Quote:
Originally Posted by trontron
subscribed.
do you have a specific goal time in your head for the marathon?
just slowly expand total running volume (general guidelines: expand frequency, then expand length of run, then expand pace of runs) while making sure to listen closely to your body and giving it the recovery it needs.
what pace are you running at? maybe include that (unless all of it is at an easy pace). the more you run, the more important it becomes to run the majority of your runs at an easy pace.
Most of my runs for the past month have been at an easy pace, which for me right now is anywhere from 9:30-11:00/mile. MapMyRun has a voice feature that can tell you your pace every quarter-mile, and almost all of the apps (Strava, etc) can display an estimate of my current pace if I choose to look at my phone. For now I'm ignoring those features mid-run; I'm not trying (yet) to achieve any specific pace during my training.
Here are my times from yesterday's 4-miler:
The day before (Sunday), I did a fair amount on the beach/sand:
And here are the splits from Friday's 9-miler (the first and last mile times are a bit wonky with GPS signal interference from tall buildings) -
I think those three days are reasonably representative of my "easy pace" runs for now (though I don't plan to do another "long run" for at least another 2 weeks).
Regarding a goal marathon pace: I'd like to do sub-10:00 miles, which would put me at approximately 4:20. Of course, a lot can happen in the next 5 months, so I might be adjusting that as the date gets closer. I'm being very conservative (I think) about not tempting any injuries, so at this point I'm content to simply put in the miles without too much concern for pace. A nice milestone I'm hoping for is that by mid-September I can do a sub-2 hour half (my best half time is 2:04 - that was 11 months ago).