One Month Down...

Tomorrow marks one month since I registered for the Disney Marathon. So, where am I at in this endeavor? What have I been up to? Fortunately, I've been running. :)

For the month of August, my total mileage was just about 60 miles, including a great 14 mile run yesterday north of Baltimore on the NCR Trail, one of my longest training runs ever. This was the highest mileage month I've done since the Spring. Even before registering for Disney, I had planned on having a fairly low key summer after the Baltimore Ten Miler in late June. This allowed me to focus just on some maintenance long runs (about 6-8 miles each), as well as participate in some of the Maryland Road Runner Club of America Women's Distance Festival, a series of about a dozen women's only 5K's in the MD/DC/VA area. Right now I'm exactly where I should be in prep for my next half marathon, the Philadelphia Distance Run on September 20th, and am actually even a bit ahead of the game as far as marathon training goes.

I've also been spending time trying to figure out exactly how I'm going to do this thing. As a fan of interval running and Jeff Galloway's training methods, I immediately picked up his marathon training book. I'm following many of the basics of his "To Finish" program since that is exactly what I want to do. I have no grand illusions about a finishing time...just finishing and finishing well is the goal. I've also been finalizing my fall race plans, and how they can fit into and help my training program. I've been lucky to craft my schedule so that most fit into the mileage I need to accomplish that week anyway....so, especially in the case of the Metric Marathon (26.2K/16.3 miles), it'll be more of a course supported training run for me than an all out race.

Here's what my fall race calendar is beginning to look like -
9/11 - Run to Remember 5K
9/13 - Howard County Police Pace 5K
9/20 - Philadelphia Distance Run (13.1)
10/4 - Annapolis Striders Metric Marathon
10/25 - Marine Corps Marathon 10K
11/8 - Race to End Women's Cancer (13.1)
11/22 - Annapolis Striders Cold Turkey 10K
12/13 - Annapolis Striders 15K Anniversary Run
12/20 - Celtic Solstice 5 miler

I also did some non-running things in August, such as getting onto a bike for the first time in at least 10 years, and even participating in a bike tour in Galena, MD. I also completed an intensive group training class at my gym. The group training was a great way for me to do some good basic core and strength training. I had horrific doubts about my ability to make it through the class after the first session back in July, but by the last class I was able to completely 100 abdominal crunches! I'm hoping to work with the same trainer and some of the same classmates once a week for eight weeks this fall.

So, with the end of August already here, I'm looking forward to hopefully cooling temps and lower humidity. September will mark one year since I was back on my feet after my stress fracture. I have run consistently every month for the last year....something which I had not done in my first two years of running. The Striders 10K training class will be starting soon, and this year I will be a mentor rather than a student, as I have been for the previous two years. Hopefully I can help others with some of their goals, as so many people have done for me.