Marathon Preparation - From couch to 26.2 miles

365 days, 1 year, 2 inactive bored sisters, one thinks any goal is too small for her, the other wants to try everything but is not sure where to start. So Ok, the challenge- run the first full marathon within 365 days. Start date: Nov 1st 2007 End date : Nov 1st 2008. Will we be able to do it??

OUR GOAL - NIKE WOMEN'S MARATHON (OCT 19, 2008)

Nov 1, 2007-------------->FEB - 9Mleft--------------->MAY - Completed Half Marathon!!!! 6Mleft---------------->AUG - 3Mleft--------------->Oct 19, 2008 -D DAY!!

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED - We were able to complete, yes complete :) the Nike Marathon - our first marathon - in about 6 hrs 40 mins.Our next goal - Lose weight!!! 36 pounds in 365 days - a lofty one considering that even the marathon training couldn't help us lose a few of the extra pounds.

VISIT US AT OUR WEIGHT LOSS BLOG

MapMyRun.com - a vital tool for marathon preparation PBS Nova Marathon Challenge - Inspirational marathon training video Our progress (or not) - Check out our daily log!!!

Saturday, January 12, 2008

Day 73

3 miles, 50 min, R/W ,5min/1 min 3 times, then got tired and did R/W 3min/2min 4 times, warmup and cool down

No motivation, feeling down, dont know why, tired,-jetlag?, winter?, weight gain?. Want to pickup the frequency of workouts to atleast 5 per week and the duration atleast 60 min this month.
Read/skimmed through JG's Marathon and chose the 'to finish' schedule.There is one for 'beginners' and another 'fat burning schedule' and the only difference I could see is the time of the weekly workouts. I am aiming to make each weekly workout atleast 50-60 min long.Whichever schedule it is, the main point is I have to do it and doing it is the difficult part, atleast right now.

Now the question of the marathon itself-which one?
First we had decided the SFM on August 3rd. Now I got the Runners World for Jan 2008 and they have a listing of the marathons this year. So I picked up the Nike marathon in SF on Oct 19th. The problem with this one is that the registration is quick and finishes fast in 3 days, it starts some time in March/April so we will have to be really on it all the time which ,you know things can be missed, and if we miss registering for the Oct one , then we run out of our 1 year time( can I hear a tinny voice going 'good!!').
Also the schedules to prepare for the marathon are 6 month long with very precise building up of the mileage and then tapering it down-very scientific I am sure. So for the August marathon our training should start in Feb and for the Oct one in April, by which time I am sure my interest and motivation will be at an alltime low.Decisions, decisions, will discuss this with GB tomorrow- she seems to have vanished from here -maybe needs a little, big sisterly motivational talk.
In between there is a 5K in April, 1/2 marathon in June I am planning to take part in.

I still dont understand how they say to run the long slow distance at a speed less than you would run in a race- I mean if I train at 4.3mph then how will I be able to run faster on race day?? Too many questions, too few answers.
Will try and walk tomorrow.

Posted by NB at 7:16 PM

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Re: LSD - my take on this is that the purpose of long slow distance runs is to make you stronger while lessening the chance of injury. Of course, if you only do slow runs, you probably won't be able to run faster on race day.

The key is to mix in faster, shorter runs with your LSD runs, keeping in mind that most of the volume, especially for less experienced runners, should come from your LSD runs.

Good luck with your training.

January 14, 2008 at 12:31 PM

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