2014 Training Weeks 1-3 (05/05/2014 to 25/05/2014)

May 25, 2014

Beginning of my running journey

I officially started my journey of running and marathon training in summer 2014. I had the passion of running since high school and since that time on and off I was running, but I never had the experience of calling myself a runner or a marathoner. In fact I started this journey to call myself a runner and a marathoner.

Buying GPS watch and shoe from Costco

In my eyes, the very first step and one of the most important steps to start running seriously is buying a running GPS watch, if it comes with a heart rate monitor it would be great too. I purchased my first running GPS watch from Costco and it was Garmin Forerunner 610 , it came with a heart rate monitor as well.

As you can see in the above youtube videos, Garmin Forerunner 610 is a gorgeous running watch and it has a touchable screen that I love this feature of the watch. I also purchased a pair of Fila shoes from Costco for my runnings as well.

Getting injured and figuring out the reason

I turned on my watch on April 29th for the first test to see how it works and after that I had a few test runs/walks with it on May 5th, May 6th, May 16th and May 17th but non of them was a real comfortable run because of the difficulty that I had with my feet. Due to that difficulty, I was just able to walk properly and I couldn’t walk fast or run with my new watch and shoe.

I was thinking a lot about it and I was so disappointed as I never had this problem before and I finally guessed maybe it’s about my running shoe. As soon as I changed my shoe with an old one that I had since before, my problem solved. In fact this was my first running lesson about the importance of your shoe. I didn’t know Costco’s Fila shoes don’t count as running shoes. I paid the price and I found it through practice.

Finding a running club

In order to get encouraged more, I was thinking about joining a running club. I googled and found out a few running clubs in my neighbourhood in downtown Vancouver. I decided to try two of the most popular ones Running Room and Lululemon and select one of them for my primary running club.

I found Lululemon running club in Robson street is more a fun running club versus Denman Running Room club again in Robson street which was more a technical running club so I chose the Denman Running Room club. Lululemon runs was on Thursday evenings and Running Room runs were on Wednesday evenings and Sunday mornings.

Getting familiar with the concept of training plan

Through participating in Denman Running Room runs, I got familiar with the concept of training plan. Fortunately I joined their club at the right time because their new training program was due on June.

My first run with my Garmin Forerunner 610 watch

My first real run with my Garmin watch was on Friday May 23rd which was a 10K 56:54 run with 229m elevation gain. My previous 10K run before this was with Running Room and it was a 10K 60 min run. Therefore I had a 3 min improvement in this run which was pretty good. Unfortunately I didn’t wear my heart rate monitor in that run so I can’t say how intense my running was.

The Grouse Mountain Run/Hike with Running Room

My last run in this period was on May 25th which was a long distance 15K run with the Denman Running Room club with the following averages: (15.00 K, 8:01 min/km, 595m elevation gain) plus a 3K Grouse Grind hike. We started the run from the store, then through Lions Gate bridge and Capilano Pacific trail we went up to the base of Grouse Mountain. We had a short rest there and after that we climbed the Grouse Grind up to the top of Vancouver. Jason, one of my friends in the club told me however the Grouse Grind is just 3km, but because it is uphills it counts as a 10K run. We also had a 15K run from the store up to the base of Grouse Grind so this run was technically a 25K run. That’s what Jason told me.

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday	Total
19	20	21	22	10K run	24	16K Grouse Mountain	25.0 km Run
12	13	14	15	7K run	10K run	18	16.6 km Run
6K run	3K run	7	8	9	10	11	8.8 km Run
28	First test 🙂	30	1	2	3	4