Alright so I've been slacking a bit with the blog posts. I've been a very busy boy with crazy work hours and lots of races. The time has come to buckle down and be serious though. I ran the first official run of my marathon training plan last night. It was a nice easy 3+ miles run. I debated skipping it even since I got home from work so late, but no, I went and did it even though it was getting dark.
For those who don't regularly read my posts or have a short attention span - I'm using the Hansons Marathon Method as my guide to surviving my first marathon. I'm probably going to adapt a hybrid of the advanced and beginner plan since I've already built up my mileage this spring. I would do the advanced plan, but I don't think I could commit to the extra miles due to my current work schedule. I also like the idea of having a couple easier weeks right now to let my body recovery from the gauntlet of 6 races in 6 weekends I just did. I have some minor aches and soreness I'm working through that should go away if I keep the miles easy for now.
The other things I've done this week for marathon training are buzzing my hair very short and adjusting my diet. Military and police officers get their heads buzzed when they go to boot camp and I feel like I will be doing the same for training so I wanted to get myself into that mentality. As for the diet - I'm just being smarter about what I eat. Some things I will give up completely like heavily processed fast foods. Others I will just cut back on. The goal is to try and eat as much fresh and natural foods as I can. For example a McDonald's burger is off limits, but I can eat Five Guys because the beef is never frozen. It still may not be the healthiest, but that would be a rare treat. Hopefully I can cut way down on preservatives and cut down on my mid section and fuel myself properly for training.
You shaved your head! That's a great idea (but I don't think I'll copy it..!) How'd you decide on Hanson? I'm curious about it but I can't get over the fact that the longest run is 16 miles!
ReplyDeleteHaving no hair also saves me 20 seconds every morning from having to gel it up ;) I was looking around at different training plans and saw Hanson had a lot of positive reviews. I also like the science behind it. 20 miles is just an arbitrary number that training plans have you do. In Europe the marathon runners do 18.x miles for their longest run. It doesn't really mean anything. The benefit is from adapting to the cumulative fatigue. If you have a day off before your long run, you're running 20 miles while fresh, and if that 20 miles takes you 3 hours or more, you're just causing your muscles to break down anyways. With the Hanson plan you have a tempo run, 2 easy runs, then the long run meaning that the 16 miles feels more like the last 16 of the marathon. It also helps that you should be able to complete the 16 miles in under 3 hours before the muscles start breaking down.
DeleteWhat Eric said, plus consider you are doing 16 after doing a 10-13 mile run the day before! The plan is all about mimicking the 2nd half of a marathon!
DeleteMinor aches and soreness, a sign of things to come right?
ReplyDeleteJust wake up earlier and do more miles! 4am or bust.
I think Five Guys should sponsor your now! Give them a call!
I need a pizza sponsor too since that is the required pre-race meal. I'm not in too bad shape, and don't expect to actually get too sore from training. I didn't while ramping up the miles in the spring. The soreness comes from the hard miles, from racing. I've been trying a little too hard and overstriding a bit which just places extra strain on the body.
DeleteI want to get a frozen custard shop near me to be my sponsor!
Deletethe 12x400m day kicked my legs butt, I didn't really notice it until Wednesday night. Was trying to figure out if I hurt myself or what. I think just sore. I need to listen to the plan and do the long run every other week like recommended to help heal.