I'm on week 11 of my 18-week marathon training program. My big race is Sunday, October 17th in San Francisco. Race day still seems so far away, and I feel like I've been training forever.
I'm running so fast, I'm just a blur! (ha-ha!)
I'm now full into the "meat" of my training plan, running five days a week, and logging really long distance runs on Saturdays. Last weekend I ran 18 miles. Next Saturday will be 20 miles. Those long runs looked so daunting when I first started my training in June. Now that I've done a couple, it's not as intimidating. I've learned to run slow, stop for water and nutrition often, and run with a buddy. My friend Cami has been accompanying me on my long runs, and it sure makes the miles go faster!
I did my first track workout last Wednesday night. I thought that running fast on a flat track would be easy, since I'd been running hills. Boy was I wrong! That workout kicked my butt! Makes me realize I still have some work to do.
The biggest challenge for me has been to fit my weekend hiking trips around training. I told myself from the beginning that my hiking was not going to suffer from the marathon training. So far so good. I've found if I keep my hikes under ten miles and 2500 feet elevation gain, I can do both a long run and a hike in a weekend. Hopefully this will continue to work on the weekends I'm running my 20-milers.
But training has not been too bad so far. Most days I look forward to my run and feel good afterwards. I'm hoping to continue to stay healthy and injury-free. Wish me luck as I begin my last weeks of training!
Sounds like you are progressing nicely, Linda. Gotta love those hill repeats and track workouts ...NOT! Like I told you, a lot of this is mental. After you've run 18 miles, 20 doesn't sound so bad, and heck, you could CRAWL the last 6 miles! Keep up the good work, you're almost there.
ReplyDeleteGlen