Through 4 weeks

 Today is January 12th and I should be through 4 weeks of the Hal Higdon's intermediate I training plan. I say should be through the fourth week because I skipped my Saturday and Sunday workouts. I was out of town from 8:00 am-11:00 pm on Saturday, but I did not have a valid excuse for Sunday's long run. This training plan has Monday as a cross training day and Friday is a rest day. So, for the fifth week, I am going to run Saturday's run (6 miles at marathon pace) on Monday, and Sunday's missed run (11 miles). This will wear my legs out, but I'm not screwing around this time about training! The goal of running under 4 hours in the marathon WILL be met in Carmel on April 18th!

5th week

Monday, January 12th: I ran the rescheduled 6 miles at marathon pace. My goal time for the Carmel marathon is 3h 45s, so my goal marathon pace is 8:30. I am not sure how realistic it is for me to think that I can maintain an 8:30 pace for 26.2 miles, but it's a goal and that is what a training plan is for. I ran 6 miles in 50:20 or 8:22 pace. It felt strong and I was closer to the 8:30 goal pace, because two weeks ago the 5 mile pace was 8:15 pace, so I tried to slow myself down a little. As Hal Higdon discusses, the easiest way to blow a marathon is to start off too fast. If there is one thing I excel at, it is starting out too fast and blowing up midway.

Tuesday, January 13th: Today's scheduled run was 3 miles at an easy pace. The easy pace I set for my runs this training cycle is between 9:30-10:30. I ended up running the three miles at an average pace of 9:42. My legs were tired from the 6-miles of marathon pace on the previous day, but I trudged on. I had a meeting after school at 4:30, so with the sun setting at 5:40, it ended up being a dusk run. I made sure that I stayed in the neighborhoods so I had the street lights to guide me.