Marathon Training: Week 1 Recap

Here is a recap of week 1 of marathon training, including my runs, workouts, and fuelling!

Week 1 of marathon training went better than expected! I tell people all the time that so much of marathon training is mental. If you have your mind in the right place, your body will follow! The thing that I love about marathon training is that you find out that you are capable of so much more than you ever thought possible and that you can truly accomplish anything you set your mind to. It’s a good lesson that can be applied to so many other facets of life, too!

I am doing a 12-week marathon training plan, loosely based on some of the recommendations in this article. I am only running three times per week because I find that is what works best for me! I favour quality over quantity when it comes to running. On the alternating three days, I lift weights or do an Insanity workout. I have a Beachbody On Demand account, which I make very good use of. And of course, I take a rest day once a week, too. I am not affiliated with Beachbody in any way, but I highly recommend investing in a membership if you enjoy working out at home as much as I do! I tend to do mostly P90X and Insanity workouts, but there are so many programs and workouts to choose from, you’ll never get bored.

Here is the breakdown of my runs and workouts from last week:

Monday: P90X Core Synergistics workout (strength training and core)
Tuesday: 12 km run at 4:39 per kilometre (started out at an easy pace and became progressively faster)
Wednesday: Shaun Week Insane Weights and Insanity: The Asylum Ab Shredder workouts (strength training)
Thursday: Speedwork consisting of a 10 minute warmup at easy pace, then the following:

1 minute hard/1 minute easy
2 minutes hard/2 minutes easy
3 minutes hard/3 minutes easy

Completed twice and then finished with a 20 minute (4 km) cooldown.

Felt good to get the legs turning over quicker than usual!

Friday: Insanity: The Asylum Strength and Insanity Max 30 Ab Attack (stength training)

Saturday: Long run of 18 km. My watch died at 17.3 km so I could only estimate the final 700 metres! Started at easy pace and worked up to closer to marathon pace towards the end.

Overall, it was a great first week of training. This week, I will be doing a Tuesday progression run of 12 kilometres, Yasso 800s for my Thursday speedwork, and a weekend long run of 18-20 km again.

what i ate before and after my long run

Pre-long run breakfast: A big bowl of Greek yogurt banana overnight oats topped with granola, berries, hemp, and chocolate almond butter. I also had half a grapefruit before this, lots of water, and coffee! I’ll share the recipe for these overnight oats this week.

Post-long run lunch: Kimchi sourdough bread from the farmer’s market with butter, eggs, leftover kale caesar salad, and veggies. I had an apple after lunch, too, and taste tested a couple of recipes I developed during the afternoon as well.

Dinner: A Mexican turkey burger with chili lime mayo on a brioche bun, chips and salsa, and veggies with my roasted corn and jalapeno hummus. Plus an IPA.

Dessert: The last slice of this incredible ice cream cake! I had made this for my sister-in-law’s birthday the previous weekend. It is divine!

my week 1 marathon training playlist

Endless motivation on this playlist!