Registered for marathon

I sent my registration in for the marathon on Monday. I just checked online and the check has cleared. So I made it into the race before it filled up. This should provide extra motivation for me, as now I'm registered for the race and I've paid my cash. I will be pushed to train hard because I don't want to back out of something that I've committed to and paid for.

Not as bad as I thought

I got my GPS today and took it for a run. I ran 2.2 miles in about 18 minutes. I was able to sustain my old pace for that long before I got a terrible side ache and had to stop. It was weird because I felt strong up until then and then that hit me out of nowhere. At least I know that I'm starting off better than I thought I would. If I take it a little slower, I'll be able to put in some longer distance runs and work my way back up to my old speed and beyond.

The GPS is incredibly cool. I plugged it in and within maybe 2 seconds I was able to view my total time, total pace, a map of where I ran, and graphs of speed vs elevation vs pace vs grade over the time of my run. Later, I will be able to compare runs to each other to see how my speeds compared. What a cool training tool.

Also, my speed peaked around the 1.25 mile mark. I don't think this is significant, but I found it in the chart and I think it is cool.

26.2 - A Slight Change

I was surfing around the web today and came across a different marathon training plan. In this plan, you only run 3 days a week as opposed to the 5 days that most plans call for. On the other 2 days you do cross training. I figured that this would be a better plan for me to do. It will let me work on swimming and biking during my training. This way, I will be closer to being ready for my first triathlon after I finish the marathon. I've decided to do this plan instead.

The other thing is that this plan is 16 weeks long, as opposed to the 20 weeks for the plan that I was going to follow. This gives me more time to build up a base and get ready for those long runs that I'll be doing every Saturday.

New toy

I ordered this guy on Friday morning before work. It is a GPS receiver that straps onto my wrist and keeps track of my distance. This will be the second most important tool for me to train with, since I don't know distances around Cedar Rapids yet. I can make sure that I am running as far as the training plan calls for every day.

The most important tool is my iPod Shuffle.

My Garmin Forerunner 205 (I guess I forgot to tell you what it was) should get here on Tuesday, just in time for day 1.

26.2 - the pregame

First off, welcome to my new blog. Thanks for reading.

Secondly, I have decided to run in Grandma's Marathon in Duluth, Minnesota in June. I will start training for it on Tuesday, so I figured I could use this as an opportunity to post my progress, as well as any random thoughts about any random things that come into my mind along the way.

My running background is brief. I started running in spring 2005 when I decided that I wanted to lose weight and get in shape. In August 2006 I ran a half marathon in a time of just over 1 hour and 46 minutes. I averaged just over 8 minutes a mile, which was slightly slower than my goal time. I took about 3 months off of running after that because I was burned out. Now I'm motivated to run a full marathon, driven by the desire to complete an Ironman Triathlon in the next few years.

I'll give frequent updates of my progress on here. So you know, I start training this coming Tuesday with a 3 mile run. I think that tomorrow I will order a Garmin Forerunner GPS because I just moved to Iowa and I have no running routes like I had back in Fargo, North Dakota. I need the Garmin to make sure I run enough to keep up with my training plan.