The “pre-season” is ending,

…and the “real” training begins:

I’m finishing up week 6 of training. It’s the last step-back week before the program rapidly moves into the “real deal.” My training schedule has sort of been paralleling the “pre-season” of football.

As I nervously look forward to BoBo’s 1st game, I am looking forward to the movement towards peak training.

You may, or may not (if you are a newer runner), know the scenario. The 1st many weeks of the training schedule gets your running base set. It gets you used to the pattern of the training program. In my case: Monday = cross training, Tuesday & Thursday = shorter runs + strength and stretching, Wednesday = sort-of-long run, Friday = rest day, Saturday = sort-of-long distance at marathon race pace, and Sunday = Long run.

So, as my “pre-season” training ends, I look forward to 14 – 15 – 17 – 20 mile runs with various races mixed in. Next week, my shorter run and sort-of-long run distances increase and my long run continues to climb. It’s time to get jazzed about my training, to embrace it, and to gear up for marathon day.

My dear friend, Lisa, is a few weeks ahead of me in her training. She is training for the Seattle Marathon as her 1st marathon. Please check out her blog and offer her some encouragement. She did her 15 mile run over the Labor Day Weekend.

Although Lisa doesn’t talk about her running very often, she does mention her training run and the activities that followed later in the day in the entry that I’ve linked above. I am sure that you will be amazed at all that she fits into her life, mothering her 4 children, and the unique lifestyle that she has living on one of the islands in Washington.

I don’t think that Lisa thinks of herself as a “runner” yet, but she’s earned the title in my book. She is out there doing the miles, and suffering the aftermath following the long runs. I laughed to myself when I read about how she got mad at her daughter while shopping. It’s so NOT her, and I wondered if she clued in that it was probably more due to her 15 mile run than her daughter’s teen-type behavior. Lisa is amazing…Not because she is doing this marathon – even though she has always professed to “hate” running – but because of everything else she does.

And she is funny too. Go on – click the link above.