Marathon Training

I started my SECOND round of Marathon Training on Monday!

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!).

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!

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!

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?