Weekly Workout Recap #3: Marathon Training Week 5

This was a great week. I really felt back at it and ready to really pick up the training. I'm excited to start getting into some higher mileage weeks and know that this is going to be taking up a lot more of my time. This week I hit 23 miles!

Monday: The weights class at LA Fitness was just not great. A woman came in and couldn't figure out the step and how to adjust it, so I helped her. It turned out to be the instructor. That's fine, but I didn't really see a lot from a class where the instructor didn't know how to work the equipment. It was a fine class, and I definitely got a workout, but it was no BodyPump. I will miss that until I can find somewhere else that does it. I went Monday because I had given myself Sunday off, like I'm going to do this week too. Tuesday and Wednesday: Both of these days were good runs. I got new shoes, like I've now mentioned a few times, but they are fantastic. They're quite a bit lighter than my last shoes and the make me feel almost like I'm not wearing shoes. 

I did 3.1 and then 5 on those days. They were both negative split. Thursday: Thursday was just awesome. I went out wanting to run under 9 minute miles for the 3.1. I also was thinking possibly about negative splitting. At the halfway mark I didn't think it would be possible, because I was hurting a little bit, but I just decided not to give up and to push through. I know I'll be hurting at the end of the marathon, and there's no way something will stop me from pushing through, and that's what I did. Here are my splits:

It was a clear negative split, and when I was finished I felt so proud of myself for accomplishing what I had wanted to do. I ran later in the evening so it was a little cooler out than it usually is.

Saturday: Saturday should get its own blog post. It was amazing and beautiful and every reason why I run. It in fact reminded me why I love to run.

I met up with Tori down at Davis Island at 5:30 am to run with the Blue Sharks. It was so early that there's no way I would have done it on my own, but when Tori said she was up for it, I had a motivator to get up that early! I left my house at 4:50 to make sure I was there on time.

The man who runs the group puts water stops on the island every few miles, and there are about 80 people that meet each week, so it was a really fun experience. The temperature was also perfect for running. In fact, I was a little chilly before we started running. Hallelujah! We're getting somewhere here in Florida. 

Tori and I ran and talked and, honestly I wouldn't have believed myself if you told me I was going to write this, 11 miles flew by! Tori was out for 18, so she kept going but I headed back to my car for the last mile. It was an absolutely amazing run with beautiful views, and it made me remember that running doesn't always have to be about paces and numbers and beating your times. Running is just about getting out there and doing your thing. And that's what we did!

I have to thank Tori times a million for meeting me there yesterday, because it gets me really excited to keep up with this training plan! The views there were million dollar too.

And I'm off today. Woohoo!

But, I'm making a change! I'm changing training plans. I was going to do Hal Higdon Novice 1, but I'm finding that it doesn't pick up the distances as much as I want in order to feel comfortable race day. 

I'm switching to Hal Higdon Novice 2. I linked to my original plan above, and this is the new plan I'm switching over to:

I just finished Week 5 of training, and I did the same distance long run he suggested, so I feel like I'm on track. While my Wednesday run was one mile shorter, it was on target for the Novice 1 plan, so I don't feel behind. This does mean, though, only one more week of 3 milers on Tuesday and Thursday. I'm scared of week 11 with 5-8-5-18! Whoa.

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