Day 3 & 4

I took yesterday off as a rest day, but ran this morning. Now I am running faster than my daughter who struggled to keep up with me. I think she's a little challenged in the endurance department after 2 runs already this week.

Day 2: Regained Some Vigor

I weighed in at 212.5 lbs this morning. I don't expect any serious weight loss until I start running at least 10 miles per week, and even then the weight loss won't get too significant until I reach 30 miles per week.

I did my 7 cycles of 1 min. running and 2 min. walking this morning. Today, my daughter and I were about equal for the distance. She tried to outrun me again, but I caught up with her. I think she hasn't fully recovered from yesterday.

Day 1: And So It Begins

My schedule this week is to run 5 days with 7 repeats of 1 minute of running followed by 2 minutes of walking. I ran that today with my 7 year old daughter, who is in better shape than I. She had no problems with the run, and neither really did I, but she had a lot more energy and ran a lot faster than I did. My legs feel a little tired, but not really to bad. I'm looking forward to tomorrow's run.

I weighed myself this morning, too, and I was 216.5 fully clothed. That probably means I'm about 214 in the buff (sorry for the visual). I'm not planning on dieting as I train, so it will be interesting how much weight I'll lose just from the running.

My biggest fear right now is getting injured. I'm 38 years old, and I'll be 39 by the time I actually run the marathon. That, plus the fact that I developed plantar fasciitis 3 years ago when I last did a lot of running, has me a little concerned. I hope to avoid injury by sticking to a fairly easy pace in my base-building weeks. I know I'll develop a certain amount of speed just from the strengthening of my joints and muscles, as well as the weight loss, so I'll just have to be content with that.

You May Know Me

from another blog. I am an avid chessplayer and challenged myself if February to work up to and complete a mental marathon of sorts by solving 1001 tactical chess problems in a single day. This blog is something a little different. Another of my chess compatriots took it upon himself to do a running program following completion of the chess program. I, too, have been an on-again-off-again runner just like with chess. Now, I endeavor to undertake a longer term goal that will dwarf my 4 month chess effort many times over.

I plan to use Bob Glover's The Runner's Handbook and The Competitive Runner's Handbook as a source of programs to follow until I reach where I want to be before I run my first marathon. Note that I said "where I want to be." Some people are satisfied with training the bare minimum required to complete the marathon. I want to do better than that. I want to run my marathon in under 4 hours. That works out to better than 9:09 miles for the entire 26.2 mile distance.

I will start with the very beginner's running program. This will build me up to running 20 minutes straight at one time over the course of 10 weeks. Then, I will proceed to follow several running programs to build upon this base. By the time my base weekly running mileage is where I want it to be, I will be running a baseline of 50 miles per week. This, I have loosely calculated, to take me about 60 weeks, barring injury. So, by the end of August or so, I will be running 50 miles per week. I will hold this base then for another 6 weeks (at least).* Then, in October, I will begin a 16 week marathon training program.

I will post my training progress daily, so the reader may follow it from start to finish. I'll also try to relate new things learned along the way, as well. So, buckle in for the long haul, pardner. CelticDeath is going to run a marathon.

*It will depend on the timing of marathons coinciding with the end of the actual marathon training schedule.