Reasons for Running #13 --- Training for Goals

Last week I mentioned that I was starting a training plan for a fall marathon. As of Sunday I have completed week 2 of said training and so far so good. Granted, so far my long runs have not been more than 6 miles, with this weeks being 7. I have been doing my best to maintain a controlled pace during my runs and this Sunday's was great.

My goal for the marathon is to break 4 hours. I have ran one previously but was over that mark. Now I am trying to better my training a control how fast my runs are (even the shorter ones). On Sunday I ran 6 miles with the following splits... 8:47, 8:43, 8:36, 8:36, 8:33, and 8:26. I was extremely happy with those splits and felt great doing the run. I hope I can maintain similar times on all long runs.

This week is another low mileage week when you look at the overall plan. My plan has me running 4 days a week. Run, Off, Run, Run, Off Long Run, Off. and the cycle starts over. This week is 3, 4, 3, 7 for the distances. Nothing to write home about, but still a nice chunk compared to what I have been doing over the past years since my first marathon. 8 years ago today was when I completed that race with my brother and father.

When it comes to training...DIET is my weakness. I need to eat a more balanced and healthy "runners" diet, but find it hard to stay disciplined. If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know.

Until next week....Find a Reason to Run!

Reasons for Running #12 --- The Joy of the Run

It has been some time since I have made a post to my Reasons for Running blog and I believe that part of the reason for this is because I found running to become very stale... Not that I was not running, it was just hard to find the motivation to write about it and inspire others, if that is what I am doing. The other reason is life has gotten busy.

Recently my wife and I have tried a couple of the obstacle run events and I must say that has jump started a new found interest in running. Also about 2 years ago I got inspiration from an old friend to start racing again (though nowhere near as fast as I once was), thank you Adrian. I hope that we will be able to run several more races together.

Now that the mushy stuff is behind me, I would like to say that I am training for my second marathon. I plan to run this Marathon on November 9th, 2013, and I am stuck between a choice of two. The first choice being the Soldier Marathon in Columbus Georgia and the second being the Rock and Roll Marathon in Savannah Georgia. Please feel free to make you suggestions. I have been building some base mileage the past few weeks and will be jumping into some series training over the summer months. I hope that it does not burn me out, LITERALLY!!! Running in Georgia in the summer is HOT!.

I am so thankful that I have a support group in my wife, daughter and parents as I begin this bold step toward training for a very difficult running distance. I hope to track my progress through this blog and possibly on Facebook.

We all need reasons to run and I am working on finding mine all over again!!!