WDW Marathon Training

(Photo courtesy of rundisney.com)

I can't believe it's been over a month since my last post.  Life just got in the way and writing took a back seat.  My last post was about my taking on the Runner's World Streak challenge.  Unfortunately, I had to cut it short due to illness.  I hope to try again next year.  The biggest change since my last post was the return of my running buddy and husband, Ralph, from a 6 month teaching and research stint in the Philippines.  At the same time as his return, the Florida heat and humidity arrived in full force.  Call me a wimp, but it is just so hot and humid to run out there.  So I have done what a wimp does and signed up for gym membership so that we can be active indoors.  The gym that we signed up for has an indoor track that we have used for a couple of runs.  We have also taken strength classes (Strong) and cardio exercises such as Zumba, Kickboxing and Metabolic Training.    

Another reason why we signed up for gym membership was to be able to use the facilities to train for a marathon.  Back in April, I signed us up to run the WDW full marathon on January 12, 2014.  Today is the official start of Jeff Galloway's Training Program for this race.  We are not new to Jeff Galloway's training program.  We used his training program when we ran the Princess Half Marathon back in February.  Personally, I like Jeff Galloway's training because it involves the use of run/walk intervals.  In his experience, incorporating walk breaks during long runs avoids injury.  I would not have been able to finish the half marathon if I had to run the entire race.  So, since Ralph and I have a half marathon under our belt, we decided that the 29-week training for Experienced Runners with a goal to "Finish in the Upright Position" was the best training program for us this time around.  The training program includes two maintenance runs of  30 minutes each on Tuesdays and Thursdays with long runs on Saturdays.  Long runs slowly ramp up in distance every other weekend with a final long run of 26 miles in Week 25 with a two-week taper before marathon weekend.  Jeff Galloway recommends cross training on non-run days so we will hit the gym for weight training, spinning, or Zumba.

When we ran the Princess Half Marathon, we used a run/walk interval of 45s/30s.  For the WDW Marathon, we have decided to train at 2/1 interval which is equivalent to a 12 minute/mile pace.  We will probably end up running at 1/1 interval in the first 13.1 miles and ramp it up to the 2/1 interval in the second half.  

Although we are no longer novices to the sport of running, we are quite novices as far as marathon training is concerned.  This is one journey that hubby and I are both excited and anxious to be embarking together.  I believe that we have it in us to finish the journey and cross the finish line upright.  We hope you will join us as we run, run, run to Marathon weekend 6 months from now.

Our training gear!  The inside pairs are our running shoes (Brooks Adenaline for Ralph and New Balance 890 v3 for me) and the outside pairs are our cross training shoes (Skechers for me and Nike for Ralph)