Pittsburgh Training- Day 1

Yep, day 1 of training for Pittsburgh has arrived. For those who know a thing or two about marathons, you might recall that a typical marathon training calendar is 18 weeks long. You may also wonder if its possible that May 3 is only 18 weeks away. Well, its not possible. Its actually 26 weeks away. I am doing a bit extra for this marathon. Let me tell you why.

If you don't know yet, I'm running Pittsburgh for charity. It's the first time I've ever raced for charity before and since joining the team about 2 weeks ago, I've already raised $330 for the Run for Autism.  The organization is a great organization that does a lot of work on autism research and awareness. I also enjoy the breakdown of what different levels of funding do for the organization. While my initial goal is $500, I have my eye on the $1000 level, as it provides a research grant to a graduate student studying autism. I can relate to graduate students and $1000 would be awesome!

 To those who have already donated, thank you! Please be sure to send the link to others who might be interested in supporting my cause. To those who haven't donated, see what you can do. Even $10 would be incredibly helpful in pursuing my goal.

The other reason I'm working on a 26 week training schedule is because I want to make some big improvements on my time. I ran the Indianapolis Half-Marathon this past Saturday and found myself just 14 seconds shy of my personal record. I'm not one to toot my own horn, but my half marathon time is pretty good. I can see only two options left on the half-marathon, improve my time to see if I can start placing in the top spots, or enjoy the times I've got and relax on my half-marathons now, focusing on location, rather than time.

It seems paradoxical that running a full marathon can help the half marathon, but at this point, I'm interested in seeing if I can sustain a faster pace over 26 miles, versus only 13. I know I can run pretty fast for 13 miles, but the pace I've been running would leave me completely exhausted if I needed to do another 13. I'm trying to see if I can bring my 26 mile pace down: hence the longer training period.

26 Week Training Calendar

Today I started my training with a Fartlek. A fartlek (besides being a wonderfully juvenile word) is a speed workout designed to increase your sustained speeds. Basically, you choose a distance or time to run, and slowly increase speeds to faster than your normal. Today, I ran time for a good speed base. I would run for 2 minutes 30 seconds, with every 30 second interval slightly faster than the previous, increasing from my normal pace during the first 30 seconds to breakneck speed in the final 30 seconds. I repeated this 4 times with a 90 second light jog in between. The idea behind this is that you can start to build up speed over time. I used Active.com's suggestion for fartlek workouts.

My goal is to bring my marathon time down from 3:43 to 3:35 or better. My stretch goal is 3:30. Ultimately I want to qualify for Boston, which requires a 3:05 marathon time. I want to take baby steps though. Shaving off 40 minutes is a lot of work and runs the serious risk of injury. That is the LAST thing I want to do. Therefore, fartleks (heh) and 26 weeks of training are necessary to reduce the risk of injury and improve times.

Today was the first day of a long journey to Pittsburgh. I'll keep you posted as things progress!