Week 1 - Speed run

So today was it. My first workout in my training program to prepare for the Flying Pig Marathon in Cincinnati on May 7th. And I'm glad to say that it went really well. Today was my first real speed workout, which is my first run of every week in the program. The plan called for eight 400 meter repeats, which basically means I run a fast ("speed") 400m, followed by a slower 400m, and repeat for a total of 8 fast and 8 slow segments. The speed advised for these 400m repeats was "10-K minus 55 to 60 seconds". Since I had not run a 10K in quite some time, I used this race time predictor to figure out my estimated time, using last month's 5K race time of 23:23. That gave me a time of 7:51 for my 10K pace.

So, I started off with a slow mile around 9:00 pace, and then started alternating between 400m runs at 8:57 and 6:53. I was worried that was a bit too fast for me, but I actually completed all 8 of them, and finished 5 miles in the process at 40:49 (8:10 pace). Needless to say, I was extremely happy with the results of my run. I won't lie and say it wasn't tough, because it was. Each repeat got a little tougher as I was more tired from the previous, but after debating whether to slow it down, I pushed ahead and finished all of them. I think this was pretty easily my most satisfying workout ever. I really felt like I stepped up and pushed myself harder than I ever have. And that is what I need to do in order to break through that 4 hour barrier in May.

So 1 workout down, 46 more to go over the next 110 days leading up to race day.