W16KW#1

I'm 19 weeks away from the NYC marathon and I've officially started training tonight. Despite my previous post on marathon plans, I've finally decided to go with the FIRST training program. I ordered the book last week and it was waiting for me when I got into work this morning. I probably didn't need the book as they more or less give you all the information on the website (main thing that's missing is the training paces) but I always prefer to have a physical book instead of reading from a screen - plus it cost less than £10.

It's actually a 16 week plan, but I figure I'll start this week as I've got Gael Force at the end of August which may require a certain amount of flexibility. This plan calls for three key run workouts (the KW in the subject) plus two cross training exercises per week (which will be cycling for me). The key workouts are a track (interval) session, a short (40 min or so) tempo run (i.e. faster than 5km pace) and a long run.

Tonights run was the interval session - luckily enough the university has a track so I decided to give it a go and see if I could go around. Didn't seem to be any problems (the place was more or less deserted apart from another girl) so I done a 20 minute warmup. The intervals themselves consisted of three mile (1600m) repeats at 8m 35s pace - which I got nowhere near. I ran around the outside lane (lane 8) and looking at the distances, I definitely over-ran on the intervals.

I actually didn't do the whole thing either - I done the first one in 9m 32s (apparently 1.82km), second one I only done three laps (1.36km in 7m 19s) and just ran two minutes for the final interval. Tough going, that's for sure. A quick warmdown and I couldn't get home fast enough.

Next session (Thursday) is the tempo run - 2 miles easy, 2 miles at 9m 08s pace and 2 miles easy. Will probably go for a shortish (40km) cycle tomorrow.