in a day planner. Keeping it old school.

I really like the training plan I was provided. The weekday mileage doesn’t really change throughout the 19 weeks but the type of runs vary between long-slow-distance (LSD), steady, tempo, and hill repeats. Sundays are designated long-run days, done at a LSD, and those distances change every two weeks. I like that I get to run on both Saturday and Sunday with this plan because those are the only days I can run outside in the winter.

Mondays and Fridays are designated rest days but because I want to incorporate some strength-training into my workouts I will only take one true rest day (I spoke to my online coach about it and he is on board with this decision as long as I rest when my body tells me to).

The one thing I still need to wrap my head around is the fact that I essentially begin my week with a long-run. Saturdays have been my designated long-run days for so long now that it seems bizarre to look at my training plan and see that the week starts with a long-run. A small thing but I’ll get used to it.

Today’s run was a tough one because of the weather. We received new snow overnight and I ended up running before the snowplow had a chance to plow the streets. I also did part of my run on my favourite trail and had first tracks – a good thing when you’re skiing, not so good when you are trying to run.

I suspect that running on snow is similar to running on sand. My feet were slipping out from under me in the crud (or the chunder as my husband likes to call it) and I had to stop and fix my snow tracks a couple of time because they started slipping off my shoes.

Running on the snow may be tough but I like to look at it as resistance training for my legs. After a few months of running in the white stuff my running is bound to improve on clear, dry pavement – right?

I love being outside in the winter. Everything is so fresh and it’s nice to clear my head. I’ve been leaving the music and podcasts at home lately and am simply enjoying the sound of my feet crunching over the snow.

My long runs are only going to get longer from here on out. For the past 4 or so months the farthest I have run has been 6 miles. This time next week that distance goes up to 8 miles. In a few short weeks those 6 miles long-runs will become short-runs – a crazy concept but one I am definitely looking forward to.

Just a reminder that my Scentsy Fundraiser for Team Fox is happening now through to the end of January. It’s a great way to donate to a good cause and make your house smell lovely in the process.