14-weeks marathon preparation (weeks 1–4)
Recently I started a preparation for a full marathon run which is going to be on 05/05/2018 in Rotorua, New Zealand.
I found a 12-week program and updated a little bit for my needs, assuming that I started a bit earlier than 12 weeks prior a proper run. In this case, it became a 14-weeks plan.
I would like to track my progress here and also check plan expectation with real data. In the same time, it would be nice to calculate some prediction of the time for a proper run, based on the data I captured through the training.
Week 1
On the first week, starting on 29/01/2018, I expected to speed up from casual run to a properly planned run. Another point was to shift from a distance based run to a time and pace based run.
Based on the data from the first week which I call pre-training week I actually got used to running on a particular day and for a particular time.
Moreover, I tried to get used to wake up early for a run — around 4 am in the weekday and 6–7 am on weekends and go to bed earlier the day before.
Early runs help to be prepared for an actual marathon run but also because there is a hot summer right now in New Zealand and it is better to run either early in the morning or even at night or far evening after 8 pm.
Overall, for the first week, I did all 3 planned runs on Tuesday, Thursday and a long run on Saturday. The same time other days I kept my daily steps count at least 10k.
On Tuesday, there was a 57 min run with a 9.63 km distance, 5:55 min/km pace and average HR of 156 bpm.
On Thursday, there was a 50 min run with a 8.56 km distance, 5:47 min/km pace and average HR of 161 bpm.
On Saturday, there was the longest run for a week, around 90 min, with a 15.1 km distance, 5:43 min/km pace and average HR of 161 bpm.
Most of the week was a bit humid and rainy, but I managed to find a proper time to run without heavy rain. Lucky me :-)
Week 2
Week 2 starts on 05/02/2018. There was a public holiday on 6th called Waitangi Day, so it was good to wake up later to run.
This week was expected to try to get used to run based not only on time but also on a different pace during a run.
All of the runs I did with an intention to run at a slow and convenient pace. This pace should allow me to speak during a run.
The first really long run was expected to be quite hard, however, it was not so bad overall. For a proper hydration, I used a 0.75l bottle of the isotonic called Powerade Ion 4 which contains sodium, potassium, calcium and magnesium, which really helps during a long ride.
Overall, for the second week, I did all 3 planned runs on Tuesday, Thursday and a long run on Saturday. The same time, still, I continued to keep my daily steps count at least 10k, however, I did only 5k on Sunday because of the weather conditions.
On Tuesday, there was a 50 min run with a 9.03 km distance, 5:31 min/km pace and average HR of 155 bpm.
On Thursday, there was a 50 min run with a 8.80 km distance, 5:42 min/km pace and average HR of 160 bpm.
On Saturday, there was the longest run for a week, for about 120 min, with a 20.06 km distance, 5:53 min/km pace and average HR of 165 bpm.
There was a rainy week but I managed to run when there was no heavy rain.
Week 3
Next week was started on 12/02/2018. Just an ordinary week without any holidays. However, very productive in terms of the marathon preparation.
Overall, for the third week, I did all 3 planned runs on Tuesday, Thursday and a long run on Saturday. The same time, still, I continued to keep my daily steps count at least 10k.
On Tuesday, there was a 51 min run with a 8.79 km distance, 5:49 min/km pace and average HR of 153 bpm.
On Thursday, there was a 51 min run with a 9.19 km distance, 5:38 min/km pace and average HR of 162 bpm.
On Saturday, there was the longest run for a week, for about 143 min with tracked 129 min, with a 21.44 km distance, 6:01 min/km pace and average HR of 162 bpm.
A half marathon distance tracked, but the actual run was around 24.5 km overall. The issue was that I started to run without starting a tracker properly. Need to really wake up when I go to a morning run :-D
On this week I accomplished 3 Strava challenges for February. Climbing Challenge with 2,000m. Secondly, I finished a Half Marathon challenge. The third one was a Zwift 10-in-10 Challenge.
There was a really good week for a training almost without rain.
Week 4
This week started on 19/02/2018. A productive week in terms of the marathon preparation, especially to prepare to keep a faster pace. In this case, there were expected shorter but faster exercises this week.
Overall, for the third week, I did all 3 planned runs on Tuesday, Thursday and a long run on Saturday. However, the original plan contained 4 runs, I decided to skip Monday’s run due to a busy week prediction.The same time, still, I continued to keep my daily steps count at least 10k.
On Tuesday, there was a 40 min run with a 7.09 km distance, 5:43 min/km pace and average HR of 154 bpm.
On Thursday, there was a 40 min run with a 7.31 km distance, 5:28 min/km pace and average HR of 149 bpm.
On Saturday, there was the longest run for a week, for about 90 min with a 16.06 km distance, 5:35 min/km pace and average HR of 155 bpm.
Compared to previous weeks I tried to run at a faster pace and I did it pretty well. In the beginning was really hard to keep a new pace but at the end of the week, there was not an issue anymore.
During the long run, for a proper hydration, I used a 0.75l bottle of a Powerade isotonic.
Check it out, compared with another 90 min run from the first week, this week I ran plus 1 km more at the same time! I believe this is a great achievement for me.
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