Let’s be clear upfront. I’ve never an a Marathon. I don’t think I’ve ever ran 26.2 miles unofficially or officially in any capacity. Yes, I’ve “rucked” well over 30 miles carrying +50lbs of equipment but never have I ever ran a Marathon. Starting this adventure on August 1st is stepping into an unknown fitness realm that I’m unfamiliar with. It’s another great adventure in life.
My Marathon training started on August 1st, 2022 and it was a rough start. My weight was up to almost 230lbs and my running miles and weightlifting regiments were pretty insignificant up to the start. Yes I’ve been running for over 20 years so it’s not unfamiliar to me, I just haven’t committed to something this devotional.
What was my running like leading up to the start? Here’s an in depth look at the 90 days leading up to the start.
May 2022: Total mileage was 38.06 miles completed in 16 different runs. My longest run of the month was only 4.09 miles at a 10’11” pace.
June 2022: Total mileage was 29.11 miles completed in 13 different runs. My longest run of the month was only 4.08 miles at a 10’14”pace.
July 2022: Total mileage was 20.01 miles completed in 7 different runs. My longest run of the month was only 4.33 miles at at 12’18” pace.
In the 3 months leading up to this training plan, you can see that I only logged 87.18 miles! Compare that to my August 2022 total mileage of 109.31 miles. This is a massive increase in mileage and I do not recommend this rapid of a change for a beginner or novice runners. The last time I logged over 100 miles in a month was in April of this year when I logged 125.66 miles with my longest run being a Half Marathon (13.11mi) at a pace of 11’10”.
Now that we see where I was before the start, let’s evaluate what has happened in the last 30 days. Interestingly enough my very first run was a 40minute run for distance and I did the exact same workout on the same course exactly 4 weeks later. Let’s look at those two runs.
August 1st: 40 minute run for distance. 3.75miles completed with an average pace of 10’41”.
August 26th: 40 minute run for distance. 4.39miles completed with an average pace of 9’06”.
I increased the mileage by 0.64 miles while increasing my pace over 1’30” per mile! The only thing I can say is this is a result of consistency and discipline.
There were a total of 9 “Zero Days” this month where I did not run at all.
August was hot and humid as expected in the south and most of my runs left me dehydrated and tired. Overall not a bad month of running.