Up to Speed - Slowly, but Surely

Tuesday was the first day of marathon training. There was a lot of food consumed this weekend, a belated birthday dinner at Harry Carays’s, Memorial Day barbeque…. So, I was feeling sluggish. I chose the Tempo Run – 2 miles warmup, 2 miles at 7:14, and a 2 mile cooldown. My approach to the FIRST program is to pay attention to the “meat” of the run, like the tempo run, or the speedwork, and not be concerned about the warmup and cooldown. This is probably okay when it comes to paces, or running vs. jogging or walking during rest intervals. But I wonder I also sometimes make a 1 mile warmup run, like 0.5, or 0.75, and the same for a 1 mileor “10-20 minute” cooldown run. The distances in this program are already so short, I wonder if I am shortchanging myself by skimping on the warmups and cool-downs? Around mile 19-21 in my fall marathon, my legs felt like they had no more strength. This program does recommend doing more leg strengthening exercises to make up for the lower volume of running.


The FIRST program has speedwork in metric units. Today is 3 x 1600 meters with 1minute rest intervals. I ran about a ¾ mile warmup, and then started. My goal was a 6:41, but I think I made the mistake of programming the Pace Alert in my Garmin in statue miles. That means it would expect I would run 1609 meters (1 mile) in 6:41. But I really wanted to run 1600 m in 6:41. This morning was pretty cool, but the wind was strong. I could hear the beep of my pace alert constantly during my run, but I resisted the urge to look at it. When I finished , I saw 6:23. That was good to know I could run that pace, but I was afraid I burnt myself out, and would see 7 minute paces for the last 2. My next two miles, I concentrated on form. I only heard the watch beep a few times, but I felt a lot better. I was expecting it to be over 6:45, but it was actually 6:40, so still under pace.

My street has quarter-mile intervals marked out over a 1-mile loop, with only 4 turns, thanks to my neighbor “Shorty”, an accomplished age group runner from the old Palos Road Runners club. I can gauge my progress both by the watch and the markers, and I can leave a water bottle on one of our family vehicles parked on the street.

I take generous swigs of Gatorade between sets. My last set does not feel slow, but I can feel my form deteriorating. I timed it so I would finish before my house and the fluids left there. These last 200 meters, I feel awkward, bu I still keep that wathc beeping. When I am done – 6:37 - all three intervals under the pace. Not bad for a 50 year old running the workouts for Boston Qualifying times for 45—49 year olds!