Half Way Through Marathon Training

Nine weeks ago last Sunday I started training for the Austin Marathon in earnest. I’ve made it this far without any major injuries and with only a few minor ones (sore knees, small muscle pulls).  I’m at the halfway point time wise, but still have the majority of my planned training miles to go.

I’ve learned a few things so far:

• Even though they’ve already charged $100 to run the marathon they’ll still charge a $7.50 processing fee (which they don’t tell you about until the last page of the registration process).
• Don’t run if you’ve eaten Chuy’s Tex-Mex that day or the day before.
• Don’t run after eating if when you finished you think “wow I’m full” or “I wish I was wearing sweat pants”.
• Rabbits will scare the dickens out of you in the dark (and you them).
• Synthetic running socks are worth $8 a pair for fighting blisters (they cost $9 a pair, but what are you going to do?).

The stats so far:

•  I’ve run 192.48 miles (out of a planned 177)
•  My average time per mile is 9:18 (week 9)
•  My longest run was 15.8 miles which I wrote about here.
•  My average weight for week 9 was 152.3 lbs (down 4.3 lbs from the start)
•  My average body fat for week 9 was 15.2% (down 1.9 percentage points from the start)

I’ve said it before and I’ll probably say it again, but my goal is to stretch every single day.  My stretching has become almost nonexistent.  I’ve only stretched 3 times in the last two weeks and I think it is starting to take a toll.  I’m more sore and have had a few small muscle pulls.  If I can’t keep on top of it I’m afraid that my gait and stride will be affected and it is all downhill from there.  Plus, running tight and sore just isn’t as much fun (and it isn’t that much fun to start with).

 

Tags: Marathon, Running