My First Rest Day

…and already I’m not enjoying it. It’s official: my regular sleep pattern is dead. I took a 3 hour nap Thursday because I was really tired after my fast run, and now today, I woke up today at 5am without an alarm clock. This spells trouble on a few levels:

• I will feel like a zombie when I go out tonight
• I’m going to be returning to my old swimming sleep pattern of two 4-hour sleeping periods per day (and I can’t say I enjoyed that too much)

The only thing I can possibly do to prevent a change in sleeping patterns is switching my running period to the afternoon. If I do that however, I don’t think I would have enough motivation to run while I have so many distractions (friends, family, TV) going on.

We’ll see what happens.

Thoughts So Far

Putting aside the fact that I need to mentally push myself to get past the pain of my sore legs and that I am waking up at the crack of dawn (5am), I’d like to say that I’m feeling great after this first week.

I ran a steady 18 miles this week at a reasonable average pace of 9 minutes per mile. I decided to use this week to prepare my mind and body for what lays ahead. After doing some research, I decided that I’ll be using Hal Higdon’s marathon training guide. I ended up picking his intermediate-I training program because its seemed to fit a description of what I felt most comfortable with. My goal for this marathon will be to finish under 4 hours. As I continue to run, I will hopefully become more confident in my running and that I will be able to change my goal to a lower time.

The only concerns I remember having this week were with my shoes. They are my old gym shoes (non-cleats) that I used when I played soccer. I remember the first mile this past week being rather uncomfortable, but then I quickly got used to the feeling and ignored the pain. If I keep up with this running and my training program, I’ll buy myself shoes next Sunday.

Preparation Week

Sunday, May 25:

• 3 Miles
• 9 Minute Pace
• Easy run

Monday, May 26th:

• 3 Miles
• 9 Minute Pace
• Easy run

Tuesday, May 27th:

• 4 Miles
• 9:30 Minute Pace
• Difficult run

Wednesday, May 28th:

• 5 Miles
• 10 Minute Pace
• Easy run

Thursday, May 29th:

• 3 Miles
• 8 Minute Pace
• Fast run

Friday, May 30th:

• Rest Day