Running

I ran 6.6 miles, today.  That is 10% more distance that last Saturday.

Yup.  Marathon training has begun.

For the past several months, I have been doing what I guess could be called "maintenance" exercising.  Just trying to maintain a base level of fitness.  I have tried to exercise 4 or 5 days a week, mixing it up with running, cycling class, swimming, and some weights.  I have done this because I knew I'd be facing a tough marathon training regime starting in mid February.

And, here we are.

To train for a marathon, I have to build up the endurance to be able to keep my body moving for miles upon miles.  It is not something than can be done cold turkey.  Not without damaging your body.  The pounding of 26.2 miles can only be endured with a body that has been slowly toughened up for it.  At least, I hope it can be endured!  I have to tell you, this race scares me more than anything I have yet done.  Not even the half ironman scared me the way this running distance does.

So, every Saturday workout now becomes my "long run".  I have deleted the pool from my Saturday lineup (I'm sad about that) so that I can focus exclusively on piling the miles on.  Every Saturday will be a 10% increase from the previous week.  That is just a small enough increase each week to prevent injury (I hope).  Meanwhile, my weekday workouts will slowly build, too.

Actually, most of my weekday workouts will remain exactly the same.  But within a few weeks, my Wednesday run will start to build mileage, too.  It will stay at approximately 1/2 the distance of the Saturday long run.  So, when Saturday's run hits 10 miles, Wednesday's run will be 5 miles.  The rest of my week will stay the same.  Mondays are 30 minutes of sprints and 1 hour of pool.  Tuesdays are 1 hour cycle class and 30 min. arm weights.  Wednesday was 1 hour cycle class and 30 minute run, but that will change, now.  And Thursday is 60 minute intervals run.  Friday and Sunday are my rest days.

I can only hope that the weather decides to cooperate and bring an early spring so I'm not stuck running 10+ miles around and around the indoor track in a mind-numbingly endless loop.

Here's a cute track story for you...

This morning as I was running my miles on the track, there was a family also exercising on the track.  Their little boy looked to be about 4 years old.  I was the only endurance runner on the track, and he noticed me running past.  At one point, he was sitting with his big sister on the bench when he saw me approach.  He quickly jumped up and started racing me!  I matched his pace and he made it nearly one full lap of the track before he had to fall out of the race.  I gave him a big cheeky grin and a high five for racing me.  That did it!  He sat in wait for me and "raced" me at least 5 more times, each time getting a high five.  His momma and his grandmama both got a big kick out of it.  So did I!