Structured Training

So I did some math while looking at potential spring marathons and realized something - Many of them are in March.  March is not that far away from a training plan perspective - only 14-16 weeks of training.  Depending on which marathon plan, that means that training needs to start ASAP.  So, in order to save money, Rebecca and I discussed keeping the chosen race local (within driveable distance).  Now that things are mostly settled at home, we have finally discussed our options.  There are basically 2 options that fit our requirements:

1) National Marathon - Washington, DC March 21

2) Shamrock Marathon - VA Beach, March 22

We haven't registered for either race yet (fees don't go up till the end of the month), but needless to say, I best be training now.  So that is what I started last week.  My first week of marathon training for the spring.  Because either race was only 15 weeks away, I had to do some schedule condensing.  The good news is that up until the honeymoon, I was consistently running, so I already have a good base.  Its just time to kick that up a notch and get into the formalized schedule.  Last year, I used Hal Higdon's Marathon Training Guide as my baseline and it seemed to give me the structure I needed.  I am planning on using that again.

Last week's long run went well.  I started off a little faster than planned, but settled into my goal long run pace and with about 3 miles to go, picked up my pace to marathon pace.  Surprisingly, I felt great.  I ended up doing 12 miles at an average of 8:20/pace.  I felt a bit of soreness in my upper and lower legs, but since Rebecca was nice enough to buy me this for my Hannukah present, my lower legs feel great!  And for the upper legs, I'm going the foam roller route to make them feel better.  So far so good.

This week's long run goes up to 13...