It's Time To Train

     Today marks 16 weeks till the Mercy Health Glass City Marathon.  If you haven't started your marathon training yet, you probably should look to start NOW.  Looking for that right plan to follow, well I can say with 100 percent certainty that there is no one plan that works for everyone.  Whether you are a first time marathoner or this is your 100th time toeing the line, everyone requires a different way of doing it.  Having said that, at the end of the day it is all about getting enough miles in that your body will be prepared for the stress a marathon can put on you.  Assuming everything goes well, I will finally be running the Mercy Health Glass City Marathon this year.  For my training plan, I am literally starting today, which is a couple weeks behind where I wanted to be.  It was my fault as this year I am using a modified Hal Higdon intermediate #2 plan for the mileage, but I am using a customized heart rate training program from Alisha at Elite Physical Therapy to handle my pace zones.   

     First, as I said before, if you are taking on the Mercy Health Glass City Marathon you should be starting now.  This year the Mercy Health Glass City Marathon staff are offering perks for those that choose this race for their first marathon experience.  So if you are thinking of going after 26.2 then this is the place and the year to do it. If you don't have a plan to follow, here is a few of the more popular ones out there.

Hal Higdon - arguably the most popular plan out there.  He offers plans for the complete novice to the most advanced runners out there.  I used a slightly modified version of his intermediate plan when I trained for my first marathon and I am using a modified version of his intermediate #2 plan for this year.

Jeff Galloway Training - To be honest I am not familiar with his plan and never used it myself, but I have heard his name mentioned quite a lot when it came to training plans for beginners so I thought I would list it.

CoolRunnings.com - Just another free online program to look at.

Hansons Marathon Method - This is a strategy that I would only recommend to someone who has at least one if not two marathons under their belt and has been running for some time.  I purchased their book and read it cover to cover and was fascinated by their approach.  They buck the trend of conventional wisdom when it comes to the long run we have heard so much about.  To be honest, I have yet to try this method, but I want to attempt it at some point.  The link is to their free basic plan, but I want to caution you, if you want to do their plan, read the book!

For those of you taking on the Owens Corning GCM Half Marathon or the Medical Mutual 5K, your training will start soon, so get out there now and get a few miles under your belt in preparation for your training.  Most of the training programs I have listed have half marathon plans and a couple have 5k plans, but any of these plans can be modified for your specific situation.

The Wagon Ran Me Over

   

     The holidays are over and all my excuses are used up so it's time to get off my ass and reverse the trend.  I had fallen off the maintain wagon a few months back, but surprising I have been maintaining my weight almost the entire time.  It started with forgetting to track every thing I ate, followed by larger portions at meals, followed by more and more "cheat days" and then the holidays.  It started with one cookie here and a chocolate treat there, till I was in all out binge at every chance I got using the excuse "its the holidays"over and over.

     To be honest I was really afraid of stepping on the scale for fear of what I would see.  When I finally got the guts to do it, I was shocked it wasn't worse than it turned out to be.  I was only three pounds away from getting back into my acceptable 10 pound range.  Now, the goal isn't to just lose those 3 pounds, its to get back to my goal weight and then some.  My goal is 170 pounds which means I am working towards a 13 pound loss.  My plan moving forwards is to decide on what my caloric intake should be, track everything I stuff my face with and stick to my workout routine.   So look for the return of Wednesday Weigh In as soon as next week!

Running In Place

     Running in place is exactly how I feel right now in life and literally with the new addition to my training arsenal.  First just to get it out of the way, I feel this way because I have some big changes that are on the horizon for Mandy and myself, but I cannot say anything or move forward till a few things happen that are out of my control.  I am not a fan of feeling like I don't have control of my situation, but I'll just sit on top of this rocket and wait for the launch button to be pressed.

     Now to the real reason for this post.  I have been stressing about my training for the Mercy Health Glass City Marathon and how I am gonna get it done.  I'll admit it, I don't like running when its cold, but I am more than willing to do it if I have to.  Due to my life and work schedule the best time for me to run is very early in the morning, and running in the dark when its cold with ice and snow worries me.  Sense I don't want to risk a slip and fall injury and the last time I ran on the banked corner track at the gym I had major IT Band issues, so I was left with one option, a treadmill.  

     In my search for the perfect treadmill I asked for suggestion on Facebook and Instagram, while I got a couple credible suggestions I still had to do a bunch of my own research.  I really didn't want to spend more than $700 on one, however during my research I found that that price only works if you want to walk or lightly jog.  The more I read it looked like $1200 would be the low end to get what I was looking for.  I wanted a mill that had a wide and long running surface, quick access to incline and speed controls and a super quiet motor.  While there were three that fit the bill with really high customer and critic ratings, I eventually decided to go with the Sole F80 for all the reasons I listed, the availability and sale price.

     So far I have had three runs and I performed a heart rate test for my running coach so she can set up my heart rate zones for my marathon training plan.  I have been very impressed with it to this point.  It is whisper quiet and the built in speakers work nicely while watching Netflix on my iPad.  The incline is very smooth when in motion andthe quick access buttons on the hand rails makes changing speed and/or incline so easy.