Second month of training for first marathon
About two month ago I did sign up for my first marathon and started to focus my training for that event. In my previous post I defined a simple way to measure my progress towards the goal, running the marathon distance.
Another month has passed and here is my updated report. It was not a great month for training, as we did move to Berlin and a had a bad cold for almost 2 weeks. Both things did collide with my training schedule. But let’s have a closer look at the state of affairs:
Maximum Run Distance
This still looks good, doesn’t it? Well, there is a thing you don’t see here: The last run over 33km I did have to walk some parts in last quarter. Not only was it my first run after 2 weeks with a cold, but additionally it was quite hot (~32°C). First half of that run was quite good, though. Also you can recognize the missing long runs.
Average Pace
Now it’s obvious the last run, was not that good, right? ;)
However I did a test, if I would be able to do a long run in under 5.75 min/km on July 14th. This did work very well. Of course it was not 42.195km, but only 30.5km, but still I am happy with that result. It was quite exhausting, though. That’s why I will do the long run with slower pace while extending the distance.
Weight
I was able to reduce my wight slightly. I did the slow carb diet, because I had very good results with that when reducing weight for a Sambo Competition. This time it did not work as well.
I will skip the diet I guess. It’s very monotonous and was not effective this time. Reducing the intake of carbohydrates might not be a good idea for long distance endurance training. Also it definitely is an additional stress factor. I will return to a normal, healthy diet and keep an eye on my weight.
Conclusion
I am still on track! Due to the move and my illness, I am not as far as I wanted to be. The last run actually was too hard. I have to be cautious not to overdo it now, but return to a well structured and reasonable training schedule. Doing that, I have no doubt to finish the marathon.
Expect my next update in about a month. Maybe that will be the last one before the event on 28th of October. Wish me well!
