I first met with my group a couple of weekends ago. There are about 30 people from the Buffalo area running for the same charity as me. The training groups are broken into 3 different groups with 3 different coaches. The northern suburbs, southern suburbs, and the city. I am with the city group-- Our first run was through a cemetery-- which sounds creepy but it's a GREAT run.
It's the Forest Lawn Cemetery-- not to be confused with the one in L.A. where Michael Jackson is buried-- although it has plenty of celebs there. We ran past Rick James' grave and President Grover Cleveland's resting place. This course is also very challenging-- full of hills. We ran a good 4 miles through the cemetery and then into Delaware Park:
The total run was 8.5 miles. I ran with the husband of our main coach-- He's a great runner with several marathons under his belt. He is also very fast and kept me going hard. We maintained a 7:50 pace-- not bad for a first training run.
The coaches asked what my marathon goal is-- I told them to finish under 4 hours. They feel it's very do-able. I am hoping they are correct.
I've been keeping with the training program they prescribed and at this point putting in 30 plus miles per week. I missed last weekend's group training because of a college reunion in the Poconos-- but back at it this Saturday.
Hope everyone is doing well!
Hey Patrick! No worries. Glad you are back to posting. Also happy to see you found a group with a coach. That makes a world of difference in training.
ReplyDeleteChicago should be on your list after Disney. (That is if you decide to keep up with this craziness! LOL!)
Patrick - thanks for all your support and encouragement the past few weeks! As you will find out, it really makes a difference when you are out on the course in no man's land. After January you *will* understand.
ReplyDeleteOkay - your first piece of unsolicited advice - whether you want it or not. It's great to have a time goal, but there is a lot of things that happen during a marathon that you will experince for the first time - especially mentally. Have your time goal in mind - but also have the frame of mind that will allow you to mentally finish *if* it becomes apparent that you are not going to meet your goal time. The mental game is just as important as the physical game.
Oh - and Hammer Endurolytes - the *best* electrolyte replacement I've ever used. Check it out here: http://www.hammernutrition.com/za/HNT?PAGE=PRODUCT&CAT=ELECT&PROD.ID=4037&OMI=10104,10082,10047&AMI=10104
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