Beginning Marathon Training

After The Scorcher Run - aptly named!

On June 5, I laced up my shoes and ran a marathon I'd almost completely forgotten about. It was hot, and it was hard, and it was my slowest to date.

On June 6, I laced up my shoes and began "pre"-marathon training with the help of Laura Norris at thisrunnersrecipes.com. I decided to use a coach to achieve my marathon goal because I think her expertise will help me in areas where I'm confused, I love the camaraderie of knowing others are out there training too, and honestly the investment of paying her for a customized plan makes it all feel a little bit more doable.

Pre-Marathon training hasn't been the sun-shiniest (that's a lie - the weather here has been crazily sunny and hot, hot, HOT!), but it hasn't been bad either. I've really tried to spend the last few weeks organizing my life into having a good routine in place so that when the higher milage weeks come, I'll know my life is in order.

When I say hot, I mean "Immediately eat shaved ice to cool
your body temperature back to normal" hot! 

I started on a customized plan that had me run 3 times, and cross train 2 times per week for 5 work outs a week.  Now I'm running 4 times a week, cross training once, and strength training once for 6 workouts a week. My only "perfect" week, so far, has been the first week of training. In every other week I've had to miss something, cut a workout short (once because TWO bugs flew into my left eye only minutes apart on a bike ride -- the only way I got one out was through calling it quits and going to sleep to let my tears work their magic!), or just plain couldn't finish a workout.

I am so proud of the weeks I've put my best effort forward - even if it included not finishing a workout as scheduled. It's hard to transition from a non-plan following runner to someone who tries to follow something to the T. It's definitely not my personality to do so, so I have to celebrate every small victory I can.

Tomorrow I'll have a phone call with Laura to get my August training plan off the ground. One really cool aspect of working with Laura is, well, not only the customization (like I'm using the run/walk method right now), but also getting one month at a time. While I really like to see the bigger picture, having only a few days in advance helps ground me a bit to the moment I'm in. August probably will show increased distance, but if I think about what increased distance will look like at the end of October, I might have a panic attack!

When marathon training really started and I'm out of what I consider to be the "pre"-marathon training phase, I'll update with how training is going much more frequently. I'm hoping some other first time marathoners (and/or my family and friends) will be able to connect with me through this blog.

Until then, it's about to storm and I may just dance in the rain and relish in the fact that the excessive heat advisory is gone for the first time in a week!