Sweetness

Week 2 is in the books. I wrapped up the week with a 14 miler this morning. I finished just over two hours, so the pace ended up being an 8:40. The temperature was probably in the mid- to upper 70's but there wasn't a whole lot of cloud coverage, so it felt a little warmer. I'd much rather prefer 40's, 50's and 60's than the 70's or above. I'll fill you in on some heat related running stories a little bit down the road.

Again, the 8:40 was slightly slower than I was aiming for, but logging the miles on the Sunday run is crucial as my endurance and stamina are increasing. With a mere 12% of the training complete, we still have a long way to go.

When using a 16 week training schedule, you can kind of break down the plan into four quarters. The first quarter is kind of getting into the set routine while slowly building you mileage. My typical plan usually adds about 10% of mileage to the week's total mileage for the first three weeks of each quarter. The fourth week of each is kind of a easier week where you recharge your batteries a little while still maintaining the routine. My first four weeks of total mileage look like this:
Week 1: 30
Week 2: 33
Week 3: 36
Week 4: 32


Week 5 will start quarter number 2 and pick up where Week 3 left off. In the second quarter, I'll quicken my everyday pace by about 6 seconds and will start implementing different techniques on my longer runs. That may include running the second half 15-30 seconds faster than the first or running a good chunk of the long run at marathon goal pace.

Week 3 shapes up like this:
Tuesday: 7 Miles @ 8:31
Wednesday: 7 Miles including 4 0r 5 at a 7:13 pace
Friday: 6 Miles @ 8:31
Sunday: 16 Miles

Just a few (former) local sports legends on the run today: