Marathon Training Update - Week 6

Bataan Memorial Death March Marathon Training Update

I haven't written anything in a while.  I am currently in week 6 of marathon training.  So far so good.

Weekly mileage

Week 1 - 20 miles

Week 2 - 20.68 miles

Week 3 - 8 miles - Man drill weekends take up a lot of time.

Week 4 - 22.3 miles

Week 5 - 9 miles - stupid sickness

Week 6 - 9 miles so far

Total mileage so far - 89.12 miles

This week I am working through a little IT Band injury.  I ran 3 miles last night and it didn't seem to hurt too bad.  Today I've had almost no pain but it's also an off day.

Oh yeah I ran the Rudolph Run 5K this past weekend and PR'd.  I ran a 22:32 (I've shaved 2 minutes of my 5K time in the last 6 months).  I finished 64th out of 991 runners and 5th out of 34 in my age group (30-34).  I'm very happy with this run but still a lot of work to do.  One day I want to run a sub 20 minute 5K.

Just 12 more weeks left.  Can't wait until the big day.

Looking Forward - 2013 Schedule

Looking Forward - 2013 Schedule

Since I likely will not run another race in 2012 below is my tentative 2013 racing schedule.  There may be other 5Ks I squeeze in there but this is what I plan to run as of right now.

March 16th - Bataan Memorial Death March - White Sands, NM or Georgia Half Marathon - Atlanta, GA

April 2nd - Double Helix 5K - Huntsville, AL

April 20th - Cookie Dash 5K - Huntsville, AL

April 27th - Rock -n- Roll Half Marathon - Nashville, TN

May 27th - Cotton Row 10k - Huntsville, AL

June 8th - Mountain Mania 15K - Decatur, AL

June 22nd - Huntsville Sprint Triathlon - Huntsville, AL

July 20th - HTC Twilight 5K - Huntsville, AL

August 31st - Monte Sano 10K - Huntsville, AL

September 7th - 9.11K Commerative Run - Redstone Arsenal, AL

October 19th - Liz Hurley 5K - Huntsville, AL

October 13th - Chicago Marathon - Chicago, IL OR October 26th - Ridge to Bridge Marathon - Brown Mountain Beach, NC

November 9th - Huntsville Half Marathon - Huntsville, AL

December 14th - Rocket City Marathon - Huntsville, AL

Post Huntsville Half Marathon

Post Huntsville Half Marathon - 10 November, 2012

Well I finished my first half marathon.  I am happy that I finished but I'm not really that happy with how I finished the race.  I did very well for the first 10 miles.  I was maintaining a 8:43 pace for the first 10 miles and then for some reason hit a wall shorty after the 10 mile marker.  I ended up finishing the race with a 9:17 a mile pace.  My goal was to run a sub 2 hour half and I was 55 seconds over finishing with 2:00:54.  I now know what I need to work on to improve my next half.  I feel that the last two weeks my have been the cause of the last 3 miles.  I haven't been able to run my training plan as needed because of the guard.  I had a 4 day drill in the field which caused me not to be able to do one of my long runs.  Oh well I finished and thats all that matters.  Just have to improve the next time.

Bataan Memorial Death March

Bataan Memorial Death March - March 16, 2013 - White Sands, New Mexico

In my last blog I mentioned that I will possibly be running three marathons next year.  The first will be apart of a business trip to White Sands, NM in March.  We will have our meetings during the week and then on Saturday, those who signed up for the race, will run the Bataan Memorial Death March (26.2 miles).  The people who are running have started training and share our training mileage in our Bi-Weekly meeting. I will be running this course in the light category, as I will not be carrying a ruck.

I will not have much time to rest after the Huntsville Half Marathon tomorrow.  Next week I will take a few days off and then training for this marathon will start the following week.  Training should go well until February.  I have a three week camp with the Guard and will probably cause me to miss a lot of training.  Hopefully it won't set me back too much.

I will continue to post updates on my training throughout the next 4 months.

Happy Running,

Justin

Huntsville Half Marathon

Huntsville Half Marathon - 10 November 2012

After 10 months of getting myself back into running shape I will run the Huntsville Half Marathon (13.1 miles) this Saturday.  At the beginning of this year I was out of shape, overweight, and had borderline high blood pressure.  I knew I needed to make a change.  I always liked running and I knew I would enjoy the challenge.  I set my sights on my culminating event for this year, a half marathon.  I started out with slow and short runs just to get used to running again.  Now ten months later, 20 pounds lighter and 423 miles of training I will run my first half marathon.

This half marathon is just the beginning of a set of goals for the next 5-6 years.  Next year will be a full marathon (possibly 3) and then in the next two years maybe ultra marathoning, century ride, and/or 70.3 triathlon.  I don't know where this drive is coming from but I have enjoyed every bit of this journey and look forward to accomplishing much, much more.  I have already set a PR for my PT test two mile run (12:50) and 5K (22:46) this year.  Hopefully next year I can do even better.

I will post more after my half marathon.  The good thing is no matter the time I will PR :)

Happy Running,

Justin