Another marathon training season has begun. I always feel
that I start out the training season gung ho and filled with passion, only to
fizzle out mid way through. The fizzle more often than not is the result of
outside factors: my thyroid, unseasonably strange weather of one end of the
spectrum or the other, major life event. This year I plan to stay the course.
My intention is to follow the Hal Higdon plan to a t. After thinking about my disastrous
marathon from last year I have found a few key areas that I plan to focus on
that will make this year’s race more successful.
This training season I plan to:
- Work on strength training
- Specifically glute and upper body strength to improve posture
- Increase core strength
- This could go with strength training but it’s a key component that needs its own focus
- Increase flexibility
- I need much better overall flexibility but, my hip flexors are notoriously horrible; working at a desk job makes them worse. Working them is incredibly painful but necessary to be successful
- Strengthen my knowledge about running and training techniques.
- Basically just read everything I can. Watch documentaries. Just learn my craft as much as possible.
- Have fun
- This I think will be the most challenging component of my plan, but I need to remember to have fun. Remember why I started to run. Remember that I am accomplishing that something only about 1% of the world’s population has ever accomplished.
