Boston Marathon

Posted on the 21 September 2012 by Mattie @comfyconfident

I am officially running the Boston Marathon in April 2013! I am so excited but pretty nervous as well. Last October (2011) I ran my first marathon and in doing so qualified for Boston with a time of 3:29:22.78. I never dreamed that I would be able to qualify for Boston but now that I have, I want to make the most of it, train right and run well so that I have no regrets when I cross the finish line on April 15.

That being said, I have not been running as much as usual and I need to start mentally preparing for the training and long miles I have coming up. For my first marathon I followed Hal Hidgon Marathon Training Guide and I plan to do the same for this marathon. Most of his plans are 18 weeks long, but he has a Boston Bound plan specific for training for Boston which is only 12 weeks. The Boston Bound plan is pretty intense and it might be a little too much for me so I am going to try to stick to it, but also mix in some of the Intermediate 1 and Novice 2 plans in order to stay healthy, maintain my energy levels, and keep my enthusiasm up.

All of these plans require a lot more mileage than I have been doing all summer, so I am going to create my own training schedule in order to be prepared for when I need to actually start training. Below is what I have come up with!

WEEK

MON

TUE

WED

THU

FRI

SAT

SUN

1

Cross

3 m run

5 m run

3 m run

Rest

5 m pace

8

2

Cross

3 m run

5 m run

3 m run

Rest

5 m run

9

3

Cross

3 m run

5 m run

3 m run

Rest

5 m pace

6

4

Cross

3 m run

6 m run

3 m run

Rest

6 m pace

11

5

Cross

3 m run

6 m run

3 m run

Rest

6 m run

12

6

Cross

3 m run

5 m run

3 m run

Rest

6 m pace

9

7

Cross

4 m run

7 m run

4 m run

Rest

7 m pace

14

8

Cross

4 m run

7 m run

4 m run

Rest

7 m run

15

I am going to run this weekend and start my plan officially on Monday. This plan will get me into a good place by mid-November. I plan to take a little breather before Dec. 10th, which is 18 weeks out from Boston and the real, knitty gritty training begins!

Question:
How do you train for events, marathons, competitions?
Have you done Boston? What did you use to prepare?