Average Joe said:
Decided I wanted to run a marathon early next year (or at least give it my best shot possible). Finished my first run of 1.5m in 19 minutes today. Other than feeling like I collapsed 3 lungs, I feel good. Probably the worst weather to start, but if I keep saying I'll start tomorrow then I'll never get there.
I'm considered overweight, but stay active enough to not be in terrible shape. Last year I decided to go the entire year without any sweets, sugary drinks, or fried food and have carried those into this year. So, diet is better than most.
Furthest I've ever run was 6 miles, and that was 15 years and 50 less pounds ago. Used to walk 5 miles daily, but life got too busy last year. I figured I would start with one of the Hal Higdon plans and see how that goes until someone recommends something better or it's not working for me.
Alright, so exactly one month in (that wasn't planned), so I figured I would give an update now that I"ve made it past the point where this would have died if it was only a cool idea and not a true goal, and I haven't given up. In fact, I'm probably more obsessed at this point than when I started. Since none of y'all know me, that's the only way I hit my lofty goals.
So, I started with Hal, and have pretty much kept to it for the most part. I've had to juggle some runs due to kid's cheer competitions, and had to skip two straight runs when I was home with the youngest two and had no child care. I tried supplementing with workouts at home, but obviously they aren't replacements.
I've researched like crazy to figure out what I need to be doing for long term success, but it's like drinking from a firehose still. My runs started at 1.5m base and 3m long, and now up to 2m base and 3.5m long. Still 11 months out, so I want to use the time wisely and not get 3 months from the race and realize I should have been doing X since the beginning to make my run easier.
I'm thinking of increasing 10% each week until I get to running 20mpw and then switching to Hanson's running plan. It seems like it's more rounded, although much harder.
So far the only thing I've struggled with is the aerobic part. My legs only strain on hills, and they recover pretty fast. I've walked on my toes my entire life, so my calves are by far my strongest feature. I've also been doing calf raises and lunges almost every day to help. I just can't breathe. I need to add something on my off days to help with aerobics. I'm also picking up a Garmin Forerunner 255 to help manage heartrate on my runs and start monitoring what zone I'm in.
I didn't mean for this to turn into a blog, so sorry about that.
