Brian's Running Stuff: Marathon Training

Monday, September 19, 2011

Marathon Training - Week 20 of 30

Image by Leo Reynolds via Flickr

I'm training for my first marathon, which will be the White Rock Marathon in Dallas on December 4, 2011. My training week runs from Monday to Sunday. Today is Monday, which means the beginning of a new training week!

Week 19 Review:

Monday: Schedule rest - completed
Tuesday: 4mi run - completed
Wednesday: 7mi pace run - completed
Thursday: 4mi run - completed
Friday: Scheduled rest - completed
Saturday: 14mi long run - completed
Sunday: Cross-training - completed (1hr cycling)

Back when I first looked at this training program, the big increase in mileage for this past week really stood out as possibly making this one of the more challenging weeks of the program, and it was challenging for sure. But the bigger the challenge, the better the feeling of accomplishment once the challenge has been met. So it feels good to have last week completed.

And here comes week 20.
(week 8 of Hal Higdon's Novice 2 program)

Another week, another distance PR on the schedule.

Before I get to this week's schedule, here's a great motivational video that a friend posted on Facebook yesterday. It's you vs. you. Each day I have a choice as to whether I'm going to get out and run. Each moment of every run I have a choice as to whether I'm going to take that next step or give up. So much of running is mental. It would be easy to feel tired of training at this point with twenty weeks behind me but still another two and a half months to go. But this video is a good reminder that it's all about making the choice to keep going...because "every one of those moments is a test that you get to take one time, and only one time."