Once again...

Once again, I am starting marathon training. I'm kind of scared this time around, because last year I ended up getting injured only 3 weeks before the race. I was so sad I couldn't do it last year, and I had to take three months or more off of running. It sucked! But this time, it's gonna be awesome. I'm combining two training plans into one. One of the plans is from runnersworld.com, and it has some great workouts and it also builds up the long run mileage just perfectly.

The other plan is from this new book I got called "Run Less, Run Faster" which advocates a 3-day running week (which is what I have always done) and two cross-training workouts (cycling, swimming, ect.). The only thing wrong with this book is that the training plan starts out with high mileage on the long run and maintains it throughout the whole thing. I am not the high mileage type of person (which is why I got injured last year) and so I have to build up slowly. Which is where the Runner's World one comes in. The best thing about the book is the pace charts, which tell you exactly how fast you need to run every workout in order to get faster. Which is what I want to do! I want to get faster and at the same time keep gradually building mileage.

 I think this will work out pretty good, because after last year I now know exactly what to do and what not to do during training. What not to do? Skip workouts! I used to skip my weekday workouts and instead just do my long runs on weekends. Not a good idea! Imagine trying to run 20 miles after having not ran for a whole week? Yeah, not my smartest move. This time around, I have a strict schedule and I am sticking to it!

What I am doing different this time is trying to always keep a faster pace on all of my workouts. To run faster, you have to train faster; this is something that a lot of runners seem to forget. Most runners are only concerned with weekly mileage. I, however, am sick of being a slower runner. I want to improve to where a 9-minute pace is easy. Which may seem like a stretch because right now a 10-minute pace is comfortably hard. But, with these combined training plans, I'm gonna become a mean, lean, running machine!!

I'll try and stay updated on my training, but just know that yesterday I did 8 miles and it was kind of difficult!! haha