The Plan..

You need a plan, without a doubt this is the most fundamental aspect to run a marathon. Where do you start? - Yeah, I didn't really know either!

First you need an aim - under 4hrs 30minutes - Realistic and Doable!

I read endless Blog Posts, signed up to running forums and read all the guides I could find on Google and they all said different things to train in different ways, which meant I was back to square one again. With a seriously frazzled brain!
Some said to run 5 times a week, others said twice a week with weight training. And then there was people saying start at 16 weeks while others said 24?!
I figured that I should probably get going sooner than later, so set up to start 24 weeks before and then set up the runs around some of the schedules I had seen - all said long runs on the weekend. Easy.

The hard part was the rest, there are recovery, mid-week long and warm-up runs and then cross training to put into order around my social life.

The two most useful plans/programmes I found were the Nike Training App and the forum - The Running Bug. I had used the Nike Training App for all my training previous to the marathon to just track my runs and mileage. They recently (I think!) added the Nike Coach with allows you to pick a distance and a date and they will give you a step by step run guide on a weekly basis with what you should be running in miles with different training plans for each run. Excellent I thought, until I realised I only had one rest day a week and a run every Saturday.

So, on to the Running Bug, they have an excellent Beginners plan that did not state what mileage but a specific time to keep run for and an idea of how you should run them, for the longer runs this was exactly what I wanted/needed.

The reason I did not dedicate myself to one? Neither was right for me.
So this is my 8 week starting plan..

One Cross Training Class a week - Yoga. Which I have read is excellent for stretching out my achy muscles and adding much needed flexibility (more on that later).
Three mid-week runs from 3 miles to 5 miles at the beginning slowly increasing over the next 2 months.
One Long Weekend Run at least 5 miles slowly moving up to 8 miles by the second weekend in Jan. (It is Christmas soon you know!)

Hopefully I will have some idea of what I am capable of in December, to set up the second part of my plan.

Well now you know my starting plan, I can't wait to give you weekly updates! This will be a lifestyle blog and include training updates to products I use and anything I find along the way.

Jenna x

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