Sticking To It

I started off my training for the Raleigh City of Oaks Marathon a bit late. In the back of my head, "fall marathon" equates to the California International Marathon (CIM), which is the first Sunday in December. I figured I had until August before I needed to begin training.

Unfortunately for me, City of Oaks will be run November 2, lopping off a whole month of training time. So, I began my training in earnest the third week of July, at Week 4 of the 18 week Hansons training plan I'll be following. Oops.

To complicate matters further, I wasn't up for the 6 day a week, high mileage yet, so I started out skipping a few easy runs a week. Then I took a week off to let the gash in my leg heal. Last week, Week 4 of my training, I did all of the substantive workouts (track, tempo, and two weekend runs), leaving out two easy runs.

This week, I will do all of my runs. I did my easy run yesterday on hills, and did a decent job at the track this morning with 3x1600. I have a tempo, two easy 10s and an easy 6 left. I may mix up the order so I can leave for the beach early Sunday, but at least I'll get it done.

I'm planning to start reading the Hansons training manual soon (immediately, or yesterday would be best), so that I know more about what I'm doing. I geek out on that stuff. I need to figure out if my early slacking will mean that the 16 mile top out long runs won't be enough to prepare me (since I started late and skipped some workouts). I may feel better if I do an 18, or maybe a 20.