5.06.2009

Hump Day

A summary of yesterday's run: 6 miles in 56:54
I planned to do a Cinco Cinco, but found I had exta energy so ended up with a Seis Cinco. Random items of mention:

1) I have discovered my new pace is about 8:30-8:45 since that's what I seem to be running most consistently and comfortably lately. That's a nice improvement over the 9:15 of two months ago. Not sure that I can maintain it more than 6 or 7 miles, though. We'll see...

2) I swallowed THREE bugs. I'm running, I see them in the distance, I see them coming at me, I think, "that would really suck if that bug flew into my mouth" and then....that bug flies into my mouth. This seems to happen to me a disproportianately frequent number of times. I am not sure if it's due to my height, that perhaps my mouth is just positioned exactly at bug-flying altitude? Is it the gum I chew? Perhaps they are attracted to peppermint? I don't know, but I came frighteningly close to vomiting 2/3 times yesterday. Not good.


I was performing a similar ritual yesterday...times three.

3) My training plan since January has been to get up to a half marathon (May 17 Colfax Half) and then from there build up to the Denver Marathon in October. But now that I am knee-deep into this, it is going better than I expected, and I am liking the distance...I am starting to think I might want to try an earlier marathon.

My question is: how long do I really need to work up from a half to a full marathon (I am at 14-15 mile long run right now)? Could I get there by July 26 (San Francisco Marathon)? Maybe August 22 (Park City Marathon)? How about September 20 (Boulder Marathon)? I'm just worried that if I don't have something sooner than October to work toward, I'll lose steam or get bored doing all those long-ass runs. I'm just not sure I need 6 months to get up to the first one?

My goal for the first marathon I run will be simply to finish...I'll move on to pace/time goals (and related training) for subsequent races. Since I can find a training plan to fit virtually anything I want to do, I thought I'd gather thoughts from those of you that have done it before...how long do you need to reasonably go from half to full?

4 comments:

  1. ZOMG, sister, I thought you swallowing bugs was the funniest thing I was gonna see in this post and then I saw that video and I pert-near Vibramed with all 5 Fingers! (In the good sense)

    LMFAO!1!

    I love how the guys loses his "reporter's voice" when he starts cursing!

    Hahahahaha!

    I bet you did too on your run!

    Hahahahahahaha!!

    Thanks for the laugh, sister!

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  2. Hmmmmm I'm not sure. The marathon plan I did last year started from the assumption that you could run 13 miles for a long run for the first week of training and that baby was 16 weeks long (of training). So using that way . . .it would put you in with a Sept/late August marathon? I'm talking out of my butt though because I'm probably the LAST person you want to be taking running advice from HAHA!

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  3. I swallow bugs sometimes too. You make it sound so much funnier than I do though! I'm also running a half in May and a full in October. If you really wanted to do an earlier marathon, Hal Higdon's training schedule would be about 10 weeks long if you started from the 15 mile week on the intermediate schedule. Jeff Galloway's training would be about 15 weeks from the 14 mile week. I guess it really depends on how comfortable you are. Good luck!

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  4. Hahaha! I think the bugs are unavoidable and part of the process. It's better than getting bugs in your eye! I've experienced that more than once.

    It's great to find someone on blogger that is talking about the same thing I am, training for a marathon! And like you, I made a blog to keep me on track and I thought if enough people would keep up with my blog then maybe that would keep me from just giving up.

    Good job on your progress! I have no idea how much time you need from a half to a full and how soon it takes to train. It's your first one, I would think that you would need more time? My coworker at Fleet Feet took 8 months to train. I plan on giving myself a lot of time to train also. But it's your body. Do whatever feels right.

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