About My Runs This Week

It's the weekend, which means I need to write down how much I ran this week. This was my first week training for my marathon.

I'm not a runner by nature. In fact, I used to hate P.E. in elementary school when Mr. Gillham used to make us run the mile around the park next to our school. My face would be redder than a tomato and I wouldn't catch my breath for at least fifteen minutes. All this from being, usually, one of the last three kids to finish. So as you can see, running was never really my forte.

But, now I'm making it my forte, so my body better get used to it.

Anyway, here's the breakdown for the week:

Monday- 2.5 miles
Tuesday- 2.5 miles
Wednesday- off
Thursday- 3.1 miles
Friday- off
Saturday- 4.1 miles
Total miles for the week: 12.2


I figure out the tenths-of-a-mile by driving my route after I run it. It's nice because I know exactly how far I'm running as I run it.

Next week, I'm going to change up the schedule a little. I'll take Tuesday off and run Wednesday instead. After running Monday, Tuesday just felt too hard. I made today my long day because it's the weekend. I have Sunday to recuperate, then Monday I'll hit it again.

Today was only the second time I've run at least four miles at once. The last time was last year back in Dallas, when I ran 5.5 miles once.

The route I take feels a little tough for the first 2.5 miles. Obviously, because I didn't run any farther than that on Monday and Tuesday. At about two miles, I just feel this wall that I have to just push myself through.

On Thursday, once I got to the 2.5 mile mark, the wall disappeared and I felt like I had just started. My pace quickened all on its own, it seems like. I ran another 0.6 miles, but decided not to go any further because I didn't want to overdo it too soon.

Today was harder, though. The wall disappeared at 2.5 miles once again, and my pace quickened. But when I got to about the 3.7 to 3.8 mile mark, my body was just telling me to stop. Obviously I didn't because my goal was to get to the street I live on. I pushed through it, but, man, it was tough. Once I got to my street, I stopped and walked down to my house for my warmdown. When I came inside, I seriously felt like I had been through a hardcore ass-kicking. But I did it. It felt good to have conquered that magic four-mile mark for only the second time in my life.

Next week, I'm going to shoot for a total of 13 miles and 4.5 miles next Saturday.