Tips and Tricks

***Family blog update! {Festival of Trees} and {Little Angels}

You know Janae mentioned you on her blog when you suddenly have 300 hits on your blog in one day. Welcome new readers :).

One of my favorite people on the planet is running her first marthon next year (eeek!).  She sent me an e-mail with a few questions and I figured y'all might want to take a peek at the answers.  First let me say that although having run one marathon could technically make me an expert, consider this advice from a novice that has done a lot of reading and researching and only a little bit of application.

1. Do you think a 4:00 time goal/9:00 per mile pace is reasonable for a first marathon? Yes, but you need to be aware of your paces in previous races.  Use the McMillan Running Calculator to more accurately gauge your abilities.  That being said, there is always room for improvement... and failure.  For your first marathon, I would say to hope for the best and have your goal be to cross the finish line.  I talked a lot about goals in this post.

2. What training plan did you use when you were training for your marathon?  This is the post where I talk all about my training plan that I used for Top of Utah.  It has some good stuff in there. Check it out.

3. How many weeks did you set aside to train?  I was talking to Rachelle, Julia and Janae about this yesterday.  We pretty much decided that it depends on where your base is.  If you have a solid base, then you probably don't need to "train" for more than 2 months.  When I started training for TOU I was already trained up to a half marathon distance, and I trained for 3 months before the marathon- AND I ENDED UP INJURED.  Next time around I plan on keeping my distance up, but I'm going to cut my speed work down a bit- I'll start doing it later and finish doing it a little earlier.

Rachelle, Julia, Janae, Ichabod Crane, and the cutest Annie you've ever seen.

4. What are your thoughts on the Galloway method? FYI- this is a run a mile/walk a .10 method.  For me, I don't walk when I run.  This is a personal decision on how you like to run.  I do, however, walk through every water stop so I can get a good drink.

5. Would you suggest running with a pace group? YES!!!!!  RUN WITH A PACE GROUP!!!!   I really can't encourage this enough.

6. Would you suggest buying new shoes to train in?  Yes.  For the marathon I would suggest running in a pair of shoes that has about 200 miles on them.

7. What are your secrets for avoiding injury?  Ugh.  I have no secrets.  I'm injured frequently.  I do know that I should be strength training more.  I would definitely foam roll every day and stretch every day.

8. What speed workouts would you recommend (if any)?  I love the Yasso's for a marathon!

These completely helped my speed all the way around- from the marathon to the 5K. The reason they work is by teaching you to run fast when you are already fatigued. 10 Yasso's is A LOT. Believe me. You will be plenty tired. And hills.  Hills are awesome and prepare you for so many things.

9. Any last tips?  Just enjoy the ride!  The marathon is my favorite distance because it takes so much blood and guts to train for it- let alone run it.   Find a good training partner and hit the road!