Week 1 – Detroit FreePress International Marathon prep (Jan 05 – Jan 11)

Hey, everyone! Thanks for coming back.

If you have not checked out my Marathon preparation plan, I would highly recommend clicking here and go through the entire plan for this marathon which is like nine months from today.

Now that I finished the first week of my Detroit FreePress Marathon preparation on January 11th, 2019; The first reaction after finishing the first week is that “I feel great!”.

I know I am still at an early stage, but, it is easier said than done. More than the strength, it takes discipline to stick to the Marathon training. I found that it is harder to take the first step when you run.

The interesting thing about the human body is that once you start running, it gets the adrenaline rush from running long distance and time. Also, once you start running, the blood flow is accumulated more to the legs. Hence, Marathon training, helps reducing the blood pressure, lowering the chances of an heart attack.

Enough about the science and medicinal value of running, let us talk about my first week of the Marathon preparation.

Day 1 – Sunday, January 05, 2020
Even though this was the “official” first day of my Marathon preparation, I was ready a few days before.
The weather was super cold, so I decided to run indoors. It had two disadvantages. The first one was I had to drive for at least 15-20 minutes to my CrossFit gym and the second one was I had to use the AirRunner to practice my run.
Those, who do not know what an AirRunner is, here’s the picture.

It is a little different than the regular treadmill in so many ways. For starters, you do not need to setup the speed. It automatically does that for you. Also, it is not flat like most treadmills.
It is good for CrossFit; But, not so much if you are preparing for a Marathon.
So, I was not happy with it. But, I sucked it up and gave my best.

I finished the 5-mile run in 1 hour 07 minutes 45 seconds with an average speed of 13.29 minutes per mile.

I know, this is not a great speed, but, I was happy with my first attempt.
Here’s my Apple Watch after that run.

Day 2 – Monday, January 06, 2020
The second day was the rest day. Well, not “actual rest” day. I did go to CrossFit that day and worked my ass off.
I think, rest is as important as working hard for your body.

If you do not give enough rest to your body, you will not be able to train harder!

Day 3 – Tuesday, January 07, 2020
My schedule/plan has no strenuous runs on any weekday. I think it is important to not strain your body during the weekday. A couple of reasons for that – I am going to run Marathon on a weekend, so my body will be well tuned with the weekly schedule of the training plan; And, the second one is that I will get enough rest during the weekday, which is much needed given that I work full time for more than 40 hours a week.

Coming back to the run. I could comfortably run 3 miles. I felt like I was finishing a 5k without any spectators. It felt good after finishing the run so early in the morning.

It took me 39 minutes 53 seconds with an average pace of 13.16 minutes per mile to finish the 3 mile run.

Here’s my Apple Watch after the run.

I learnt about the limitation of the human body this day. I think I did a mistake by going out for a workout in the evening after I have already ran 3 miles in the morning. I could feel the pain on Wednesday morning. This was when I decided not to both run and CrossFit on the same day.

Day 4 – Wednesday, January 08, 2020
This was, again, a rest day. But, I could not resist myself from going to CrossFit, even though I was in pain. It was worth it, because I ended up having a lot of fun!

Day 5 – Thursday, January 09, 2020
This was a 3-mile day. I could feel that my body was responding well to the run. I used the AirRunner again as I was running inside.

I took 38 minutes to finish this run. My average speed was 12.39 minutes per mile.

You can see the slight improvement in speed. Here’s my Apple Watch.

Day 6 – Friday, January 10, 2020
I was excited for this day. It is my “official rest day of the week”. I do not go to CrossFit on Friday and have marked Friday as the rest day for the Marathon training as I run on both Saturday and Sunday.
I slept like a baby on Thursday just imagining I did not have to work on Friday.

Day 7 – Saturday, January 11, 2020
This was the first day I was running outdoors. The temperature was in high 30s and there was not enough snow on the ground, so I thought of try running outdoors.
Starting off with the run, I was cold. This quickly vanished as soon as I completed half mile. I thought it would be good to take my scarf off to let some air in. I was dead wrong. Within a minute or two, I had to put the scarf back on and shield myself from the cold air.
At the end of the run, I found out that it is better and easier to run outside as compared to running on a treadmill.

I could finish the 3 mile target in 36 minutes with an average pace of 12 minutes per mile.

My Apple Watch shows the three workouts as my sweat caused it to swap the outdoor run with the HIIT workout followed by the Indoor run.

This run marked the end of the week. Gosh, it felt so good to start off with the Marathon training. I know, it is too soon to expect results, so, I will keep my expectations low and keep working on the training plan, one day at a time.

Cheers and here to the next week!