2004 - What have you got planned

[Liz]

Thanks for the advice - I'm really trying to put away thoughts of PBs, it's surprisingly difficult actually! Probably because I was so slow in Chicago.

I also asked a couple of the therapists - one said that people always overtrain for marathons, and she has plenty of patients to prove that (she obviously doesn't know much about my training, I've never been accused of over-training). The other said that I should do less miles but to make those that I do more valuable. He suggests going to the track. I'm like Andy - I've read about all the tempo runs and so on, but haven't actually tried them...

So I'm going to give it a go. I'm planning to slowly increase the mileage and to get up to a long run of 12 miles - maybe with an hour of walking afterwards to get more time on the feet and I'll take the marathon gently. Susie - I'm not much of a runner actually, I always put walk breaks in when doing long runs - I had been thinking of trying my long runs this time without walking so that when I have to double my long run mileage in the marathon (which will have walk breaks) it won't seem so bad. A third member of the therapy team did a marathon when she was in college - she had read that you could triple your mileage, so her furthest long run was 9 miles. Interesting...

I'm beginning to be convinced that finishing a marathon is mostly mental anyway. Physical training is obviously necessary, but the mental aspect is huge.