A Plan AKA Marathon Prep for the Unfit

In light of my registering for the marathon (!aack!) I am , well, not in panic mode but in pre-panic mode which I refer to as "highly focused mode." Which is good. It is way better than "do nothing mode." ha ha

Anywho, I decided to look at exactly what we are getting ourselves into. I know; AFTER signing up is probably not the best time. :-)

So I got out the trusty Non-Runner's Marathon Trainer, which is an awesome book. Knowing I am going to walk it does not change the miles I need to prep or the fact that so much of the race is mental, which is a huge focus of the book. So I got out the schedule which is a 16 week prep and, thankfully, we have a tad more time. Here is how it plays out:

If everything before the RftC is prep for the RftC (which I think is good, reasonable, and appropriate, but what do I know?) then everything before May 8 is based on the Cool Runnings Couch to 5K program.

Then, the following week we just begin the marathon prep. My thinking is that since in the marathon training you are supposed to be able to do 3 miles, everything before that has been getting us to that point. And by "us" I mean those who right now can't go 3 miles without wishing for death. ;-) Rose I am assuming you are following your own plan that has worked in the past. However, that may be a lousy assumption and you are welcome to hop on the plan too. Perhaps it is less Hellish. Maybe not though. :-)

With that in mind, it is a 16 week plan, but we have (following the RftC) 22 weeks. So, for the first several weeks I doubled them up (we do week 16 twice, week 15 twice, etc.) This means it is not until the second week of July that the long run is a double digit. :-)

Take a look at the calendar. I have it here as a pdf (hopefully ha ha).

Let me know what you think, if you see any errors, if you don't like the font/color/etc. I can make changes very easily.

But there it is ladies. We have a plan! A plan and 218 days!