Many of you who clicked on this probably thought, “hasn’t she already started training for a marathon?” In some ways, that’s true. As soon as I finished the One City Marathon back in March, I knew I would run another. I told everyone I was done because I wanted to test whether I truly wanted it, but deep down I knew I would be back for more. I bought Hanson’s Marathon Training Program, started doing my research, and jumped in with two feet with the goal of qualifying for Boston – which for me, means finishing the marathon in about 3 ½ hours, or the equivalent of 8 minutes per mile for 26.2 miles.
Even though I’ve been running for years, I’m a relative newbie to the idea of training. I’ve always just set a daily goal, run that, and gone to the gym a few times per week. I didn’t pay much attention to my pace, I never tracked anything except the distance, and I would often semi-frustrate other people when I would tell them I had no idea how fast I was going during a group run. In the last few months of digging into what a good training block should look like, here’s what I’ve learned…
