Marathon!

A few days ago I signed up to run my first MARATHON!

I am going to run the BMO Vancouver Marathon on May 6th - conveniently on my 30th Birthday. My brother, Scott, and I are going to train together and it should be a gruelling yet super enriching experience.

I've started back on the running train and it's been a different experience compared to when I trained for my half marathon in October. First and foremost, I now have to watch for black ice! This invention below has been very helpful though…

They are called YakTrax and they are a life saver when running on ice and snow. I highly recommend that every winter runner gets a pair!

It's also been different because I've been doing a lot of my runs solo. Can you say boring?? CBC Radio and I are becoming very close friends ;) My bro and I are going to start making it a priority to meet for at least one run a week, but as he put it, "he hasn't been in shape for 20 years", so he has some pre-training to do in order to create a foundation. He's in his own personal boot camp at the moment and he should be ready to train with his little bro by mid-January. They say that slow and steady wins the marathon training race so slow and steady we shall be...

My body is feeling awesome and I have made sure to stretch well and keep up with my yoga. I am following a self-prescribed combination of a couple of different programs (Hal Higdon's, Bruce Deacon's and John Stanton's). I wanted to have some flexibility in the program because I am going to be away a fair amount in the new year. I also didn't want to be running 6 days a week because I am hoping to simultaneously train for a June 9th Triathlon in Wasa Lake (we'll see if I can manage both ;) ). I am going to do most of my long runs on Saturdays, even though the race is on a Sunday, because I like starting my weekend off on a really positive note. Another factor in choosing my training program was that I wanted to be able to take Cooper (and Patch when he's here) on runs with me, but I won't take them for more than 10K (I won't take Coops for more than 5K right now, but he'll be a year in February and then we can up his distances). I wanted a program that offered some shorter runs in the week so I could be with my doggies because that's a really enjoyable experience for me.  

REAL training starts on January 2nd and then it's 18 weeks of suffering to reach the goal. I'm excited about pushing myself far beyond my comfort zone and about taking on a challenge that seemed literally impossible to me 6 months ago. It will be a good way to set myself up for a productive and fulfilling 30th year.

I will be keeping a training journal here so please stay tuned for updates.

Here's to creating new limits!

Kyle