Week I

Today marks the end of my first week of training for the Louisiana Marathon. It was… okay. I stayed pretty excited all week about it being the beginning of training, but I’m not going to lie to you: I have a habit of being pace crazy. This disease makes you look at your watch every five seconds and if you’re even a second slower than you when you last looked at it, then girl you better fix it! The issue with that is that I’m not improving my runs, I’m just creating a downward spiral and will inevitably burn out, hurt myself, or both. I need to remind myself I am a work in progress. I’m starting to accept the fact that I can’t start with the same speed as I used to before Covid. I didn’t run at all during quarantine and the fact of the matter is that I’m not as strong or as fit as I was beforehand. AND THATS OKAY. If anything, that will just make this whole training process that much more rewarding.

On the plus side, I DID stop looking at my watch, and it’s so weirdly freeing. I’m so used to obsessing over my time every single run (Yes, even during what is supposed to be an “easy” run). This whole first month, I’m really just focusing on what feels good, bettering my diet so I CAN feel good, and working on my form. I want to enjoy the run, which I think I forgot that’s why I started. By not focusing on the time at all and just making sure I get my mileage in, I can enjoy myself and avoid injuries.

So, other than focusing on my training schedule, which I found on RunnersWorld, I also decided at the end of each week I can look back and see what worked and what didn’t work for me and adjust whatever I need to for the next week. For this week in particular, I’ve noticed I’ve been getting sore in my New Balance 890s. So, to combat this, I plan on going back to running in my Ultraboosts and slowly incorporate the New Balances. I also would like to try to run more in the early mornings so I can get more accustomed to those early race mornings.

I’m very excited (and nervous let’s be real) about training for the next four months, but if anyone has any tips and tricks for this gal’s first marathon let me know down below!

Until next time,

Amy