9 mile run, under the belt…

Woke up at the crack a dawn yesterday morning.

This was the immediate sequence of events thereafter…

I ran 9 miles in the local park.

It was the furthest I ever ran and it felt great. 

I finished the 9 miles thinking I could easily have ran further…  Then I kinda thought that I should have pushed myself more.  I did it in 1 hour and 28 mins.  It’s not the best time but I am only 4 weeks into my training and I am not very confident with the whole distance thing yet. 

I have been doing a 3 mile run 3 times a week, as well as a long run on Saturdays.  I have really started pushing myself on the short runs.  I am down to 23 mins on the 3 mile run, I have been managing to whittle down the time bit by bit every week.  My immediate goal is to run 4 miles in 30 minutes and to sustain that pace for the short runs.

Here, this is my training plan:

 

I got it off the internet, It’s based on Hal Higdon’s Novice plan.  I reformatted it onto an excel spreadsheet and tweaked it to suit.  It was an 18 week plan but I had 20 weeks to go, so I added an extra two weeks in there (in red).  The plan is designed to increase the recommended 10% in distance each week.

I put it up on the pin board and we tick it off as we go! 

I usually run the short runs in the gym.  The treadmill is great because you set the pace and the time you want to do it and that’s it, there’s no cheating!   It gives my joints a break from running on concrete as well, that’s another plus.

 Running outdoors is far more enjoyable though…

4 weeks down and 16 to go!