interesting week (week 3)

At some point Sena has decided that she won't be satisfied to simply finish the marathon. She wants to get faster. hmm. So I suggested 1 speedwork session per week, starting with 1min hard and 1min easy 6 times - she opted for 2 mins hard and 1 min easy... this of course is after a 1 mile warm up and finishing with at least a half mile cool down. This was all on the treadmill. She did quite well.

We took our long run today at Ridley Creek Park and she is much more disciplined than I ever was, starting off very slow and running straight for 4.5 miles. She was careful not to go too fast which allowed her to finish the full distance without stopping.

She did really well, keep her pace below 13min/mile the entire run. Unfortunately it was pretty cold and she didn't want to wait until the Garmin found it's satellite, and she started right away, so we didn't have precise readings for the day. I estimated over 4.5 miles of running with .2 mile walk uphill back to the car.

She is vacillating between the 'walk/run' plan and the 'go as long as you can' plan. It's not so important right now, but she will have to decide before the end of the year.

We are still building her workout plan, but it her 2 week plan will be to run every other day in the following sequence: a tempo run, an easy run, a long run, a hill run, an easy run, an interval run, a long run.

Week 2

Sena trains on her own during the week, then does her long run with me on the weekend. She has added half a mile each week and is up to 4 miles in 2 weeks. I have to say, I'm quite impressed this week.

Today she ran a hilly course (see below), which was a half mile longer than last week, at a faster pace than last week (11:59 average pace). She took walk breaks when she needed them, but ran very steady the rest of the time.

Her breathing was much better since last week. By the end of the run, she felt like she had pushed herself about as far as she comfortably could by the time we got back to the car. It will be very interesting to see her progress by the end of the year.

I am so stoked that she is taking it seriously and being very consistent in her training (every other day). A bit of a trick is to do a 2 week cycle, which means one week you run mon, wed, fri, sun, then tue, thu, sat. That way you make sure you get a rest day in between each run.

week 1

We scoured the web for good training programs all week long. We found a couple, but none seem to start with a relatively healthy non-runner, so we're going to have to figure the first several weeks.

Right now she is running with walk breaks 3-4 times a week with a bit of cross training in between.

I was quite impressed on our first day out last Sunday. The first mile was pretty rough - mostly uphill for a quarter mile where we walked, then finished with a quarter mile downhill, where we jogged. We then realised our dog was infested with tics and decided to take him home before we did anymore running. After riding home, removing tics, and getting back to a trail, we had a nice 45 minute rest. We did a relatively hilly offroad 2 mile trail, where Sena ran most of it, finishing the first mile in 11:45, and the second mile (where most of the uphills were) in 14 minutes.

During the week Sena ran on the treadmill, managing a fairly long stretch (2 miles) without walk breaks at a 12 minute pace by Friday.

Today we ran a flat trail for 3.5 miles of run / walking, pulling off 11:45, 11:38, and 11:11 in the first 3 miles. She was having a rough go at times, but she toughed it out.

I try to tell her that this is the hard stuff and it does get easier, but Sena has never been extremely patient and wants to 'know' what she will be capable of during the marathon so she can train at the right level. It is too early to answer any of these questions, but it will be very interesting to find out.

All told, very impressive first week.

the beginning...

Last weekend I started building my 2008 race schedule when my wife Sena came into the room. There is some debate as to what followed (she says I talked her into it, I say she talked me into it), but in the end, Sena was signed up for her first ever road race... the Big Sur Marathon.

So a little background... Sena isn't a runner - period. I'm not sure why she is doing this - it probably has to do with her obsessive husband constantly droning on about how great it is. Maybe she was inspired by others crossing the finish line at some of the races she watched me run and said to herself - I bet I can do that.

She will have approximately six months to get ready. The first 2 months she will spend on becoming a runner.

Tactically we have done a few things wrong already - we chose an early spring marathon (it is more difficult to motivate yourself to run through the winter), we have chosen a difficult marathon with a lot of hills, we have chosen a marathon with a 6 hour cut off... I'm sure we will realize all of the other mistakes we have made at some point, but hey - you've got to start somewhere, right?

I was dumfounded/impressed/intrigued when I suggested some shorter races in the intervening time between now and the marathon and Sena responded that she wanted her first race to be a marathon.

I'm very excited about the prospect of having Sena do a marathon for a number of reasons... maybe she'll better understand my insanity (or just develop her own); maybe she'll understand why I don't want to do yard work after a 20 mile run (or maybe she'll realize it is just a painful way to get out of yard work); but most importantly, I really just want us to be able to do a lot of cool stuff together as we age and training for a marathon has a way of getting you fit enough to do many other fun and exciting things in life, not to mention getting you to feel better on a daily basis.

So I just finished my last blog on my first Hawaii Ironman and I'm hoping to capture some of the more interesting moments as I help her through her training. I'm also hopeful she posts her thoughts here too, to give the readers a balanced view as the memories unfold.

Finally, I hope other non-runners will be inspired to try their first race, whatever the distance.