I’m both excited and terrified about my plans to run a marathon in April. Excited, because I think it’ll be a really great thing to do and Leslie (one of my sisters) will be running it too. Terrified because, well, gosh, that’s an awfully long way to run and there’s a long training plan with really long runs on it TOO. When the mid week run starts to be 8 to 10 miles, I start to get a wee bit terrified. But…you build to that, right? I can do this?!
Training starts next week. I have chosen to follow Hal Higdon’s Novice 1 Program because this is my first marathon and my goal is simply to finish. (And not die). From talking with people and reading stuff, it seems like this plan will accomplish those things.
Chris and I were talking about running last night…sidebar: now that he has started running he wants to TALK about running all the time, which is just fantastically delightful, because, as everybody knows, talking about running is either fascinating (if you are a runner), or the most boring thing ever (if you are not.) I’m glad we have this now.
(Oh, and we were having this talk over dinner at The Shaved Duck. We hadn’t been in awhile, since it had been featured on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives, and were delighted by how busy it was late on a Wednesday night. Way to go! We love their food.)
Anyway, he was saying that I should prioritize—sometimes things I do in the gym (deadlifts, usually) make it challenging to run for a few days, and that he feels that is a bad thing. I have decided that my weight lifting is important to me, because I think it helps me in so many different ways, from lifting the cat, to having a stronger back for violin playing, to simply FEELING stronger, and I don’t want to stop OR back off.
So that means this: I am no longer allowed to complain about the negative effects. If I do dead lifts and that messes up my training for a few days, then so be it. That is the choice I am making. Do you hear that, readers? I am not allowing myself to complain about sore muscles. That being said, I must also completely commit myself to foam rolling and stretching each and every day. I expect you all to hold me to this.
(It’s easy to stretch when you have a furry companion nearby!)
I’ve also booked my ticket and signed up for the Rock and Roll Phoenix Half Marathon in January. This will be part of the marathon training. Leslie and I thought it would be fun to run a half in her neck of the woods while training for the full in my city. I had so much fun the last time I ran this race, and I’m really looking forward to doing it again!
Just saw this on facebook. I’ve said before, I’m not a huge mantra person, but I like this:
Now I have to eat lunch! How’s your Thursday going? Any advice for me? (I don’t usually take advice, but I welcome hearing it.)
If you follow Higdon’s plan, you’ll be fine. For what it’s worth, Chris has a point about too much lifting if it upsets your training plan. Hopefully, you can figure out a way to do both, because they can be complimentary. You are inspirational. Keep up the good work!
Oh, I know Chris has a point. It’s just that I don’t want to just be a runner. I want to do both, and therefore, I have to accept that there will be conflicts.
This is a very cool goal. Hope you have fun with the training. Doing a half in January will really keep you on track! Of course there are much more qualified experts, but if you ever have a question I’d be happy to at least give my opinion. Which marathon are you running in April? There’s a possibility that I might do Nashville. You’re going to do great!!
The Go St Louis–you should come out and run it too!
Higdon got me through my first…don’t worry much about the weekday runs, concentrate on getting in the weekend ones and don’t give up your cross training, makes you stronger overall and less prone to running overuse injuries!
Thanks for the advice!
I was going to make the same point about the long runs, though with your schedule (or what I seem to remember your schedule is like), those midweek runs might not be so hard to fit in because you don’t have students early, do you?
I’m with you on wanting to do more than just running, and for what it’s worth, I have friends who strongly believe that weight lifting is very beneficial to running. Do you have a trainer? Maybe talk to him/her about designing a program that will give you the weight lifting benefits plus help your running.
How fun to get to go run in Phoenix! And hey, if I don’t do the STL race, maybe I’ll come and cheer for you. 🙂