Marathon Training

Well, it's official!  I'm decidedly in marathon training now.  How did that happen?  Pretty easily actually, haha.  I've been wanting to get a coach for a little while now and finally decided to bite the bullet.  I've had a coach in the past and always enjoyed having someone other than myself in charge of and responsible for planning and periodizing my training.  Plus I like the accountability of having a coach and knowing that someone else is invested in your efforts.

So, upon return from FL I signed up with a local coach whose specialty is running --> Tom Clifford of Without Limits.  We discussed whether to train for an early season full or half and in the end the full won out.  For me this was mainly due to the fact that I know I want to eventually get to the full distance so why not just jump right into it?  And, a lot of the awesome training buddies I've met will be training for the full so it makes sense since we'll be on similar schedules.  And, if I eventually get as fast as I'd like to I'll beat my half PR in the full anyways (yeah, keep dreaming ;)

I'm excited about working with a coach and what's really cool is that he has practices each week where all his athletes show up and share in the pain of mile repeats, track workouts, tempo runs, or whatever the punishment may be!  I think I'm really going to like the camaraderie that I envision these team practices will afford.  Most coaches can write you a training plan, but do they get to see you, actually coach you, and provide in-person feedback to you each and every week?  For me, it's a new dimension to the coach/athlete relationship and I cant wait for the first practice on Tuesday!!!

Lastly to put this out there right from the start, my goal is to run a sub 3 hour marathon in March.