BRING IT ON!

My training officially starts tomorrow, with a day of cross-training.  I've chosen a 20-week training plan which won't be very different from my pre-training routine.  I didn't set out thinking that the plan I was on for pre-training would basically be my training routine, but it's served me well so far and don't see a reason to make drastic changes.  Monday will still be my rest day.  I'll keep Running Tuesdays and Walking Thursdays, as my walking speed and running endurance are the two things I need to work on most (beyond the long walks increasing my general endurance, of course).  Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays will be strength training and either cross training or shorter runs/walks, depending on how things are going week to week, which allows for some flexibility in the schedule.  And Saturdays are for long runs, which will be the single biggest change to my routine.  My distance comfort zone is up to about 8 miles, so I'm curious to see what happens when the long runs start stretching into double digits.

I'm hoping to lose 36 more pounds and be at 155 by race day.  It's doable, but if I fall a little bit short it's no big deal.  The only significance of that number is that it'll put me 100 pounds from my heaviest weight, which just sounds nice.  And the main stumbling block on the path to that goal is the simple fact that I need to eat enough to support my activity level, especially when the long runs get really long. 

I don't want to necessarily set a time goal for my first marathon, as it will be a big deal just to finish.  But there is a six and a half hour time limit, and I'd like to head into it feeling able to pull off more like a 5:30, just so I'm not scared the whole time that if I stop to pee too often or the lines are too long at the port-o-potties or it takes too long to cross the start from the back of the open corral or something I'll end up not making it.  So that means my goal pace is 12:35 per mile.  Looking at my long run GPS stats so far, my "comfortable running speed" is about 7mph (8:34), and a reasonable projected walking pace is about 4.5mph (13:20) or faster.  And that means I don't necessarily need to increase my running speed, I only need to increase my endurance to the point where I can run a quarter of each mile for the duration of the marathon.  Technically, I could just walk the whole thing at that speed and come in under the time limit, as long as there were no unexpected delays.  So I'm pretty confident about this whole thing right now.  Especially considering I've shaved 2:20 off my pace already in 15 weeks.  Another 20 weeks of training and I should be golden.

At this point, I think it's just a matter of putting in the miles and starting to figure out what works best for me in terms of gear and energy gel and what/when to eat/drink before long runs so I'll have a plan for race day.  My biggest goal right now is to just get myself to the gym at least five days a week.  We've been hitting four with decent consistency, but I need to be less easily talked out of gym time.