This Week Last Year: Marathon Preparation
by Blaine Moore on Saturday, October 27th, 2007 | 2 Comments
This week last year was dominated once again by thoughts of the marathon, but this time I wrote my series on marathon preparation.
- My marathon preparation series consisted of 9 articles of 9 bullet points each. The first couple of articles just happened to come out that way, so I ran with it and made an effort to make the rest of them match that format. The articles were written for my friends that were running their first marathon last year, four of whom did it this week last year at the Marine Corps Marathon. I am running the race tomorrow with one of those guys.
- The series on rest continued this week last year with Scott’s article about why we rest and how to fuel it. A simple rule of thumb is to remember that if you do not eat after a workout, then you just wasted your time.
- This week two years ago, I wrote about the Mystic Places Marathon. That race was a lot of fun, but it no longer exists. I also discussed an old weight program that I used to use to get back in shape. My training philosophy has changed a bit in the past two years, though, so I would not necessarily follow that program as written any more.
I along with my sister have started preparing for our first marathon. We are blogging at marathonpreparation.blogspot.com and researching various websites to garner useful information which can help us in the preparation. Your website has a lot of information, but at this time I feel it is for seasoned runners. Hopefully in a few months with sufficient training I will be able to utilize the helpful information provided.
GB,
Most of those particular articles are really meant for preparation in the week leading up to your race and immediately following your race, so that you can give yourself the best chance of enjoying your marathon and then recover from it afterwards. I see no reason to be miserable after the run, after all. I highly recommend revisiting them when you get closer to your race.
In January, I am going to be releasing a book and a membership program about marathoning and marathon preparation that will have a lot more detail and specifics. Those 9 articles were written for some friends that were all running their first marathon last year and I wanted to just give them some quick tips.
Have you decided on a specific race to train for yet? I think that a year is plenty of time to get ready if you really want to run a marathon, although I did not run my first one until 7 years or so after I started running. PBS recently had a show about a group of people that went from completely sedentary to running a marathon in 9 months. One person got injured, but everyone else made it to the starting line and finished the race, and most are still running now.
Good luck with your training! I’m looking forward to seeing how you and your sister progress.