As a 2017 Cleveland Marathon Ambassador I will be running the 8K portion of the race on Saturday, May 20. I am following a 14-week plan that has me starting from the bottom. It’s been a few years since I have run consistently, so I began with 1-mile increments. I am now up to running 3 miles at a time. Here’s a formal training update.
Training Update
I have one rest day per week on Sunday. Three days a week I cross-train or practice yoga. The other three days I am not doing yoga, I run. For the most part I have been extremely strict with my schedule.
This past week, however, I pushed my Wednesday run back one day after getting caught in a demanding work week.
Week 6:
2 miles / 12:32, 12:18 –> Chased by (friendly) pit bull!
1 mile / 11:55
2 miles / 11:52, 11:57
Week 7:
2 miles / 11:30, 11:56 –> Got hot, overdressed
2 miles / unknown –> Technology failure
2 miles / unknown –> Technology failure
Week 8:
2 miles / 12:22, 11:59
2 miles / 11:13, 11:10 –> I was hauling!
2.5 miles / 11:22, 11:54, 5:53
Week 9:
2.5 miles / 11:43, 13:03, 5:51
2 miles / 11:48, 11:35
3 miles / 12:04, 12:20, 11:45
Those are the times recorded by my Garmin Forerunner 10 GPS Watch during my runs (I have a post about GPS accuracy). For the most part I am running non-stop, although I did take a quick stretching break mid-run during the recent 3-miler. The weather has improved greatly over the last few weeks, which has made running outside enjoyable.
Related blog posts:
• Official 2017 Cleveland Marathon Ambassador
• My Running Journey: A Look Back
• 12 Interesting Cleveland Marathon Facts You Didn’t Know
• 18 Essential Foods for a Cheap Grocery List
Running Update
As I am writing this training update, I am now five weeks from race day. Ideally I would like to finish the 8K race in under an hour, however, most of my training runs have been averaging 11:00 to 12:00 minutes per mile.
I think it is a nice goal to have but I’m not going to be beat myself up if it doesn’t happen. The primary goal is to finish the race.
That being said, I am going to try to incorporate speed work into my mid-week runs. These are my shortest runs at only 2 miles. While I know that traditional speed work means running on a track, I’m going into this a little more relaxed.
Basically on those mid-week runs I want to push myself to hustle a bit more and pick up the pace, and add a sprint at the end. I’m happy to report little to no aches or pains during this training cycle.
I think my running form has improved over the years, and I was surprised to recently learn that I should be wearing neutral running shoes. For years I had a tendency to overpronate and wore high stability running shoes.
Disclosure: As a 2017 Cleveland Marathon Ambassador, I will receive complimentary entry into the race of my choice, an ambassador shirt, along with special access to pre and post-race events, in exchange for writing about my training for this event.
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