Officially Starting Training

After running the Fairfield Half Marathon last week I don't have any more races planned for the rest of the summer. I do plan on doing the NYC Electric Run with my family as well as the Rock and Roll Providence, but those are not until September. I also am doing the Rock and Roll Brooklyn 10K in October. But that's it for the summer. So, what do I plan on doing? Well, I am shooting for my first full marathon in November, so I am now in full training mode for that.

First, I had originally intended to do the Philadelphia Marathon, which is one that my chiropractor recommended. But then I had a change of plan. I found out that one of my brothers, who I haven't seen since our Mother's memorial in February of 2011, was planning to move to a town outside of Tulsa, OK. I also remembered a marathon I had heard about, the Route 66 Marathon, that was scheduled for November in Tulsa. So, now I intend to fly to Tulsa, visit my brother and sister-in-law, and run the Route 66 Marathon.

So, in practical terms, this means I am essentially switching from a mode of remaining in condition for running half marathons to stepping it up to training for a full marathon. I have been reading and referring to the book "Training Programs" by Jeff Galloway and I have been following one of his full marathon programs from that book. The only alterations I have done so far is that I ran a couple of half marathons which were greater distances than what he called for. Also I had not really gotten into the mode of running slower than you would for a race on your long runs - something that Galloway recommends. As of this week that stops and I am in full "training mode".

To begin with, I am going to maintain a slower pace for the long runs. In addition to Jeff's recommendation for taking it slow in general, he also recommends slowing down when the temperature gets hot. Well, this morning was one of those days. On the schedule was a 9 mile run. While it was not horribly hot - about 70° as i started my run but it got up to about 78° - it was also extremely humid. So, I made sure to bring along a lot of water as well as some electrolyte drink and I took it very easy, maintaining a steady pace of about 14 minutes per mile. And as a result the run was very pleasant. I felt no aches and pains at all and I felt as thought I could easily have continued on for a few more miles.

Finally, as to my training schedule, from here out I will follow Jeff's training plan with only one alteration. According to the Galloway I should be doing 6 miles on September 29 but instead I will be doing a half marathon. Even the weekend of the Brooklyn 10K works out because the schedule calls for 6 miles. Here is my training schedule:

 Any feedback on my training plan appreciated, and stay tuned as I track my progress!