…or at least trying to.

I’m set to run the Luzern marathon on October 30th. Give or take a little, I have 4 months to train for it. It still feels like it’s a long way off, but I’m trying to be strict with myself and for the first time ever, adopt a proper scientific training schedule.

Really I’m a bit of a free spirit running in the woods sort of girl, so all this discipline doesn’t come easy. Not at all.

Last weekend I signed up for the Runner’s World 4.30 plan. I’ve always said that if I run a marathon then I want to break 4 hours, but now that it comes down to it I’m being sensible. I’m 47 years old and I know how easy it is to overtrain and get injured. At this stage in my life I can’t run 5 days a week without battering my joints senseless. I know I’m going to need three rest days a week – even if I do take yoga and pilates classes on those days – to let my body recover. The main aim – after finishing, of course – is to stay uninjured though the training. I can’t do this if I get a recurrence of the Achilles problems or stress fractures in my feet  I’ve run with in the past. I still have a bone bruise in one knee, but that’s healing, even if it’s a bit slower than I’d like. So I’m swallowing my pride and taking it slow.

I’m having trouble adapting to the running schedule. It doesn’t fit well with my life! I’m already having to juggle days and skip runs because it’s way too hot. I’m not too worried at this stage because the training schedule starts off at a level way below where I am already. This week I should have run two 3 mile runs which didn’t get done, but the Friday run which I always do with my Friday ladies was much longer than the plan and the long run I’m due to do tomorrow is a couple of miles shorter than what I will run with my Sunday running buddies and our run is on a pretty steep route. It should all pretty much even out, but I’m going to try to stick the schedule a bit better next week, because it’s just simpler that way!

I bought myself a Garmin Forerunner 410 watch a month or so ago with all this in mind. It has an inbuilt GPS which tells me how far I’ve run and what my pace is. Or at least it would if I could get my head anywhere near round how it works. I’m seriously technically challenged by it. It’s scary how incomprehensible it is. I should have gone for something easier that I could have actually worked. I’m hoping that by October I may have grasped the fundamentals!

I tell you, the planning is harder work than the running!

Have a lovely Saturday!

Helen

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 2nd, 2011 at 4:21 pm and is filed under Running. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.