Restarting Marathon Training...Again (Week 1)
For what is at least the third or fourth time now, I'm digging back into a marathon training program. I've settled on a target race date in the first couple weeks of November and there are races in Raleigh, Charlotte, and the Outer Banks that I'm deciding between, but the training schedule is already in motion.
Finishing up The Bear a little over a week ago, I took a few days off from running before starting to crank on a Hal Higdon marathon training program again. Having run into problems so many times before with marathon training, I knew I needed to change my approach this time so I dropped back from the intermediate 1 schedule to the novice 2. I liked that the intermediate schedule had me on the road 5 days a week, but with the mileage ratcheting up into uncharted waters for me, I figured it could only help me to stay on track to drop to the 4 runs per week with the novice program.
There aren't many things that I've found to be as humbling as pushing my body into the long runs that exceed half marathon distances so I had to dispense with the egotistical aspect that kept me trying to make it through a program that was probably too much for me at the time.
Being potentially a week short of the full 18 week plan - depending on which race I choose to do, I jumped into week 2 since the long runs in the 8-9 mile range are still relatively comfortable to me. I did miss the first long run of the program this past weekend, but I played two shows of 3+ hours with The Famous Slip Slams on consecutive days so my body wasn't exactly getting off easy. I do, however, credit my run training with helping me to be able to get through even one 3 hour set which used to seem virtually impossible.
As we (hopefully) pass the apex of summer heat, now's the time to start gearing up for those fall races. Do you have plans to run a marathon or another race in the fall? Let me know!