After a day of rest after the Virginia Beach Half-Marathon and a day off work for Labor Day, I’m back on the trail. I did it. I trained for a half-marathon in 5 weeks.  According to Hal Higdon’s Novice 2 schedule, he recommends running 12 miles at the end of Week 5, but since the half-marathon fell on that day, I figured 1.1 more miles wouldn’t hurt, plus I signed up for Virginia Beach before I started training for the Las Vegas Marathon.

Now the real training begins.

For the next three months, I have to prepare the second half of the marathon.  This will be the hardest challenge I will ever face, especially at my weight, which is still 78 pounds over what the BMI calculator considers a healthy weight. In order for me to run a great marathon, I’ve got to shed some pounds.  You’d think after 5 weeks and 104 miles of running, I’d be losing pounds, but I haven’t dropped any weight at all.  I feel like I’ve lost 10 pounds, though. My clothes feel like they fit better. From here on out, I have to concentrate on my diet and also get in some strength training.  I know that’s what I have to do to shed those pounds. My body is used to running now, so it’s time to step it up and get serious.  Interesting how my thoughts today are very close to the thoughts I had after my big run during my Alaska marathon training (see blog here).

So, back on the trail, the 3 miles was easy, but I could feel my legs still being pretty tight.  The weather changed to the fall season overnight. It was like someone hit a switch, and now the temps are much cooler, which makes for perfect running weather.  I was feeling some pain on my right ankle towards the end of the run.  Not sure what that’s all about, but I’m stretching more now, so hopefully that will help relieve it. Afterward, I started my strength training at Sport & Health.

Summary:

Location: Capital Crescent Trail, Bethesda, MD
Conditions: Clear, 68
Goal: 3 miles
Results: 3 miles non-stop
Time: 36:06
Pace: 12:02/mile
Total Training Miles to Date: 107
Click here to view my complete training schedule

Thoughts:
I need to really focus on diet and strength training from here on out. It requires being prepared, having meals ready to go the night before.  It didn’t help that I only got 4 hours of sleep last night, so as you can see, I need to work on a lot of things from here on out. This is going to be quite the change.

What I’ll remember most:
My ankle starting to hurt. Hope it goes away.