Rhett

Today I start my 18 week marathon training for the Phoenix Marathon on March 1. I will be using a structured marathon training plan for the first time in many years.  I have decided to try the Hanson Marathon Method.  The book was an interesting read and convinced me to give it a try.  One of the keys in that the weekly long run never should exeed 25-30% of the total weekly distance.  They even go as far as to say you never need to do a long run longer than 16 miles. 

6 easy miles today.

They stess the importance of doing the easy miles at a slow enough pace.  For a 3:00 marathon goal easy runs are supposed to be between 7:47 and 8:23.  I was too fast today (7:37) even though I kept trying to slow down and felt like I wasn't pushing at all.  I need to do better at hitting the prescribed paces so I'll recover properly and be ready for the harder runs, which don't start until next week.

This week is supposed to be all easy runs, but I figured I needed to get a hint of speed work before I start it for real next week.  I ran up Jamaica easy for the first mile and a half then alternated running hard for one minute and easy for one minute for the next mile and a half up the road. Then I turned around and ran easy back down.

6 miles total

6 easy miles on a beautiful morning. Felt good.

6 more easy miles this morning

I found a new 6 mile loope route to run this morning that came out exactly at 6 miles which will come in handy since there are a lot of 6 mile easy runs prescribed with this new training plan.

6 miles at long run pace wich is fater than easy pace for my current training plan.  Legs feeling good and ready to start some harder training next week.

10 easy miles with Blake on a beautiful morning in Lake Havasu City.