And so it begins . . .

Today was Day 1 of my 18 week journey to the 2014 NYC Marathon.  Though I've been back in the running saddle for about a month now after recovering from a stress fracture in my foot, today was the first official training run.  We just got back from vacation on Saturday, and so Saturday afternoon I set down and began researching and comparing different training plans.  There are a bunch out there - some that are free, some that are not.  Some that call for running 3 days a week, and some that call for 6.  The options are probably just as numerous as the 52,000 runners who will be running on Sunday, November 2 through all 5 boroughs of New York.  

As all of the plans were different, one thing that all marathon plans have in common is a long run at the end of the week.  Each week, that long run progressively gets longer, preparing you for the 26.2 on race day.  Most plans have the long run set up on either Saturday or Sunday.  As Sundays are not the best day for me to do a long run, I decided to customize a plan that would allow me to do my long runs on Friday instead, which is the day that I take off from the church.  That would then still allow me to have family time on Saturday, and not be completely exhausted during that time with them.

One thing I have done as I customized my plan was that I borrowed some features of some other plans that I found.  One plan - the Run Less, Run Faster plan - calls for just 3 runs a week: an interval run, a tempo run (a pace that is about 30 seconds faster than a comfortable 5K pace), and a long run (which should be typically quite a bit slower - a nice, easy run).  I've been drawn to that type of plan, because I know that I have a history of injury now (2 tibial stress fractures with one in each leg, arthritis in big toe which has required 1 surgery, and a stress fracture of the 3rd metatarsal on the same foot as my arthritic big toe).  So I really want to get the training in, but I also want to remain injury free.  I have added a 4th run after reading through some of the other plans, which is simply a slow, easy 3 mile the day following the long run.  

This morning was the first interval run.  Some days I am going to go to the track and do the intervals there, but other days I going to do a run that has a funny name, but simply because it is Swedish:  fartlek.  A fartlek is a stinky run (aren't they all?).  Actually it is a word that means "speed play."  It is where you pick out a landmark in front of you, and you run hard until you get to that point.  Once you hit that point, you do not stop running, but you do slow down to a pace where you can regain your breath and your heart rate.  And then you do it over and over again.  It basically takes away some of the monotony from running around a track, or simply running the same pace all the time.  

I ran a route that allowed me to tackle some of the few hills that are actually in my neighborhood.  I was intentional to run hard up the hills and for a distance afterwards.  The plan I'm doing usually calls for a total of 3 miles on interval days (Mondays), and so I started with a half-mile warm up, and then I did the intervals the rest of the way.  I did start my run a little late this morning - 7:20.  That will probably not happen too many more times this summer, as the heat and humidity will be a bear.  

Tuesdays are a cross-training day.  In the morning I'll do yoga to improve my flexibility and core strength, and then later in the day I'll go to the gym and do some weights with high reps.  I will admit that I am not looking forward to Wednesdays tempo run, but I know that it is an important part to the training.  

Somehow, this all has really started to feel real.