Week 2 of detailing my documenting my journey towards my first marathon, and the heat has definitely been turned up. If this is your first time reading one of my marathon blogs, please visit the following posts to catch up:
⬅️ Peloton Road to 26.2 intro blog
🕶️ Gear upgrades: After the frustration of having my Airpods constantly falling out in week 1, I decided to give Bluetooth sunglasses a try, with the $30 Oho sunglasses from Amazon. So far this week, I have really enjoyed having my ears free from ear buds, but will write a full review on the sunglasses as I continue to test them with more runs.
Day 1: The One Rest Day
While it felt a bit silly to start on a rest day last week, week two’s rest day was much welcomed. The Peloton coaches primarily discourage cross-training, however, I felt as though a different form of exercise would do me well on my “off-day”, and thus attended a Y2 yoga class to try to stay loose.
Day 2: 30 min Tempo Run
The activity in week 2 kicks off with a 30 min tempo run with Robin Arzón designed to make you faster for race day. It starts with a long, 13-minute warm-up, followed by three sets of 4-minute tempo efforts. The tempo efforts are supposed to be a perceived exertion of 6 or 7 on a scale of 1-10, and overall I found this pace fairly hard to maintain for that length on week 2. However, I am proud of myself for making it through, and am finding myself starting to enjoy each run a bit more.
My performance:
Through the 30-minute run, I held an average heart rate of 160 and maxed out lower than last week at 185, resulting in me burning a total of 422 calories. I travelled a total of 3.25 miles at a pace of 9:13 min/mile, very similar to my run on day 2 of week 1.
While I still am getting back into a running shape, the start of this week was marginally easier for me than last, shown by the slightly faster pace and decrease in average heart rate throughout.
Scenes from the run
I started week 2 back in Charlotte, NC, where I ran alongside signature Queens Road. Throughout my run, I started to feel more gratitude for the time and ability to get outside and run, and hope to continue cultivating this in future runs.
Day 3: Strength for Runners
After tweaking my knee in an intramural soccer match on day 2, I decided to forego day 3’s strength for runners class in hopes that it would heal. However, after reading other reviews of the program, it seems as though these strength for runners courses are a bit repetitive, so you may want to find ulterior forms of exercise to swap in throughout.
Day 4: Marathon Race Prep
For our marathon race prep this week we’re back with Becs Gentry, running more prolonged bouts at our marathon pace. This was the first run I was able to get myself to complete in the morning rather than at night, and overall found it refreshing to escape the heat and start your day with a win.
My performance:
Adjusting to a new run time and a new terrain (through the city), I was a bit slower in this week’s marathon race prep.
Scenes from the run
This marathon race prep took me to Little Sugar Creek Greenway on the edge of Downtown Charlotte.
Day 5: Strength For Runners
Today’s workout felt very familiar, and it wasn’t until about halfway through that I realized that was because it is the same workout as week 1. Rebecca Kennedy leads the workout which goes through the same deadlift-type motions that I wrote about last week. She did mention different variations to try in weeks 3 and 4, however, I have a feeling that the music and moves are going to feel extremely repetitive by that point.
Day 6: Recovery Fun Run
Another short fun run in advance of the long run on day 7. Susie Chan leads this run, and after the consecutive 30-minute runs earlier in the week, I felt fast running this shorter distance. It also helped that I had chosen an awesome new running spot: the swamp-like Mcalpine Creek Greenway.
My performance:
A slower run with only 275 calories burned and an average heart rate of 159, this run helped me shake the cobwebs out of my sore knee and feel confident going into my day 7 long run.
Scenes from the run
Day 7: The long run: time to get after it! (6 miles)
Another long run, another improvised Peloton treadmill class to get me through the 45 minutes of pain. While I felt confident going into the run, the jump from 4 to 6 miles is definitely a stark one. This is the first time I’ve truly battled with myself mentally over whether I could keep running or not, but ultimately I was able to squeak out the 6 miles in just over 55 minutes.
My performance:
Another note to self coming out of this week’s long run: find a cool time to run during the day so you do not lose all of your body’s fluids. I did not do this, instead running through the 90 degree humid day, and definitely felt an impact on my performance. Overall, I finished my 6 miles at a 9:12 min/mi pace; burning 694 total calories and holding an average heart beat of 165 throughout.
Scenes from the run
Ready to keep cranking in week 3!
