Training for my First Marathon
Looking back, my decision to run a marathon seemed like it was made on a whim, but considering I made the decision 7 months prior to the race, it was more of a long term commitment than a spur of the moment idea.
I’ve always loved running, using it as a way to relax and detach my mind from constant responsibilities. Marathon training allowed me to form an even better relationship with running, nutrition, and exercise as a whole. If you’ve read my other blog posts, you know that I’m a coxswain on the rowing team, which means that my job is absent of physical training and fitness conditioning. As someone who loves exercising, and feels the benefits of staying healthy through working out, I would have to find other times outside of practice time to get a workout in. But a lot of days, working out just for the sake of working out felt like a chore.
Marathon training changed my mindset around ‘getting a workout in’ and added another dimension of purpose to my workouts. Instead of running just to run, I started running with the long term goal of building endurance and leg strength, alternating running days with cross training and strength training. Additionally, I had to make sure I planned an intentional off-day during each week, so that I could run a long distance run the next day. This was the hardest part at first, because working out had become a daily habit in my routine, but knowing that I needed to take that day off in order to be able to push the length of my run the next day gave me more value for recovery and increased my commitment to get all of my miles in.
I will do a post marathon reflection after the race next week and give an update on the Hoka CarbonX 2 shoes!
