Here is what my running week looked like last week:
Training for Marine Corps Marathon has not officially started yet but I still like to evaluate my running each week to see what worked and what did not. When I look at this week and critique it, I see a couple of things.
1. Double stroller running is HARD. My miles from Monday felt fast based on perceived effort, but were some of the slowest all week.
2. My 2 mile tempo on Thursday was perfectly paced. I hit both miles at an exact pace of 6:42. This is the fastest pace I have built in for my tempos, which means that I need to be doing more than just 2 miles if I can hit the pace at the beginning of my training cycle.
3. Sunday was supposed to be a recovery run, which should be the slowest run of the week for me. I got a little carried away running with people, which I don’t often get to do, so I ran too fast.
Tip: It is very important that if one of your goals is to get faster that you do not do all of your runs in your ‘comfort zone’
This zone is usually too slow for your fast workouts and too fast for your slow workouts. If you want to improve each training cycle and get faster, than you need to make sure that your slow workouts are slow and your fast workouts are fast. This allows your body to make the appropriate training adaptations that are supposed to happen over the course of a training cycle.
It takes patience and courage to be a runner.
Have the courage, to have the patience to run the appropriate pace, even if that pace at times may feel painfully slow/insanely fast to you.
Remember training runs are NOT the race[I remind myself this weekly].
Who is signed up to run Marine Corps Marathon in the fall?
Runner, dreamer, marathoner x24, mommy of 3, Women's Running Magazine cover model, published writer, Saucony contributing blogger, running coach, and lover of all things running. I Run This Body. 
oooh I like how your training log is color coded! I'm so impressed with your training
I got my RazzyRoo headband in the mail the other day…thanks again 
I'm running MCM! Along with a couple coworkers, my running buddy, and her husband (who is in Afghan now). My husband is a Marine as well, but he doesn't run.
Pacing during training
I struggle with that.
a lot.
I am not an exprienced runner.
I just asked this week on my blog
is it better to go faster and run less miles or to run more miles and go slower and now reading this post I guess my answer is I need to do both but on different days obviously.
I follow a training plan. I am now training for my 3rd half. On the days with shorter runs (3 to 5) there is no direction as far as pace goes. I know that on the LR I am supposed to go slow and just do the miles. I know that on speedwork days I work on speed. But the other days…not always sure what pace to run at.
This is the story of my life.. too fast on recovery, and probably not fast enouogh when im supposed to be fast – good post, and congrats on the Nuun thingy!
If you have any tips on pacing and hitting goal paces during training and racing, that would be awesome!! I just started doing race tempo miles on the road (instead of treadmill) but I find that I do them too fast, even though the are 1-2 min faster than my "normal pace. And I"m worried about going out too fast in my race in a few weeks.
Congrats on the Hood to Coast! can't wait to follow all the bloggers
Learning to run slow on slow days and fast on fast days is something I struggle with. I used to run everything pretty much the same pace, but for the first time this training cycle I am varying things and it seems to be helping make me faster!
YAYAY I am signed up for it!!! Trying to organize a blogger dinner or something for after! It is my first marathon.
You rock! I am totally taking your advice and am the first week of the training plan you did for me. I have been running all of my paces just as you have said.
I am excited to chat with you at the end of the week.
I can't wait to see what you do at Marine Corps this year. You are amazing!
And hey, I would really appreciate it if you could help me spread the word… I have a huge fundraising giveaway going on with over $650 worth of prizes.
http://seemomrunfar.blogspot.com/2011/06/totally-awesome-fundraising-giveaway.html
Thanks so much!!
Caroline – If there is no direction you can either run an easy pace or a recovery pace. If it is the day after a track workout, tempo or long run I would run recovery pace, any other day that it doesn't specify then run easy. I use http://www.mcmillanrunning.com to figure out my appropriate training paces – I use a combination of my recent race performance and then what I want my target race time to be, to find a pace that I believe will work for me each training cycle. What training program are you currently doing?
Beana – maybe adding more miles to the tempo portion of the run will mentally help you slow down. I know I run faster when I have less miles to do because I think I can gut it out for 2 miles – when I know I have to run 6:42 pace for 5 miles that's another story
my mind is too scared to let me go any faster than I should be going.
Stephanie – HOORAY for your 1st marathon. MCM was my first and that's what keeps me coming back to it. It will be my 6th time running the marathon (I've also done the 10K twice) – so I'll be talking lots of MCM for the next couple of months!!!
I'm running MCM with my husband, who is a former Marine. It's our first marathon. A blogger meet up would be awesome!
I'm running MCM. My first marathon…. will definitely be interesting.
Would LOVE to do MCM in the future, seeing as how I'm married to a Marine and was a servicemember myself for 9 years. Maybe 2012 or 2013. Kind of BRUTAL to train for it here in the desert. I'm sticking with the Tucson Marathon in December and using summer training to improve my 1/2 marathon time.
Thanks for all the helpful tips on proper timing for your runs!
I don't know how you run so fast with that double, I have no idea what my pace was today (running with my double) but I know I worked way too hard for it!
Thanks for the pacing tips, I have been having a really hard time figuring out the paces I should aim for leading up to my fall marathon.
Do you make your own training plan or follow someone else's?
I'm running MCM… it will be marathon #3. However, I'm running it with my marathon idol growing up (a family friend) so I'll be slowing my pace by a couple minutes a mile to really just enjoy this one. I grew up in that area, so I'm so looking forward to enjoying a nice race on my old home turf… (I'm actually using it as a long training run for a goal marathon in December… hope I can handle it!!!)
It is my first! Hope to see u there!
This is great advice! I am really bad about running my slow runs too fast and my fast runs too slow so I need to be more mindful of my pacing when I run. Thanks for posting this!
I love the color coded training Log. What tool on computer do you use to log your miles?? New to blog… I love it!
I'm running the Philly marathon, but I wished I had signed up for MCM too. It was my first marathon in 2009 and such a good time. It would have fit perfectly into my schedule as a training run, but by the time I realized that it was sold out!
Thank you for this post! As always, great advice, and uplifting
Have a great weekend!
I am doing the MCM! My first! My fiancee is a Marine!