Friday, December 28, 2007

Marathon...Are you kidding me??

About a month ago I started doing push-ups and sit-ups in an attempt to get in a little bit better shape. The guy looking back at me in the mirror was becoming less and less familiar. About 2 weeks ago I got an email from Joe Heywood who has been one of my best friends for about 12 years, mentioning that he was doing a marathon. In a moment of disgust with himself last year he made the decision to run one about 3 months before the race. This year he's started much earlier so he doesn't hear anything snap in his foot during the last few miles. He made a brief comment in his email that I should join him this year. Jennifer has been screening my emails apparently and tried to erase it. What she doesn't know is that all of my email from that account is forwarded to my work email so I got it anyway. :-)

Well, I'm going to do it. It's the Ogden Marathon and it takes place on May 17th, 2008. I've made two purchases that will help me in my training. The first item is a pair of running shoes. (They looked nice in the picture so I thought they'd do just fine.) The second item is an ice pack for my knees. I don't have any bad knee problems to begin with, but I want to avoid having to limit my training due to an injury. I noticed that Joe mentioned Vaseline in one of our email strings and I'm still nervous to ask him what that's all about.

I'm about 182 lbs right now and I'd like to get down to about 170 in about 8 weeks. This will put less strain on my joints while I'm running increasing amounts of miles over the next 20 weeks. I started running about 9 days ago. Due to my current fitness level I could only run about 1.5 miles. I've done that twice, ran/walked on the treadmill in the garage for 3 miles twice, and biked for 7 miles last Saturday.

I have a schedule that I found online from Hal Higdon who is a marathon expert. http://www.halhigdon.com/marathon/Mar00index.htm I'm doing the Novice I training program which is still ridiculous. The schedule is below although I will be tweaking it a bit to fit my schedule. Sunday's will be an off day for instance.

Week
Mon
Tue
Wed
Thur
Fri
Sat
Sun
rest 3 m run 3 m run 3 m run rest 6
cross
rest 3 m run 3 m run 3 m run rest 7
cross
rest 3 m run 4 m run 3 m run rest 5
cross
rest 3 m run 4 m run 3 m run rest 9
cross
rest 3 m run 5 m run 3 m run rest 10
cross
rest 3 m run 5 m run 3 m run rest 7
cross
rest 3 m run 6 m run 3 m run rest 12
cross
rest 3 m run 6 m run 3 m run rest 13
cross
rest 3 m run 7 m run 4 m run rest 10
cross
rest 3 m run 7 m run 4 m run rest 15
cross
rest 4 m run 8 m run 4 m run rest 16
cross
rest 4 m run 8 m run 5 m run rest 12
cross
rest 4 m run 9 m run 5 m run rest 18
cross
rest 5 m run 9 m run 5 m run rest 14
cross
rest 5 m run 10 m run 5 m run rest 20
cross
rest 5 m run 8 m run 4 m run rest 12
cross
rest 4 m run 6 m run 3 m run rest 8
cross
rest 3 m run 4 m run 2 m run rest rest
race

During my first two runs, I was coughing up all kinds of things. I must have been exploring previously unused portions of my lungs. We'll see if I can actually finish. Joe's goal last year was 4 hours and he got 4:03. My goal: I just want to cross the finish line with someone still behind me. That's motivating. :-)


2 comments:

joeheywood said...

Exciting stuff. My first long run during my "training" last year was an 8 miler here in Star Valley, Wyoming (where I'm currently typing this post) at my in-laws. I spent the morning talking myself in and out of doing the run and even continuing with the entire endeavor. That run was my breakthrough. I walked at mile 4 and at mile 6 and most of the last half mile, but after running those 8 miles in just over 1 hour, I knew I could run a marathon. After all, I just had to triple that morning's output and add a few easy miles.

My training philosophy was this: Get my long runs up to 13 miles (half a marathon) and I could run the rest on will power. It basically worked, except for the foot injury and near emotional breakdown.

I predict tears for Allan.

Heather said...

That sounds fun! That is a lot to put your body through, no matter how in shape you are. If I ever got the notion to run a marathon, I think I'd opt for the half marathon.
My run at the gym on the treadmill is normally about three miles. It's a lot more difficult to do it on the roads though.
I don't blame Jennifer for not wanting you to do it. It takes a lot of time and even more energy. I hope you still have some left to help around the house after those long runs. No excuses!
It's a fun goal to have! Good luck....I hope your body holds up old man!