Marathon Training - Week 1

I met other members of the Brooklyn team last Saturday, 2/9, in Prospect Park for our first group training session. We'll meet every Saturday at 8:30 to run, stretch etc. As the weeks go by, Saturday's will be all about increasing distance, but the first week we just ran for about half-an-hour so that the coaches could watch how we run. Our head coach, Michael, videotaped us so that he can address any bio-mechanical "issues" he sees that need to be corrected. It was actually really fun, and I had a good time talking with the other runners. A couple guys that I talked to had both joined TnT last year and had run marathons successfully. It was nice to hear them talk about how the training went and nice to know that they were both coming back for more. After running, we stretched and then I went to get a little snack with Viva, who was assigned to be my mentor, and a few others. I didn't really feel sore or anything afterwards, but I could tell later that day that I had been running.

Sunday, 2/10: a day off from training so I relaxed (I can tell I'm going to be very good at sticking to the schedule on off-days!).

Monday, 2/11: I was supposed to run 3 miles on my own. Hmm. Of course, Monday morning was FREEZING (Alaska won't even be this cold in June.) Instead of running, I did 30 minutes on our elliptical machine. I could tell it really wasn't the same thing, but I'm happy that I at least did something.

Tuesday, 2/12: a day off again!

Wednesday, 2/13: Wednesday's are the other day of the week that group training is scheduled. These nights will typically revolve around some special type of workout or training element. This week was all about upper body movement. Unfortunately, I am not expecting to make it to a lot of the Wednesday nights because it conflicts with volleyball. Luckily the coaches are pretty good at sending out the key details of what is being covered so people can work on things they missed.

Thursday, 2/14: I was supposed to run 3 miles again. Hmm. It was still really cold. I mapped out that running from my building down Ocean Parkway to Avenue J was about 1.6 miles, so there and back would be perfect. But, did I mention it was cold? I decided that I couldn't do it without running pants, so I decided to try and do something after work. I didn't have a chance to by pants during the day, so I came home determined to do the elliptical again. But I ended up only doing about 10 minutes, it just wasn't a good training day.

Friday, 2/15: off! (But I did buy my running pants & a long sleeve running shirt)

Saturday, 2/16: I made it to the 2nd group training run in the park. It was really, really cold (about 23 degrees). We ended up running one loop around the park which is 3.3 miles. I ran with a couple guys who were much more experienced and coach Michael. I felt ok for the most part, but it was hard to catch my breath and I was definitely running too fast to carry on a conversation. It was fine for that distance, I just pushed through, but hopefully I'll figure out the right pace as I start to run more. I really felt good about running the whole way and finishing. It's the first time I've run that far since doing a corporate challenge several years ago (and certainly since injuring my ankle in 2006).

For this upcoming week, I'm really going to try and get in my Monday & Thursday runs - wish me luck!

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