Change of Scenery

I’m at 75% of this week’s goal.

Yesterday I ran 3.1 miles again, using the same route as Monday. I ran the entire time, save for about 45 seconds waiting at a red light. I felt good by the end of the run. I walked a 1/4 mile to bring my heart rate down then did about 15 minutes of stretching. My only disappointment was such a slow pace… just over 14 minutes.

Today I toned down my run just a tad. I was ready for a change of scenery and ran 2.6 miles along a different route. I ran a little be better pace at 13:45, walked it off for a 1/4 mile, and stretched.

I had an interesting thing about changing the scenery… On one hand, a change of scenery is nice and breaks up the monotony of a routine route. On the other hand, a change of scenery makes it difficult to gauge time and distance. The thing is, if I don’t change my scenery often, I might get spooked on Marathon day.

I’m planning to run about 3 miles again on Saturday. Next week, however, I might tone it down for a week–something like 20 minutes out and back, running only, and running a little faster. Then, over the following weeks, I’ll add more time with longer times on the weekends. Around the 2nd week of February I’ll start my official 16 week training program.

Tweaking My Plan

I’m excited as I enter my 3rd week of pre-marathon training. I started this morning with a 3.1 mile run at a 14 minute pace. That’s a big deal for me considering my first run a couple of weeks ago was over 16 minutes per mile. My body is adapting well, I’m not over-doing it, I’m stretching after every run, and so far so good. The important thing for me is to keep at it for a few more weeks until I start my 16 week program.

When I first started my training, I thought for sure I had the perfect 16 week marathon training plan. Now, however, I need to find something that is more realistic for me–something that is four days per week that lends itself to a long run on marathon day which will be a Sunday. My original 16 week plan had a long run on every Saturday and I’m not sure how to adapt the plan for a seamless Sunday long-run. Anyway, I’ll figure something out.

I was going to begin hitting the gym tomorrow for cross-training, but I need to wait another week–I have too much going on right now. I figure I’ll do legs on Tuesdays and upper body on Friday. My run days are currently Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday. My logic for doing legs on Tuesdays is so they aren’t sore for my Saturday long-run. But again, I’m still trying to figure out a seamless plan. Any tips are appreciated.

Busy Weekend, Noticing the Diet, & Pace Poll

What is your recommendation for a 39 year male currently at 260 lbs but aiming for 200 by May 31, 2009 for the San Diego Rock ‘N’ Roll Marathon?

I’m a day late posting, but I did complete a 3.1 mile run on Saturday morning; thus, I completed 100% of my weekly training goal. My pace was pretty good (for me) for the first mile and a half. I walked a few, then I did some interval training for about a mile and a quarter. I ended up with an overall 13:50 pace, which is slower than I’ve been going in the past couple of runs. I attribute my slowness to the steak dinner the night before topped off with some Coldstone.

We’re in the process of moving at the end of the month, and my wife is having a major surgery tomorrow. So, we’ve had a busy weekend trying to get as much prepared as possible. My wife will be out of commission for at least 6 weeks. Needless to say, this was the last weekend we had to do the things together that we needed to do. In all that, I took note of how crappy I felt during my run Saturday morning, so I made of point of picking up some better food at the grocery store today.

I know what to eat when  training, but the fact is, you have to prepare in advance for best results. I’m now stocked with oat meal, eggs, fresh fruits and veggies, tuna, yogurt, protein powder (for gym days), water, green tea, wheat bread, and so on. I’m two weeks into this marathon training now, week 3 starts tomorrow, and for me, the 3rd week solidifies a habit–in this case, a running habit–so I might as well eat right.

Even though I’m in pre-training, I’m going to add weight-lifting to my two rest days–I’ll have 1 day off per week instead of 2. Instead of focusing on bulking up, however, I will be focusing on toning. I’ll be doing high reps with light weights. I’ve already dropped about 8 pounds in the last two weeks–and that’s without watching my diet–I reckon I’ll drop a lot more over the next 6 weeks. I tend to plateau at 230–I’m aiming for 190-200 by May–but I think I’ll shatter the plateau with all the running.

I know from experience changing my diet will only enhance the weight-loss, give me more energy, and improve my running time–my mile was 9:30 just 2 1/2 years ago. My plan for my first marathon is to run a 12 minute pace–I don’t know if that’s considered slow or fast for a first timer. I’m open to suggestions here.