Marathon selected; training plan in place

I had not planned an official marathon for the fall since we had planned to move to Argentina about the time I wanted to run a race. A couple of weeks ago it was decided that we would not be going to Argentina until early next year. That left the fall open to scheduling a race.

Mississippi Coast Marathon
I looked through Marathon Guide to help me pick a race. My requirements were that it be a Saturday race and that it be within a couple of hours of some place I am going to be in my travels for the fall. I also needed a race late enough in the year to get a full 16 week training plan going. In the past I might have been able to shave a couple of weeks off a plan and not be too set back, but this year my running has been less than stellar. I have been running enough to stay in shape, but not enough to say that I am ready to consider a marathon a few weeks out.

The Mississippi Coast Marathon fits everything I needed. In fact, a full training plan allows me to start today and finish 16 weeks from now running the race. It is run on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. I have not made my travel schedule that far out (boy am I behind), but I do know the plans are to spend Thanksgiving with my parents and some friends in Pensacola, FL. This marathon is about 2 hours from Pensacola.

Training Schedule
I chose the same training plan I had last year. It is a computer generated plan from Runner’s World. I will be running 3 days a week and cross training the rest. The mileage is a bit higher than the plan I chose last year, by just a couple of miles a week.

Last year I did not have any time goals since I had never run a marathon before. My only goal was to have fun. Now that I have a time to beat, 4:32:10, I have specific training pace goals for each of my runs. These should be reachable goals. May be too easy right now. Today I ran 1:50 per mile faster than the training plan called for.

Pre-race Plans
I am thinking of going over on Friday afternoon so that I can get a good night’s rest going into the race. Then if any family wants to come over and see the race on Saturday, they can get up and just drive over for the finish. Not sure if any are interested in that.

What to expect?
As a way to get myself back into blogging and keep myself motivated with the running, I will try to give you a weekly re-cap on my running like I did last year heading into the big weekend.

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