Marathon Training: Day 1

By Gaby -
So today was actually Day 1 of my marathon training schedule.  I am following Hal Higdon's Novice 1 program, and I hope it works out for me in the end : /
Unfortunately, it started snowing two days ago, so no running outside for me.  I really, really hate hitting the gym when people are there, and I just KNEW the gym would be loaded after New Years (which they were earlier in the day when Ryan tried to go before work), so I just waited until late morning to hit the treadmill, praying that people would have gone to work by then.  Well, there were still a few losers there, but luckily some treadmills were free.  I only had a 3 mile run on the schedule today--as is the case for the next two days--but wow, it felt so hard on that machine.  That, and maybe the fact that I hadn't run in over 3 months;) 
I. Was. Slow.  I mean, I set my pace at 9:30/mi. initially, and I might as well have set it at 6:00/mi. because that's what it felt like to me.  So I had to quickly switch that to 11:00/mi and that felt more "normal" for me (although I was in dismay that I was really that slow. I swear I'm faster in a race, or for that matter, running outside).  Each mile dragged by, though, so for the last half mile, I gunned it at 8:30/mile (ha!) just to get it over with and nearly fell off the TD with nausea and dizziness.  As I was walking to the bathroom, some guy greeted me and I'm pretty sure I gave him a delirious look and kept walking.  I didn't care if he thought I was crazy, I just wanted to lie down somewhere before I spewed chunks!  There was a bench in the ladies restroom, so I rested on that for awhile until I felt better.

And that was Day One!  Even though I ran really hard towards the end and felt like dying immediately afterward, I felt pretty good once I got home.  I had the sudden urge for protein, so I had a strawberry greek yogurt and made scrambled eggs with cheese and onions.  That held me over until I finished teaching tonight at 7:30.  Tonight's dinner was chicken fried rice and I might have had a little too much of that, so tomorrow's run will probably have to be even harder:(

Comments

amy kelinda said…
Marathon training, wow! And don't laugh but... how long is a marathon? I know some people who did half marathons and had to train pretty hardcore for those, so I'm sure training for a full marathon is intense too! Congrats on finishing up those 3 miles though, even if you felt sick afterwards. Just think -- it could only get easier from here! :) (easy for me to say though, since I a) am not training for a marathon and b) usually clock in a "speedy" 15 MINUTES per mile, hahaha!)
January 5, 2012 at 12:04 AM
Gaby said…
haha--it's okay, I mean, I never knew how long any of these races were before I started running--it's not like I needed to know! A full marathon is 26.2m (why the .2, I have no idea, I'm sure there's a reason-and actually I vaguely recall hearing someone explain it in a documentary, but now I forget), a half is 13.1 and a 5K is 3.1
It doesn't feel very intense right now, but it'll get there soon enough *groan*
January 5, 2012 at 1:40 AM
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