Marathon Training Begins!

I realize that it has been quite sometime since my last post.  I’ve been dealing with a lot in my personal life – most notably, the passing of my grandmother.  She was a wonderful, strong woman who taught me a lot about life.  We were very close, and I will miss her dearly.  Through everything, running has done a lot to help keep me grounded.  Sometimes it feels like running is the only thing that is going right in my life.  A good run goes a long way to help me deal with a bad day.

My birthday is on Saturday, and I will be spending it with my husband and my parents in Orange Beach.  I am looking forward to the vacation, even though there are currently sharks swarming that very beach!  Saturday will mark the first day of the last year of my twenties.  It’s a weird feeling to enter a new decade.  My wonderful friends threw a party for me yesterday, and it was a blast!  They set up a day at the pool followed by a crawfish boil/cookout.  And they got my favorite DQ ice cream cake.  I am one lucky girl to have such amazing people in my life who care about me!!

As I have previously discussed, I am planning to wrap up my twenties by running a full marathon before I turn 30.  I met with a coach last week, and my program starts today!  My first “goal race” will be the Talladega Half Marathon on September 14, 2014.  This will hopefully serve as a measuring stick to continue my training for the full in January.  (Presently, that goal race will be the Rock-N-Roll Marathon in New Orleans on January 25, 2015.)  I am going to try to be more diligent about posting here as I work through my training program.  Hopefully, my experiences will be both entertaining and informative for you.

I am going to run this evening.  My plan for today is an easy two-mile run followed by 2 x 20 second strides.  Coach Alex, who started Resolute Running, explained that my primary focus will be on conditioning my body for endurance – teaching it to burn fat for consistent energy over long periods of time.  Once I have developed the endurance, speed will come easy he says.  To do this, my pace for the first month’s runs will be much slower than I typically run.  This week, every run will be at a 10:17 pace.  Coach Kelly will be my personal coach, and I am excited to see what all she has in store for me.  If I put my trust in them and work through the program as designed, they have assured me that I will reach my goals.  So here we go…