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Monday, August 23, 2010

Marathon Training Update

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!


1 comment:

  1. 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.

    Glen

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