One Step at a Time

That's how marathons are finished. And trained for. I'm finding that the mental aspect of a marathon is the most tricky and overwhelming. You can't think of it as a half-marathon plus one more. You can't think of it as a longer distance than what you've run before. You picture it as one training week at a time...one mile at a time...some days it's just one step at a time to get you through the run.

I've found having a training plan in place is helping tremendously. I was pretty nervous starting in on Week 5 of Galloway's program (that's him in the picture above) when I hadn't been in a routine of running 3 days a week. The last time I ran a race of any distance was October of last year. I've been pleasantly surprised to find that I've had am easy time adjusting to the training schedule. So far the longest weekend run I've had to do was 7.5 miles, which I completed this past Saturday---had to take advantage of the only cool day out of Memorial Weekend! I felt great both during and after the run, and my route that day even included what might possibly be the hilliest stretch of Indiana-- 106th street between Hague and Allisonville. (The last time I tried to run that stretch I had to resort to walking up a couple of the hills.) I've noticed a gradual decrease in my 3 mile times since I've started the program too. It's down to 26:23, which is good for me, and that's at what I consider a comfortable pace...not an all-out 3 mile run.

Other perks of following the program: on the weeks where I'm only supposed to do short runs, I don't feel guilty for not running further. Normally, I feel the need to run the furthest distance that I can realistically do, or have time for. Now, if 3 miles is the furthest I'm supposed to go, I don't feel like I'm copping out. Also, I just feel an overall sense of relaxation as compared to past races where I've made my own training schedules. I'm putting my faith in Mr. Jeff Galloway and hoping that these programs made him for a reason.

On another note, I was trying to think of a way to visually organize my runs and the stats of each one. I have all of the weekend runs written on my calendar as well as a printed copy of the program on my desk with check marks after each week is complete. But why have the fancy Garmin watch if I'm not going to use the online features! I totally forgot about the calendar feature on Garminconnect. So now I can easily see how many runs I've done over the course of each month, my weekly mileage and the times of each run. If for some reason I don't wear the watch, aka a treadmill run, I can manually input it into the calendar.

And to think that people have been running marathons long before these gadgets and tools were invented!