Week 1- Done!

I finished up my first week of marathon training on Saturday with a 6 mile run.  It was hot and I was tired, but I did it.  Ben and I went to see Mike Cooley in concert Friday night and didn't get home until after 11, so I was tired when I had to get up and meet people to run at 7.  I knew, though, that it was going to be a hot and busy day, so I needed to get my run in early to be able to do it and not deal with the insane heat.

I've met a lot of wonderful women through my Moms Run This Town group.  One of those women is Angie, who ran with me on Saturday.  Angie also runs with me most Tuesday and Thursday mornings.  Angie told me on Saturday that her limit right now is 6 miles, but I'll see if I can get her to extend that so I can run with her more...

I felt pretty good through my first week of training.  I ran Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday will no real pains or soreness.  I was sore after Saturday's 6 mile run, probably because I hadn't run 6 miles in probably around a month or so.  I didn't do any workouts other than running.  I'm hoping to get into the habit of adding a couple of weight training sessions, too, so that I can make sure I'm working my upper body as well.  Another running friend, Summer, challenged me to do 22 push-ups a day for 22 days to raise awareness for veteran suicide, so I am doing that.  Today was day 7 and today's push-ups were the easiest so far.

Today started week 2 and this morning's 3 miles went well.  It was hot and humid, but that's to be expected this time of year.  Tomorrow is supposed to be less humid, so I'm looking forward to that!  I'm also hoping to get some new running shoes this week.  My plan is to get a couple of pairs that will hopefully last me through training and the race.  We'll see...

The day before...

I don't know if anyone other than me will ever actually read this, but that's okay.  I'm going to try to do this for me.  To document my journey over the next 18 weeks...

Tomorrow starts a new phase of exercise for me.  Tomorrow, July 12, 2016, is my first "official" day of marathon training!  I will be running the Richmond marathon on November 12.  To say I'm a little freaked out would be an understatement!

Below is the training plan I am using.  It's Hal Higdon's Novice 1 plan for a marathon.  18 weeks of running 4 times a week.  Yikes!  I don't know how my legs will handle running 3 days in a row.  I'm going to try it this week, at least, and see how it goes.  If they can't handle it I'll do my long runs on Saturdays and then my weekday runs Monday, Tuesday and Thursday.  For now, though, I am following this plan to a T.

I'm hoping to post here as I go along with the training with little tidbits about how it's going and how I'm feeling, but we'll see how often I actually post...

Marathon Training Schedule: Novice 1

WEEK	MON	TUE	WED	THU	FRI	SAT	SUN
1	Rest	3 m run	3 m run	3 m run	Rest	6	Cross
2	Rest	3 m run	3 m run	3 m run	Rest	7	Cross
3	Rest	3 m run	4 m run	3 m run	Rest	5	Cross
4	Rest	3 m run	4 m run	3 m run	Rest	9	Cross
5	Rest	3 m run	5 m run	3 m run	Rest	10	Cross
6	Rest	3 m run	5 m run	3 m run	Rest	7	Cross
7	Rest	3 m run	6 m run	3 m run	Rest	12	Cross
8	Rest	3 m run	6 m run	3 m run	Rest	Rest	Half Marathon
9	Rest	3 m run	7 m run	4 m run	Rest	10	Cross
10	Rest	3 m run	7 m run	4 m run	Rest	15	Cross
11	Rest	4 m run	8 m run	4 m run	Rest	16	Cross
12	Rest	4 m run	8 m run	5 m run	Rest	12	Cross
13	Rest	4 m run	9 m run	5 m run	Rest	18	Cross
14	Rest	5 m run	9 m run	5 m run	Rest	14	Cross
15	Rest	5 m run	10 m run	5 m run	Rest	20	Cross
16	Rest	5 m run	8 m run	4 m run	Rest	12	Cross
17	Rest	4 m run	6 m run	3 m run	Rest	8	Cross
18	Rest	3 m run	4 m run	2 m run	Rest	Rest	Marathon