The Marathon Experiment

Whew. Time to clear some cobwebs and do some writing, people. All my people. Well, me. And Hubby. And the robot spammers.

Its been a rough 18 mos as far as training goes. Twenty-five extra pounds that have been slooooowwwww in getting the hell out of dodge (10 lbs to go, as of this writing. come ON already.) Two stress fractures (one in the knee last March and one in my foot this summer). The swine flu. Countless nights of interrupted sleep. A thousand other excuses/good-enough-reasons. I worked it in where I could, whined a lot. Cried some. But, mostly. . . mostly, I've been enjoying life. Noah is a joy. Devin is a miracle of a big brother. Hubby is The Best Daddy Ever. Even when Noah runs to me as soon as Hubby comes home because he just loves Mommy best right now. Its all about the boobs and there's nothing Hubby can do about it. Still, he hangs in there and shows his patient love. The tables will turn before we know it, of this I'm sure.

Now, finally. Finally, finally, FINALLY - Noah is sleeping through the night. Through the night. THROUGH it. As in down at 8:30pm up at 6:45am. If you don't have children, you cannot appreciate the utter miracle that entails. And this means that I am sleeping through the night. Which further, and most importantly, means that it is no longer impossible to get out of bed at 4:30 am and . . . TRAIN. Yes, yes, yes . . . TRAIN, my people (me, hubby and robot spammers, but hey, they're my people and I love them). It some slow, silly, painfully non-athletic training just now. But it is what it is. Its running and swimming and spinning. I LOVE IT!!!

So, what have I done, one might ask (if one were a robot spammer or my husband - I don't ask, I just do)? I have, of course, gone and made a rash and bold and probably exceedingly stupid decision to train for The Big One. That Big Thing that I was supposed to be in training for when my little surprise came along and shook things up a little (a lot) - because life, people, is what happens when you're busy making other plans. At least that's what Lennon said. So, yeah. I'm going to try to run the St. Louis Marathon. I say "try" with all deliberateness because, though I have four and half (five if you count the two weeks I'm into it already) months to train, I'm really behind. My mileage is laughable and my speed - well, lets just say that there are some walkers that would absolutely smear me if I went out at my current "speed".

I'm going to try. Experiment, if you will. I've developed a plan that's a sort of hybrid of a plan I found based on time rather than mileage (for beginning marathoners - me) and the FIRST training plan that suggests running only three days a week with cross training on at least two other days. I like the FIRST method because it allows me to at least maintain the fitness I've worked on in the pool and in spin class (I have yet to get on the bike - that's a post for another, later day) and also allows me to try to avoid the dreaded stress fracture thingamabob that's cost me so much time this last year. I'm doing a tempo run, a speed workout and a long run (on dirt) every week with at least one swim, one spin and Crossfit.

So, we'll see. St. Louis allows me to switch to the half-marathon if I need to and I think that by March, I'll know if that is what needs to happen. In the meantime, I'm setting my sights on The Big One and waiting with baited breath to see if I can actually do it. I'm not sure if I can. That's what makes the Experiment interesting.