Yesterday, I put my money where my mouth is and registered for the Georgia Marathon, which is set to take place on March 20th, 2010! Here is a copy of the course map.
This is starting to feel real, but I'm trying not to let the pressure set in just yet. After all, there are 216 days to go...eek! One day at a time...one day at a time!
Speaking of one day at a time, today, I was able to keep up the momentum and trained according to plan. This morning, I woke up at 7:30 am (without the alarm clock this time), prepared and ate breakfast, and was pounding the pavement by 8:00 am. Now...I can't tell you how long my route was, but I can tell you that I jogged about 1/5 of it...which is a great start...for someone who has never consistently run in her entire life! From start to finish, walking and running, the trip took me about an hour and fifteen minutes. I tell ya, it felt great to be outside. The day was beautiful, slightly chilly, and because it was Sunday morning, I practically had the road to myself!
While I enjoyed my outing today, it was tough...I'm not going to lie. At one point, I felt as though my lungs were telling me, "enough already!!!". This is probably due to my allergies. (Note to self: Take an antihistamine before running.)
The longest I was able to run, non-stop, was about 10 minutes. I almost feel certain that I could run longer...but to tell you the truth...my mind gets in the way...not necessarily my body. One of my friends, who served in Peace Corps with me, has completed four marathons. In a message I received from her yesterday, she said, "it is 95% mental". Oh boy!
When I returned home, the plan was to update this post, but the adrenaline coursing through my veins wouldn't allow me to just sit back on the couch. After letting Beef-Wellington (my couch potato Bulldog) know that I hadn't forgotten him, I hopped into my car and retraced a few of my steps, so that I could take pictures of the area covered.
Since I was already out of the house and exercising was still on my mind, I headed to the gym for a bit of weight training. Weight training is, without a doubt, going to be a major component of my marathon preparation. I believe that, with toned muscles, I will be an overall stronger runner and will perhaps help me to avoid injuries along the way. A particular focus of today's workout was on building up my core muscles (i.e. lower back, sides, abdominal muscles, mid-back,
shoulders and chest). This was accomplished by completing a "circuit" of equipment; each one designed to target specific muscles. After the circuit, I had a ten minute fight with the stair master...which is still master over me! To round the day off, I hit the treadmill for about 10 minutes.At this stage in the game, 10 minutes is about as long as I can run before I'm ready to stop. Each week, I plan to add two minutes of jogging until I reach 30 minutes. From all that I've read about marathon training, once you are able to run 30 minutes (or about 3 miles) without stopping, you're ready to begin marathon training. As you can see...3 miles is only a small chunk of 26 miles, but I'm getting there!
Until then, I'll be working at it every day (with planned breaks, of course).
If you have any tips on how to beat the "95% mental" thing , I'd love to hear them!
Yours in training,
Dani
2 comments:
Beating 95% - setting specific challenges for myself with each run. Sometimes I do adjust them during my run, but I never back down from trying to accomplish them in a run. Also reminding myself how much I've achieved when I thought I couldn't run more in past times. We always have some untapped potential in our reserve stores. I don't do them perfectly, but negative splits (http://ohsheglows.com/2010/07/15/how-to-run-a-negative-split/) are a great challenge drive for me.
Also - reading blogs like yours :-) Hopefully it's not weird that I comment a lot - but reading about how you (or Caitlin of healthytippingpoint, or Angela at ohsheglows... etc etc) struggle and achieve is hugely motivating, so blog reading has become part of my routine.
That is a good tip- setting a goal and not backing down until you reach it. I don't even want to get close to "adjusting" whilst in the process...that's been my problem in the first place. I'll say...oh, I'm going to run for 20 minutes..and then I'll adjust it so low that I can convince myself that what I've already done is enough...lol. I'm working on changing that way of thinking!
Your comments are a great motivation for me! Keep 'em coming! If you post, I'll actually know that someone is reading...motivating me to do what I've said I'm going to do (while documenting it the whole way)! Thanks for helping me out!
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