Training Schedule

Rachel emailed me a week or so ago regarding races. She wanted to know which ones I planned on signing up for, so that she could sign up as well. It was then that I made my goal for 2014 to run a race each month.

It was also the that I found out which race I would be running in March. For the third year in a row, Rachel and I will be training for and running the LA Marathon. 

I'm not going to lie. I was a little shocked when I got the message. Rachel planned on only running one marathon and did that in 2012. Then decided she didn't want to be, in her words, a "one trick pony" so she ran it again in 2013. During training and in our delirious state after crossing the finish line we both decided to stick with half marathons. 

And yet here we are again.. 

Being the well organized planner that she is, she has already made our training schedule that will bring us from August 31st right up to race day on March 9th.

Since she is not planning on running the race in January or February with me, I will need to adjust mileage on those weekends without her. One of the days is a scheduled 17 mile run, so I will most likely have to either run 4 the day before the race or run 4 after completing the race. The other weekend is a 6 mile run, but the weekend after is 23. Going from 13 to 23 is going to hurt, but it's not the craziest thing I've done since I started running.

There is a difference between this year and last year. My goal this year is simply to finish, and I intend on finishing with Rachel. She has decided (as of now) to use 30:1 intervals and her goal is to PR. It will be nice to be able to run it and actually try to enjoy the sights and spectators along the way while putting my body through hell. 

I didn't enjoy it as much last year because I was so focused on a time goal that I was constantly checking my watch to make sure I'd make it in time. This year I'll have a much different mindset and won't be so hard on myself.

Training is going to do something else. It's going to give me time with my sister again. Running was not just something I did for myself. It started as being something I did for her. But it kept us consistently spending time together on the weekends and I truly cherished that time and those experiences together. I am looking forward to that the most.

LA Marathon Training 2014
	Date	Mileage
Week 1	8/31/2013	3 miles
Week 2	9/7/2013	4 miles
Week 3	9/14/2013	5 miles
Week 4	9/21/2013	3 miles
Week 5	9/28/2013	6 miles
Week 6	10/5/2013	3 miles
Week 7	10/12/2013	8 miles
Week 8	10/19/2013	3 miles
Week 9	10/26/2013	10 miles
Week 10	11/2/2013	4 miles
Week 11	11/9/2013	11 miles
Week 12	11/16/2013	4 miles
Week 13	11/23/2013	13 miles
Week 14	11/30/2013	4 miles
Week 15	12/8/2013	SANTA TO THE SEA - 13.1
Week 16	12/14/2013	4 miles
Week 17	12/21/2013	14 miles
Week 18	12/28/2013	5 miles
Week 19	1/4/2014	17 miles
Week 20	1/11/2014	5 miles
Week 21	1/18/2014	6 miles
Week 22	1/25/2014	20 miles
Week 23	2/1/2014	6 miles
Week 24	2/8/2014	6 miles
Week 25	2/15/2014	23 miles
Week 26	2/22/2014	6 miles
Week 27	3/1/2014	7 miles
Week 28	3/9/2014	LA MARATHON