Training For a Marathon - 5 weeks to go

I just want to start out by saying I'm an excellent planner--a really excellent planner. When there's something big coming up, I can plan up a storm. I'll give you tables and printouts, with rules and themes. It's the execution that I'm not great at.

 

So I realized today that I have just 5 weeks until the marathon. I somehow thought I had lots more time than that, which is to say, I haven't been training well at all. I haven't done ANY of the weight training and yoga classes I wanted to. I haven't done most of the midweek runs, and I have missed a few of the long runs. Total weekly mileage, as shown below, is WAY below where it needs to be.

 

 

I started out ok, sort of.

 

 

I believe there were a couple reasons that led to this failure:

1. After the wedding, I lost a serious incentive to keep moving.
2. My job was really bumming me out.
3. I might have broken a toe, we'll never know for sure.
4. It was really hard to do any exercise on the trip.
5. It's really freaking hot here in the summer, and easy to lose the energy to do anything at all.

So now that we have 5 weeks to go, it's time for me to get this show on the road--literally. If' I'm going to run this thing, I have to get ready for it or I will hurt myself-- and I really don't want to do that again.

This reminds me actually, of something I went through every single term in undergrad and grad school. All term, I would go to class and mostly do my homework, but then a week before finals I would panic and realize I wasn't ready. I would decide to re-read everything in order do basically do-over the term. It's not as bad as panicking the night before the exam, when all you can really do is go to sleep. It's not as good as being on top of things from the beginning. I'm at the point when I can still mostly save this, but it's going to be a lot more painful than if I'd done a better job all along.

 

Things in my favor:

1. Fall weather is great for running.
2. I definitely don't have any broken bones or injuries at the moment.
3. I just started a new job and am full of optimism. 

My new plan:

1. Be better at following the old plan.
2. Learn to be a morning person.
3. Cook more-- eat out less.
4. Lose 5 pounds.

 

I'm excited. Feels like the getting-in-shape montage part of any athletic movie with girl power music. Yah.