The Plan

Well, it's six months to the day of the Tucson Marathon. I have spent the past few months running rather sporadically, so today I made a PLAN.

I pulled out my old MARATHON book by Jeff Galloway and put together a running plan in excel. Now, had this been a few years ago, I would have put a plan together with a time goal in mind. But as it has been 5 years, I've had a bad stress fracture, and gained some weight since my last full marathon, I decided to design a plan "to finish."

But at least it's a PLAN.

And a thoroughly thought out plan at that. I even looked up my teaching schedule to make sure that my running days were days that I had a later first class. I have my trusty 35 minute warm-up (thank you Fight Guy) for cross-training days and have even folded down the page of a 7 minute strength training guide from Runner's World which I will do every day before I run. I won a free 3 month membership to a local gym so, come August or September, I will go ahead and join in preparation of the COLD weather. I'll have no excuses not to run or cross-train. And, if I have any money come August, I might actually buy a copy of P90X for my own.

Today I'm going to read a good chunk of this old book. I got it when I trained for my first ever marathon (part of the AIDS Marathon Package), but I honestly don't think I ever cracked it open. Perhaps it will remind me why I want to do this crazy thing. And of course it will be full of good advice.

This morning I ran with Stella and Jake. I delivered Bennet to his new owners yesterday so it will be a little easier now with just the two (although as a puller, Bennet managed to keep us at a pretty brisk pace). I didn't get out until about 8 AM and it was already ridiculously hot and humid. Definitely the worst morning run we've had in a while. Still, we did it. It was a mere 3 miles, but that's okay. We're right on track in terms of training and I've run 5 in the not-too-distant past so I'm not worried.

My biggest hurdle is the long runs. In the past, I've always trained with a group and a coach. So I never had to worry about water/sports drinks along the way or even what route I needed to take to get in my mileage. And having others to run with made the miles pass quickly. Unless I can find a group that trains on Saturday mornings, I will need to be my own coach and motivator. This is my greatest concern.

Another concern, though less daunting, will be my diet. I know I need the proper fuel to train well and so I am going to have to be very careful about what I put into my body for the next six months. I have made a list for this week and plan on trying a few new recipes even. I leave in two weeks for a month on the East Coast. I know part of the time I'll be well-fed by mom (where I MUST learn portion control!) and then I'll be with my ensemble theatre company where a number of the company enjoy cooking so we always eat well there. Then I'll be in DC where I KNOW I'll indulge way more than I ought to . . . but oh well. I'll have my running shoes there so I intend to run it all off.

This past week, I've only had alcohol one night. I'm pretty amazed. I haven't had any in the house and cannot decide if I should hold off getting any when I go grocery shopping today. We'll see.

So I have a PLAN and I'm going to stick to it! I need to figure out how late I might be able to register for the race . . . although if I register NOW I might be more committed to the training. I'll mull that over for a few days and keep you posted.

In the meantime, if you have comments or suggestions, pass them along! Part of the PLAN is keeping up with this blog again!