I have created quite a few race training programs for people over the years, most of my knowledge comes from what I have learned from an Olympic marathon runner who I had as an employee a few years ago. The rest of my knowledge comes from what I have read from people like Jeff Galloway. But I have to admit that none of my knowledge comes from actually doing these training styles myself. I am going to rectify that now!

So I am going to take what I have learned and put it all together into one program that works for me. This race training is going to be in addition to the normal weight training and cardiovascular exercise that I currently do. Like a lot of other people, I go through phases in my own training and bodyweight, and while I would love to say that I bulk up purposely, in reality, I enjoy eating, and sometimes put a little more body fat on than I like, so I am currently trying to drop some of that body fat. I will have to take that into account as I work on the nutritional aspect of my training. After all, if I want to maintain my muscle mass, and drop some body fat, all while training for a marathon I am going to have to be careful. Fortunately, nutrition is one of my strongest fields, so I will be able to get everything where I want it to be, so long as I follow my own advice.

Just like for the last race, my plan is going to be to speed walk for the entirety of all the races, and if my back and legs feel good, then jog some of it. So, my race training is going to be focused on the walking. That way I know that I will be able to finish the marathon even at a walking pace. Disney requires that you go no slower than a 16:00 minute mile, and if you do average a slower pace than that, you will be picked up by a bus and will not finish the race or complete the challenge. I know that doesn’t sound very fast, but believe me when I got to mile ten in the Star Wars Half, I was struggling to keep up that pace.

As of today I am 29 weeks away from race week, so I will begin my training simply by going for a walk. I am using the Endomondo app on my Iphone, this app will keep track of my pace. So I headed down to the beach and walked about three miles. My first mile was nice and slow, just warming up a little. When I hit mile two, I set the Endomondo app and continued walking. I was not walking at a fast pace, just a normal walk. I did this to see how fast my normal walking pace was, and I found that my normal walking pace is about a 17 minute mile. Not too bad, but that shows me that I will not be able to walk a comfortable pace and complete the challenge.

What does this mean? It means I need to speed up my pace. Most of the racing programs that you see online don’t have you worry about pace at all just yet, but for me I feel that it is important, as I need to work on my gait as much as I do overall stamina. Since I don’t feel most of my foot on my right leg, my gait can go haywire, so I want to begin training at a speed that will keep me in the race right away.

So that is all of the race training that I am going to do today. Tonight I am going to work out a tentative calendar of days per week, distances, and pace for the next couple weeks. I’m sure that is going to change, but I like to have some idea of the planning. I am also going to get my diet plan a little more dialed in.

The most important part of the next seven months is that I have fun, and keep my life balanced. You see, I have a very addictive personality, and am in recovery from drug and alcohol addiction. One of the most important things that I have learned during my journey in recovery is that I can become addicted to anything, and even becoming addicted to a healthy outlet, like exercise, will eventually lead me to a place that I no longer wish to be. So long as I incorporate this into my life in a healthy way, and not make it the most important part of my life, I will be just fine, and I will have a great time doing it.