Greetings and happy Monday! I had another wonderful weekend, and hope you did as well. I did my long run with my run club on Saturday morning and then headed to my parents' lake home afterwards. It was a more relaxing weekend, which was just what I needed! I missed the Mother's Day celebration, so was so glad I got to be there for our low key Father's Day celebration.
It's hard to believe this, but I start training for my 3rd marathon today! From past experiences, I know these 18 weeks are going to fly by! This will be my first time training for a marathon with my running group. I loved training for my half with them last year, but I really missed out on some of the camaraderie because my long runs were so much shorter than everyone else, so I'd miss out on the post-run "woo hoo we did it" conversations, breakfasts, coffees, etc. But this year I get to be a part of it all and will get to know people in the club better as a result.
I haven't really decided on a firm goal for the marathon yet (I obviously have time to finalize my goal). I want to see how the training goes and then go from there. My plan right now is to train for a 4 hour marathon with an actual goal of 4:10. If the workouts are going well, I will pick up the intensity and train for a 3:50 marathon with a goal of 4. My PR is 4:22, and I am fairly confident that I can beat that time. When I trained for past marathons, I just focused on logging miles - which worked fine. But now that I train with a club, each workout has a purpose (speed, hills, tempo, slower paced long runs), and judging by how well that approached worked for my half, I know it will work well for a full, and am fairly confident a PR is within my reach. I also am going to focus on strengthening my core and cross training 2 times/week, which should also help me improve my time.
Like I said, I am really excited for this training cycle. I went back and read through my posts from when I was training for my Portland marathon in 2010 and to sum it up, I sounded tired in those posts... Despite the fact that I was training remotely with Amber, I was doing all the running alone. I know that works for some, but I think I do better training with others. I like the support and encouragement of my fellow run club members - and the guidance and tough love of my coaches!
I'll be doing my "Marathon Madness Monday" posts again, just like I did when I trained for my Portland marathon.
So here's to what will hopefully be a healthy, fun training season!
Are you training for any races? Have you or would you ever run a marathon?
Wow for some reason I didn't realize your training starts now- haha what did you give yourself 2 weeks to relax? I know marathon training won't be like studying though!
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to following another training cycle... as long as it's not me having to run :)
Happy Monday! I'm running a half marathon a month but only one is a goal race in September so I guess that's what I'm training for. Then, I start/continue training for an ultra in the fall. I enjoy a combination of solo and group runs.
ReplyDeleteI've run 2 marathons. With an ultra in the fall I skipped another marathon this year but I'd like to run another one next year. Good luck with your training. I"m looking forward to following along.
[Fitness, Health and Happiness]
You had great results with the run club for the half so I bet you are going to do really well with this marathon training cycle!!
ReplyDeleteSo this is weird, but I was reading through a post of yours last night that I think you wrote after the Portland Marathon where you said you were fairly certain you would never run another marathon again. And yet, here we are. ;) Never say never! (My mom also said Disney 2012 was her last marathon and now she's contemplating doing another one down the road... oh, you runners!)
ReplyDeleteI loved following your progress for training for Portland so I'm excited to see how this training cycle goes for you. WOO!
For me, I would never run a marathon. My ankles couldn't hold up for 26 miles! I'm sticking to 5K's from here on out.
Your run club sounds like a perfect fit for you! It will be fun to follow your progress! It was great to have you "home" for the weekend!
ReplyDeleteRunning club sounds so fun, and makes those arduous 20 milers seem not so bad if you have someone to do it with! I'm considering doing the Phoenix Rock N Roll next January. May have to join a group!
ReplyDeleteThat is an amazing goal, Lisa!! Knowing how determined you are, I know you'll do it!
I am working on training for a 3.75 mile run that I'm doing in September, about three weeks before the wedding. Won't be nearly as intense as what you're doing but I'm working my way up to it slowly.
ReplyDeleteYou'll do great and look so awesome for the wedding :) (not that you don't already, you'll just be a super skinny minnie!)
Generally speaking, I think it's good to change up how you train. There are different pros and cons that come with training alone versus with a group, training with low miles versus high miles, etc. I'm betting you're going to have a blast training with a group this summer - a sweet bonus to wrapping up the CFA in June!
ReplyDeleteTraining with the runclub is going to be SUCH a difference for you! Even though the Vancouver marathon didn't go exactly how I'd hoped/expected I can say without a doubt that I had an amazing and very enjoyable training cycle and that's because I did pretty much all my running with friends/the Running Room group! The only long run I did completely alone was the 14-miler I did post-work and that was during taper! Very excited to follow along as you train this summer!
ReplyDeleteI just started training for my half today! I'm 2 weeks behind due to illness, but my speedwork went better than I anticipated...so I'm a little less discouraged!
ReplyDeleteOn the edge of my seat watching your training. I don't think I could do a full, but I'm so excited to cheer you on!
I am glad you have found a run club that works for you. It is hard to train alone sometimes. Not only motivation-wise, but also knowledge-wise. Having a leader who can tell you what to do is nice sometimes!
ReplyDeleteI am looking forward to following along with your training this cycle!
woo woo! go lisa!
ReplyDeleteYAY! Marathon training! I bet you will do awesome with the group. I know i run faster because I run with ppl 2-3x a week. Good luck with training - can't wait to follow along again!
ReplyDeleteI don't think I'd ever run a marathon, as I am not very good at running, and don't really enjoy it. Although, I wish I liked it.
ReplyDeleteMy husband is about to start training for his first marathon! And maybe I'll heal up and can run again soon...in which case, of course, I will be training for a marathon as well ;-)
ReplyDeleteI do like the group running vibe, but I've never trained with them for a specific race: my schedule is too different. Even though most people do the Rock N Roll New Orleans marathon here, I had to modify my schedule drastically to work in the tapers and recoveries from the three other marathons I ran before it. Looking back, is it any wonder I'm injured now?!
Here's to a sub-4 race and enjoyable training!
Yay, I've just become your 100th follower! Great to start your marathon training! I'm training for some mad trail and mountain races I'm running the rest of this year. I've done 127 marathons and 114 ultras and hope to keep on doing it forever!
ReplyDeleteTrain for a 3:50 and run a 3:45. You're doing speedwork now with the group, so anything is possible.
ReplyDeleteGood luck with it. I look forward to hearing about your progress!
ReplyDeleteSo great! I joined a running group for my half. What marathon are you running?
ReplyDeleteYou are totally amazing! Good for you -- a marathon isn't in my cards. Probably should be and I wouldn't be worrying about the hips...
ReplyDeleteWoohoo! Exciting you're back on the training bandwagon. My first marathon was all alone trainingwise, but it definitely has been more fun to train with running friends now.
ReplyDeleteI'm excited for you! Training is the best.
ReplyDeleteI'm *supposed* to be running NYC in November (training starting july 1st), but seeing as how my hip still isn't 100% I'm not sure how realistic that is. The idea of starting training while slightly-injured just sounds like a bad plan to me.
Do you have a "plan" or are you just following what the running group does? I'd love to hear about the general outline of what you guys do.