My Run Plan.

I've signed up to run a full marathon in June. I know it's not that big of a deal, lots of people run marathons. Grandmas even run marathons. But it's a big deal to me. 

I've run 3 half marathons (13.1 miles), but never had even the smallest desire to do a full (26.2 miles). 

To be honest, I still have no real desire to run a full...but I'm doing it anyway. Why? Because I sort of think I can't. So I need to prove to myself that I can. (Kirsten logic.) 

I would be ecstatic if I finish under 4 hours, but honestly I'm not too concerned about that. I just want to cross that finish line with very minimum walking to get there, if any.  

But one thing I'm going to do differently during my training season, is to run a little less, and lift more. In doing so I'll probably get a slower time on my half marathon than I've previously gotten (running the Tacoma City Half in May), but...I think I'll be okay with that too. But maybe stronger legs will make me run faster? 

Who knows. I like surprises. 

In the past I've trained by just stacking on the miles according to Hal Higdons training programs. It works. I've always met or exceeded my goal pace and felt well-prepared. Plus, I like having a schedule to follow and little goals to meet.

But all I did for 9 weeks was run and run and run. My hips always hurt after longer runs, my knees would occasionally give out...and I lost weight. But I wasn't trying to. I'm not going to eat crap foods to keep weight on because then I just FEEL like crap. And eating lots of healthy foods is dang expensive. 

It's a struggle. 

Here's my training program for this marathon: 

That's...a lot of running. (Ps. 8 miles the first week!? This is just craziness.) But I'm going to try follow it about 80%. 

Maybe TMI but being not a very curvy girl to begin with, lots of cardio does NOT help. 

Plus, as I mentioned earlier, lots of crazy running kinda ruins your metabolism. (For me it results in too quick weight gain or loss) 

SO. Yes, I'm still going to run lots during these next 16ish weeks of my training, because you have to train well to avoid injury building up to running 26.2 miles. 

BUT. I'm going to push/force myself to strength train each week too. I've never really done that in the past while training. And ultimately I'm just going to try keep a healthy metabolism and stay injury free. 

How am I going to make time for all that? Who knows. Guess I'll just have to eat more and run faster ;)