Chicago Marathon Training: Week One

I'm currently training for the 2017 Chicago Marathon and wanted to share my progress weekly. I am 17 weeks out now and selected Hal Higdon's Novice 2 program. Having completed three marathons, I still feel like a beginner. This program is designed for beginners who have run an occasional 5k or half marathon and have been running at least a year. I felt like the Intermediate 1 program would've left me burnt out in the first month since it requires six days a week. Novice 2 requires five days of training per week. A long run and a day of cross training are included in every week of the Novice 2 plan. Below is the full schedule.

My first run was on Tuesday and consisted of an easy 3 miles on the track. I didn't intend for this to be a progressive run but the songs kept getting better and it just happened that way.

My Wednesday run was intended to be a 5 mile pace run. I got pulled over on my way to the track and by the time the officer let me go, I only had enough time to go home and run a 5k on my own. We had kickball playoffs that night and after winning our first game we ended up having a double header. It was probably best that I didn't run the 5 miles I was scheduled that day, anyways.

I ended up doing my 5 mile pace run on Friday. My goal pace for Chicago is 12:00. I started my first lap on the track at a 10:34 pace. I was feeling good on Friday so I had to add in a few walk breaks to get down to a 12:00 pace. I ended up running an average 11:51 pace. I'm going to re-evaluate my goal around week 7 and figure out if an 11:30 pace may be achievable. For now, I'm shooting for 12:00 though.

My last run of the week was an 8 mile pace run on Sunday evening. Everything about this run was bad for me. I know they say "the only bad run is the one you don't do" but I can't imagine this run helped me at all. I was slower than my goal pace and wasn't feeling well. Waiting until Sunday evening wasn't the best idea so I will not be making that mistake next week.

Other than Sunday's long run, I feel really good about my first week of Chicago Marathon training. After running this race in 2016, it easily became my favorite race. Knowing everything I have to look forward to in Chicago is motivation to train harder and smarter this year. 17 more weeks!