My marathon training is in full swing welcome to week 3 of my personal marathon training plan. I’m sharing my weekly marathon training runs, how I felt, and what I’ll be working on throughout the week.
The theme of week 3 is ouch. Last week I really over did it and now I’m paying for it. I’ve got a 10k race coming up and so I’m taking it easy this week so I’m healthy for the race.
My training days are Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday however as you’ll see below I did some switching up.
This week’s training schedule
- Tuesday Easy run 30 minutes or 3 miles
- Wednesday – Hills
- Thursday – Easy 6 miles
- Saturday – Long run 10 miles
My Pace Schedule
Here’s a look into my pace schedule for a better understanding of my timing:
- Easy 10:56-12:00
- Marathon 10:17
- Threshold 9:22
- Interval 8:26
- Repetition 7:54
Tuesday
From the first step of this run I knew I over did it last week. I started getting knee pain with every step on my left side. This only lasted about 2 minutes but I knew that I was going to have to take it easy this week.
Once the pain was gone, I felt great. I ran at a comfortable pace for 3 miles and almost forgot to stop running. Tuesday is all about getting out there for about a half-hour and get the blood pumping. So for this run, I ran 3.01 miles at 29:57 which is just under a 10mm
Wednesday
I found a great hill to run up and down for this run. Behind the state capital building are some switchbacks that I decided to run. The day was beautiful and I had the trail to myself. It took me about 2:30 to run up them with an elevation gain of 250 feet.
In the beginning I started feeling both my ankle and knee starting to yell at me so I took it slow hoping that the pain would go away like it did on Tuesday. However, my knee and ankle pain continued on. I cut my run in half and decided to walk around the lake for a mile to see if the pain would go away. It didn’t.
I cut this run short and did a total of 2 miles up hill which took me 21:15 which put me at a 10:37mm average. I was really happy with that time considering how much pain I was in. I got home, messaged my trainer and we decided to take the rest of the week easy.
Thursday
I ended up moving my Thursday run to Saturday and dropping my long run off completely giving me some time to rest, ice, and recuperate.
Saturday
I was really excited to get out and do some running today. Having 2 days off in a row of no running meant that I was going a bit stir crazy. I know that this was the best thing to do but let me tell you it’s hard to take it easy.
To be completely honest, I’ve been really struggling with my speed. I wanting to see huge gains each week which is not how this works. I know this however, I have high expectations for myself.
For this run I moved my Thursday 6 mile run here and dropped the 10 mile scheduled run. I ran 6.18 miles in 1:04:43 which came out to 10:28 average pace. Currently I’m struggling with running consistently without any walk breaks.
It’s a struggle looking down at my watch to see that I’m running at a comfortable pace but it’s faster than I’m supposed to be going so I stop running and walk for a bit. By doing this I fall out of my “groove” and find that it’s harder on my joints. It’s also doing a number on my mental game!
My thoughts
Next week is the beginning of my crazy race schedule. I have a 10K scheduled for Saturday that I’m really looking forward to. I’ll be focusing on my mental game and allowing my comfortable pace to be what it is. I’m also going to find some running groups to join. This might help boost my running confidence.
Next week
Looking ahead at next week, I have 4 runs scheduled with some cross training exercises to do. I’ve got about 15 miles scheduled next week with a race on Saturday. I’ll be posting my race highlights here and if you want to learn more sooner, make sure to follow me on Instagram!
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