Marathon Monday #1

Today I started training for my marathon in Dec. My first marathon in 10 years!

I have 3 goals for training.

1. Follow my training plan. I'll get to this in a bit.
2. Ride my bike to work every day for the next 18 weeks.
3. Make yoga  strong part of my training.

Each Monday, I plan to check in here with an update on how training is going.

I'm already off to a great start! I've gone for my 2 mile run this morning and followed that with a bit of yoga. Yay!

Unfortunately, I did not ride my bike to work because I got a flat tire riding home Friday night, and we didn't have a chance to get it fixed over the weekend. Jeff is taking it in today, so hopefully I'll be able to start the biking tomorrow. :)

Now, on to my training plan.

Technically this will be my 3rd marathon. I should probably treat it as my very first marathon since it's been such a long time, but I'm not going to!

I am going to set a time goal. **gasp**

I would love to finish under 4:30, so I'm planning to train at a 10:00min/mi pace. Not every run will be at that pace some will be faster, some will be slower, but on the ones marked pace, that will be my goal.

I've also thrown in some hills and speed work work to help me get strong. I plan to alternate these with treadmill and outdoor workouts. Hill repeats might be stair repeats using the pedestrian bridges over the Strip. I'm kind of excited about that because I hate stairs even more than hills.

I'm starting off running 5x each week for the first 7 weeks, then I'll drop down to 4x per week when my long runs break 15 miles.

I designed this training plan on my own, and I'm hoping it will fit my schedule and motivation levels. :)

Click the picture for a closer look.

For a little encouragement, I bought myself a new running outfit while at Walmart yesterday. I'm calling it a birthday gift to myself. :D It's actually a lot brighter in real life. Good thing it's reversible for those days when I'm feeling a bit more subdued.

Have you registered for my Factors of 36 virtual race yet? No? What are you waiting for? Lots of great prizes are up for grabs. :) Click here to read more about it, and to register today. Registration ends on 8/8.
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