Marathon Training | Surf City Marathon

If you recall, last May, this happened:

When I registered in May, February 2013 seemed like light-years away. I mean, here I was, registering for a race that was nearly 9 months away. I'd never registered for anything so far in advance, let alone had just finished my first two half marathons and here I was registering for a full! Crazy pants, I tell ya what.

And here we are. November. I'm 80 days away from toeing the line of my first full marathon. Holy freaking cow. If you've paid attention recently, you know that this weekend, I ran my third half marathon in a span of just 5 weeks. I PRed twice in October, ran a solely fun-run this weekend, and am running my sixth and final half marathon of the year (and ever!) on December 26 in Los Angeles.

Technically, I started training six weeks ago for Surf City. Running the Allstate ATL half, and Athens and now Wine & Dine These halfs have given me an incredible base for the next 12 weeks of training. I'm excited, nervous, antsy and optimistic all at once (I hear that's normal)! But regardless, February will be here before I know it - and that means the time is near!

What does training look like for me, you wonder? You can see it here (picture link opens to Google doc):

I took part of the Hal Higdon Novice 2 marathon plan and modified it a bit to fit what I thought would work well for me - for example, I added speedwork during the week. Through these halfs, I've learned that while I hate don't love speedwork, I can definitely see it making a difference and contributing to my abilities to boost out a little bit faster each week. The beauty of this being my first full is that I have the opportunity to tweak things and re-arrange and adapt to my abilities as time goes on. As you can see, so far, so good!

My only worry thus far, is while I find myself super motivated during the week (which means getting up at 5:40 am to get to the gym by 6ish), I'm struggling with the long runs (not on a race day, as few as they've been). I'm nervous for when mileage increases exponentially and I'm stuck on trying to make it through a 17-miler...

Advice for a newbie marathoner? How do you find motivation for those super long runs? Tips, tricks, and things to know?