Week 3 – Detroit FreePress International Marathon prep (Jan 19 – Jan 25)

Welcome to the third week, everyone! If you haven’t, please check out the second week experience here.

After ending the second week on a low, I was looking forward to this week to crush some serious ass. So, brace yourself!

Day 1 – Sunday, January 19, 2020
This was a big day for me. This was the first day I was going beyond 5 miles. If you have checked out my announcement post, I have kept every fourth week as my rest week, but, the prior week, I have put longer distances to make sure I get more miles under my belt.

8 miles sounded a daunting task, and trust me, it really was. I remember being out of breath and simply not able to move as soon as finishing my run. I could not do anything else for the rest of the day.

But, before talking about finishing the run, let us see how I actually accomplished it.

I chose the only treadmill that we have in the gym for this run. It was a good decision, because, AirRunners are better for CrossFit but not for Marathon Training. It is easier to set the speed on the treadmill and just run.

I had a couple people working out on a Sunday for company, so did not realize the long time that I took to finish the 8 mile run. I chose to take my T-shirt off to let the air in, as the inside of the building was a little warmer.

When you run long distance, the most important thing is your mentality and how you attack those long miles. You constantly have to talk to yourself and motivate yourself in the long run. I remember it became more difficult after 4 miles, so I started counting 1 to 100 steps for the time to go faster. I even tried checking my time constantly but it didn’t help.

Finally, I started thinking about my hometown and how I could run from my hometown, Patansaongi, to Nagpur and how if I could run like this how much time it would take to reach Nagpur. I know it sounds pathetic, but it worked. From that moment on, I started doing these kinds of comparisons between different places. You get the idea.

I finished the 8-mile run in 1 hour 34 minutes 57 seconds with an average speed of 11.52 minutes per mile.

This is an impressive pace, as I exceeded my target of 12 mins/mile pace.

Here we go with my Apple Watch.

Day 2 – Monday, January 20, 2020
Being the rest day, I skipped the run on this day and went for my CrossFit workout, which looked like this.

Day 3 – Tuesday, January 21, 2020
This was the 4-mile run day. This week onwards, I do have my timings fixed for Tuesday run, which is the morning time. This makes it way easier for the day to go by.

I could focus better at work and able to do more stuff after the work and enjoy the time with friends and family.

The run was quite smooth. I had many people working out for the company. I enjoyed watching them working out, when I was grilling my 4-mile run. I don’t remember being out of breath and had enough energy even after the run.

It took me 48 minutes 34 seconds with an average pace of 12.07 minutes per mile to finish the 4 mile run.

Take a look at my Apple Watch after the run.

Day 4 – Wednesday, January 22, 2020
One more rest day. This day, I had to skip both the run and CrossFit, as I had to be at the happy hour after work. We had this first get-together of the year with our recruiters and other colleagues.

I had a couple beers and a some chicken wings, and had a good time catching up with everyone! Fun times.

Day 5 – Thursday, January 23, 2020
Another day for the run. This was, again, a 4-mile run. I did use the same strategy to finish the run and was able to successfully do that.

The only difference between this and Tuesday’s 4-mile run was that I did run in the morning on Tuesday and I chose to run in the evening on Thursday. I did not feel that much a difference, however, I ended up performing better on Thursday.

I improved my average speed by almost 20 seconds, which is really big when you extrapolate it to the distance of a marathon or ultra-marathon.

I finished this 4-mile run in 47 minutes 26 seconds with an average speed of 11.49 mins/miles.

Here’s my Apple Watch after the run.

Day 6 – Friday, January 24, 2020
The official rest day of the week is here. I skipped both run and CrossFit for the much needed break.

Day 7 – Saturday, January 25, 2020
The last day of the week. My Saturday runs are not that longer, as I do go to CrossFit as well on Saturday.

It was just a 3-mile run. At this point now, I am very much used to the idea of running 3 miles out of the blue, without even breaking a sweat.

The run was quite uneventful, with a few looking around here and there as people were popping up for their CrossFit classes.

I finished the 3 mile run in 36 minutes 27 seconds with an average pace of 12.02 minutes per mile.

Immediately followed by the run, I went for the CrossFit workout and demolished it. Just yourself looking at the workout below.

Hope you guys had fun and keeping up with the progress.

See you next week!