Day One: Channeling Whitesnake...

Though I keep searching for an answer, I never seem to find what I'm looking for. Oh lord, I pray, You give me strength to carry on. Cause I know what it means to walk along the lonely street of dreams, and here I go again on my own, goin down the only road Ive ever known, like a drifter, I was born to walk alone, and I've made up my mind, I aint wasting no more time.

I couldn't help but hum this song to myself as I started my marathon training this morning. I've decided... it's going to be my "Road to Boston Soundtrack."

So, this morning, I was all psyched to get up early and get a nice run in to kickoff the training. I woke up at 5:15am. I laid in bed for a couple of minutes and got up. I looked out the window and it was still pitch black outside! Grrrrr. So, I decided to lay in bed for another 15 minutes and see if the sun was starting to come up by then. Luckily, it was, so I got out on the road about 15 minutes later than I had wanted; 5:45am.

Starting out, I felt great. I was listening to this new podcast that I just discovered: Phedippidations and appropriately enough, it was about Blogging (well, partially at least). The guy that does these podcast does part of it while he runs his long runs. It's awesome. It's like having a running partner running with you. Breathing hard and talking about running. Friday I listened to one about "Junk miles" what we call recovery miles or guilt miles... More on that later...

After almost getting hit by a police patrol car (that would have made for an interesting story... and lawsuit), I started off running about a 9:30/9:40 pace. I kept this pace up for most of the run, except near the end, I had a few 10 minute plus minutes. But overall, I felt great. I was nervous that I was going to be a little fatigued from running, tennis, and strength training yesterday, but, I wasn't at all. I had to stop after 4.72 miles though, because I had to use the bathroom. Somehow, I've got to get my digestion system better trained. It's shortening my morning runs regularly.

So, here I go...

My goals for marathon training (in no particular order, but numbered because, well... I like numbers.

1. Qualify for the Boston Marathon, which means shaving 1:07 off my previous marathon time in an early december marathon.
2. Regularly incorporate different types of runs into my training: speedwork, tempo runs, and hill training.
3. Eat better.
4. Lose 30-35 pounds (will also make me way faster).
5. Take care of my body and run injury-free during this training and through the marathon
6. Stay sane and figure out better ways to incorporate aspects of regular life into training... for example, make more time for boyfriend, friends, and family.

Me on day one of training. Post-run (obviously).