Training Starts Monday: 16 Weeks to Suntrust National Marathon

Well, those weeks of eating horribly, training sporadically, and sleeping poorly are coming to an end.  It's been a few weeks since the Marine Corps Marathon ended and I've taken a few weeks to relax, race a little, and prepare my training schedule for the Suntrust National Marathon, right here in D.C. on Saturday March 20th.

I'm going to take a training schedule from the book, "Runner's World Run Less, Run Faster: Become a Faster, Stronger Runner with the Revolutionary FIRST Training Program" and see how it goes.  I did a half-assed version for the MCM and it showed.  I ran three days a week, but each day was just a run, and not a speed workout, tempo run, or distance run like the book recommends.  And I didn't cross train.  I'm looking forward to the track workout Monday night to kick things off and see how this works for me.

I'm hoping to use this next marathon to qualify for Boston but the book hints that I'm not quite fast enough yet, and it's probably right.  So I'm going to start the training slower than needed for Boston and see if, over the course of training, I'm able to pick the pace up and ease into Boston-worthy training runs.  I just haven't been working my speed enough since my return to running.

Things are looking good in the speed department, however, I've felt myself getting faster over the past few weeks, although only marginally.  Knowing now that I need to give every run a specific purpose and respect my non-running days should help put me in the catbird seat for Boston.  Wish me luck!