I will run 465 miles, and I will run 26.2 more. (The Proclaimers sequel)

only wish i looked this smooth while running

Training officially kicked into gear last Saturday.  As the schedule stands now, I will log 465 miles leading up to race day.

I had a lot of thoughts leading up to the first group run, and none of them were positive.  Not a day went by when I didn’t think to myself – what the hell are you doing?  Procrastination is unfortunately a strong personality characteristic for me, and although I had intentions to get in a lot of training prior to the Fleet Feet Marathon program kicking off, I managed to find excuses on a regular basis to not run.  Not all is lost though.  I convinced myself after looking at the schedule that if I could muscle my way through the first couple of week, I would be able to “catch up”.

I decided to drop back into a slower pace group initially and see how I felt after a few weeks.  Like most in this world, the one thing I try not to do is embarass myself.  I was able to hold my own for the first run (6 miles), suffering more from the heat than my lack of cardio.  It is amazing though how quickly I lose stamina when I don’t exercise on a consistent basis.  However, I am happy to report that after the second group outing last night, which was just 1 mile shorter, but inclduing 3 hill repeats, I felt much better about my output.

The training program calls for 4 runs a week with 2 groups runs –  on Wednesday evening and Saturday morning.  The Saturday run being the long slow distance, and the Wednesday run being hill or track (speed) work most weeks.  That leaves 2 short runs for me to tackle on my own each week along with one day of cross training.  I know I can committ to that schedule, and I have the full support of my wife on group training days.

So the journey to NYC is officially on the road.  121 days and 22 hours to go, but who’s counting?