Thursday, September 18, 2014

Marathon Training

I started my SECOND round of Marathon Training on Monday!

Marathon Training

The first time around (which was training for my VERY FIRST FULL MARATHON, Santa Cruz's Surfer's Path Marathon that I ran in May), I used the Hal Higdon Novice 2 plan. I needed something that would work with the time frame I had available (a friend talked me into running the race with her, so I didn't totally have a full calendar to work with) and using the base I had already trained with. I found it online and would say I was definitely satisfied with the training and results (I stayed healthy and injury-free AND finished my first full marathon with a smile on my face - I'd say it was successful!).

Celebrate Your First Full Marathon
Somehow I still had the energy to JUMP FOR JOY
after finishing my first full marathon :)

The training plan worked fine (even though I would have loved to run the full a bit faster, but hey, there's always room for improvement, right?!), but for this attempt I knew I needed something a little different. Want to know why I needed a plan a bit more tailored specifically for me? Well, because I have TWO FULL MARATHONS on the schedule for this round of training, as well as I wanted to make sure the races I currently had on my calendar would be able to fit into my training.

I enlisted the help of a friend (and AWESOME coach), Krissy from Outrunning the Monorail. I originally asked her if she would work with me to create a plan while I trained for the Dopey Challenge (4 races in 4 days - 5K Thursday, 10K Friday, Half Marathon Saturday and Full Marathon Sunday). Her expertise became even more in demand when I realized I wanted to add the Phoenix Marathon to my race schedule AND try to go sub-4 hours at it!

Registered for the Phoenix Marathon

Seeing as the Phoenix Marathon isn't until the end of February, I have a ways to go (6 MONTHS of training calendars to be exact), but I KNOW I can do this! I work much better with a plan and a goal in mind (I'm sure you can tell by now that I am pretty self-motivated). My hope for this round of training is: A. to stay injury-free, B. to never lose the LOVE of running, and C. to CRUSH my goals!

Training Calendars for a Marathon
Personalized training calendars from September thru
February... WOWSER!

I'm sure there will be PLENTY of updates between now and my FINAL race on the schedule (currently I have 11 13 [yes, since I started training on Monday I have added 2 more races... whoopsy] races before Phoenix - HA!), but of course I had to commemorate the BEGINNING of this next journey!

How many races do you currently have planned between now and February? 

2 comments:

Angie said...

Wow! Good luck with your training! I only have 3 races for now, but I hope to add a few more before the end of March.

Danielle said...

Yay, good luck with your training!