Raleigh Rock & Roll Marathon - 4/12/15

Raleigh Rock & Roll Marathon – 4/12/15

Today was the first day of our 12 week Half-Marathon training.  The plan actually started yesterday, but since Mondays are “rest” days, today was the official start of this adventure.  Two miles was all that was required today, so it was a quick trip to the gym to knock it out and then head to the hot tub.  The weather was perfect for outside running, but since I need to work on pacing myself, the treadmill will be my best friend for awhile.  Not to worry though because tomorrow is going to be nice too, and I plan to get the bike back on the road for the first time this year.  I hope to see the trees passing me by at 16 mph during lunch tomorrow, while the wind blows through my beard.  🙂

My wife and I signed up for the Raleigh Rock & Roll Marathon many many months ago when we were feeling, ummm, for lack of a better word, I’ll just say crazy.  We were on a high from doing some other races and thought that signing up so far in advance would give us plenty of time to get ready for it.  Well, as the high wore off and other priorities took over, so did training.  You know how that goes.  Anyways, awhile back, we decided that we bit off a little bit more than we could chew, so we opted to training for the half marathon instead.  Now that we are 12 weeks from the event, it’s time to get busy training.  On top of starting to run again, I have also joined my wife in eating low carb, hoping to trim down a little bit before April.  Cycling will help with that as well, so the plan is in place.  Now for the execution, that’s the hard part, at least for me.

The particular running plan we chose has rest days on Mondays and Fridays, run days of Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays (long run), and Sundays (recovery).  Wednesdays, as well as some Fridays, and an option on Sundays, are cross train days.  I will probably be cycling 2 to 3 times a week also, sometimes on run days and sometimes on CT days.  With all this and also eating better should help prepare us to run/jog/walk/crawl/finish our first half marathon.  The best part is that it is a Rock & Roll event, so there will be bands playing at every mile. Smash Mouth is the headliner, so I assume they will be at the Start/Finish Line.  There is no shame for us to have downgraded to a half marathon, even though we signed up and paid for the full 26.2 miles.  It was only $10 less to sign up for the half, so we will only lose $20 total, and that’s well worth it if it means we survive to the finish line.  Our future may have a full marathon in it some day, but not this year.  We are too busy of a family at this point in our lives to commit to the rigorous training schedule required for 26.2 miles.  Maybe after we retire, who knows.  For now, the half is the goal, and for me at least, it is a major challenge, and I look forward to conquering it in Rock & Rock style.  Wish me, and both of us, luck on this new adventure.

Thanks.

Simon A.


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