June 30: Run 3 miles

Week 1 (first run): Run 3 miles



Tuesday (6:29am)
Distance: 3.0 miles
Duration: 38:43
Pace: 12:53/mile
Shoes: Asics GT2130 Trail
Weather: Mostly sunny, 18C, 40% humidity
Route: Tennis courts to the stadium and to the trail by the stream.

My first ever early morning run!

The evening's weather forecasts are always a little off so I decided to try and run in the morning and just get the marathon training run out of the way. Left the apartment at 6:20am and came home at 7:13am. I had to rush around to get ready and leave home for research work by 7:45am. Next time I'll need to leave earlier if I plan to keep up with the morning run routine.

June 21: Run 4 miles

Preliminary training program: Run 4 miles

Sunday (6:22pm)
Distance: 4.0 miles
Duration: 51:19
Pace: 12:49/mile
Shoes: Asics GT2130 Trail
Weather: Mostly sunny, 23C, 68% humidity
Route: Trail by the stream to the stadium, on the road all the way pass the tennis courts to the track and then back on the trail to the stream.



Whenever I decide to run without walking, I always end up going really slow because I don't want to burn out, but I still end up feeling like it's a lot of effort for such slow running. So today I decided to incorporate some short walks and a water stop during my run. I took three 30seconds walks (miles: 1.4, 2.2, and 3.1) and took a large gulp of water at the water fountain by the stadium (mile 1.4). I believe the water stop and walks helped me cope with the running mentally.



At first I thought I will follow the 16-week Non-Runner's Marathon Training but after reading some forums and checking out other beginner marathon training schedules, I think I'll use the Hal Higdon's Novice 1 18-week schedule instead. I like that the long runs progressively get longer for 2 consecutive weeks and then drop back a little during the 3rd consecutive week. There's some breathing room once in a while.

June 19: Run 5K

Preliminary training program: Run 5K



Friday (7:30pm)
Distance: 3.10 miles
Duration: 41:11
Pace: 13:15/mile
Shoes: Asics Foundation 8
Weather: Mostly cloudy, 22C, 71% humidity
Route: Trail by the stream to the stadium, round the soccer field, on the road all the way to the tennis courts
(Look at the awesome satellite view of my running path!)



I bought a cool new running gadget: the Garmin Forerunner 305 (GPS enabled trainer). Since I'll be slowly building up my miles I thought I should get something to make sure I am actually running those miles. Even though I have the Nike+iPod and I did calibrate the sensor at the running track, I wasn't sure how accurate that was.

So this evening, I happily charged up my new gadget, went out for a 5K run with both the old and the new running gadgets. To my somewhat horror I find out that I'm actually even slower than what I originally thought I was.

When the Nike+ congratulated me for running 5K (3.1 miles), the Garmin only registered 2.8 miles. I ended my run when the Garmin finally showed 3.1 miles, by then Nike+ registered 3.45 miles. The icing on the cake was when Paula Radcliffe (Nike+) congratulated me for running my fastest ever 5K at 37:02. But according to the Garmin, I actually completed the 5K in 41:11. Wow, what an expensive way to measure my slowness...

I should stop worrying about my speed or lack of it and just concentrate on staying healthy and injury-free all the way to the marathon finish line. What I really need to work on is to maintain an appropriate level of enthusiasm and not despair over the craziness of training to run 26.2 miles.

One last thing, I wore a pair of thicker socks with the Asics Foundation this time. No blister.

June 16: Run 5K

Preliminary training program: Run 5K



Tuesday (6:33pm)
Distance: 3.12 miles (5.01km)
Duration: 37min 32sec
Pace: 12min 2sec per mile
Shoes: Nike Structure Triax+ 12
Weather: Mostly cloudy, 18C, 72% humidity
Route: Tennis courts to the soccer field and back (mostly road running)

Great running weather today. Cloudy and cool. Unfortunately there was a graduation event happening at the arena so there were lots of cars in the area.

