Marathon Training, part 1

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Monday, I will be finishing up week 8 of marathon training, marking the halfway point.

I have been following this schedule pretty closely.  I made the schedule in Numbers based off of the Hal Higdon Novice 1 Marathon Plan. You may have to zoom in to get a clear look.

THE PLAN


THE REASON
Since I completed a half on October 19, I knew I could start with higher mileage. I chose the Novice 1 plan because I wasn't happy with how my runs had been going leading up to my half. I'm very happy with the decision to drop down to a 5 mile long and build from there.

HOW IT'S GOING
So far, my training runs have been great. Most have been faster than planned, and felt great.

Sure, I have missed a few runs, and strength workouts over the course of the last 8 weeks. I have also needed to move days around as our schedule required. Over all, I've put in the work. I'm looking forward to the 8 weeks ahead as my mileage continues to build and I run new distances in training and finally the marathon.

FUELING
Starting with my first 9 mile run, I tried out Generation UCAN. I am a believer. I have since ditched all other forms of fueling and use UCAN exclusively for runs over 6 miles. For those long runs, my routine includes a LaraBar and a banana an hour before I run, and then drink UCAN 30 minutes before I run. I have used UCAN as fueling at all times of the day, from early morning to later in the afternoon and have had the same results each time. (I was not paid to say this, I love UCAN, and I'm not embarrassed to tell you).

POST RUN
At the suggestion of Mandy over at Paleo Running Mom, I found a really great protein powder at Costco. If I'm not going to eat a meal pretty quickly after I run, I blend up chocolate milk, protein powder and a banana to help aid recovery. With UCAN, replenishing protein in enormous amounts isn't as necessary since it burns fat and not protein. Even with that knowledge, I still either eat or drink a protein shake pretty quickly after a run to help replenish energy burned.

CHANGES
As the midweek runs are starting to increase, I'm having a hard time getting my body up early enough to fuel and run. For the remaining 8 weeks of training, I am going to even out the 3 weekday runs, keeping each run between 4 and 6 miles, keeping the mid week runs.  This will help me run the miles early in the morning on just a LaraBar and a banana.

I'll be sharing the second half of my training plan in the next few weeks once I work out the kinks.