I used to run mostly on the cross-country trail but since the NYC marathon is a road race I had to switch to the road to get use to that.

June 14: Run 5K

Preliminary training program: Run 30 minutes



Sunday (6:33pm)
Distance: 3.11 miles (5K)
Duration: 36min 29sec
Pace: 11min 43sec per mile
Shoes: Asics Foundation 8
Weather: Mostly sunny, 23C, 63% humidity
Route: Trail by the stream to the soccer field to the tennis courts (trail/road running)

Instead of running 30 minutes, I was inspired to run 5K by a friend who just completed her first 5K yesterday.

I was rather surprised that my pace was exactly the same as my last run. Not sure if I was expecting a faster or slower run. At the very least, the beginning of each run feels a little easier now. There's this small steep hill by the stream that used to take my breath away (literally) but now I can chuck along up that hill and not feel like I have to stop and walk.

I also felt the beginning of a small blister on the arch of my right foot. Blame it on the shoe!

June 12: Run 30 minutes

Preliminary training program: Run 30 minutes



Friday (6:01pm)
Distance: 2.56 miles
Duration: 30min 2sec
Pace: 11min 43sec per mile
Shoes: Asics Foundation 8
Weather: Partly cloudy, 25C, 67% humidity
Route: Trail by the stream to the stadium to the tennis courts (trail/road running)

It's too sunny and there's this dark cloud to the west. It's too humid. Maybe I'll skip today's run and go out tomorrow morning instead. Let me check tomorrow morning's weather...7am, 18C, Humidity 81%...Hmmmm cooler but more humid. Maybe I'll try an early morning run. Set my alarm for 6am and be out running by 6:30am. Sounds like a good idea....NOT!

That's the battle I was fighting before I finally made myself go out for today's run. I doubt I'll wake up at 6am to run. At least not for the moment. Later on, when I have incredibly long long runs that will take me hours, I'll have to make myself wake up at 5:30am just so I can catch some cooler temperature.

It was mostly cloudy when I started the run and then halfway through the sun came out full force. The humidity plus the direct sunlight plus the heat rising from the ground made this run rather hard to bear. Definitely took some effort to finish the run. I was very glad when the 30 minutes was up.

June 9: Run 30 minutes

Preliminary training program: Run 30 minutes



Tuesday (3:08pm)
Distance: 2:52 miles
Duration: 30min 4sec
Pace: 11min 55sec per mile
Shoes: Asics GT2130 trail
Weather: Mostly cloudy, 23C, 75% humidity
Route: Trail by the stream to the stadium to the tennis courts (trail/road running)

Was undecided whether to run today. There was a heavy thunderstorm this morning and there's still heavy clouds in the sky. With the rain, the trails must be muddy and I don't like to run on muddy trails. Finally at 3pm, decided to just go out and catch the 30min run before the 4pm forecasted rain passes by. Got to learn to go out for my training runs in spite of the weather or mud.

Surprisingly, it wasn't muddy at all, just one muddy spot which I had to skip over. The air was really heavy. It was nice when the occasional breeze came by. The rain never came.

This run felt like it took less effort than previous runs.

NYC Marathon 2009

This is my NYC Marathon 2009 training blog.

I'll try my best to document my training runs. 146 days to go!

June 6: Run 30 minutes

Preliminary training program: Run 30 minutes



Saturday (7:38pm)
Distance: 3.13 miles
Duration: 37min 14sec
Pace: 11min 53sec per mile
Shoes: Nike Structure Triax+ 12
Weather: Sunny 23C
Route: Tennis court to the stadium and back (road running mostly)

I think I finally broke in the Nike Structure Triax+ 12. My right foot hurt really bad the first time I ran in them. I probably had the laces on too tight. After loosening the laces and spending several days walking around in them, they felt really nice. No more pain or discomfort while running in them. I like the road feel of this shoe.

Today's run was nice. Sunny and on the cool side. Managed to keep side stitches at bay.