Road to Maui

And so it begins. Fifteen weeks from today is the Maui marathon, and yesterday marked the end of the first week of official training. Without question, I come into this marathon training in better shape than ever. I'm hoping to run between 4:00 and 4:15, and my speed work, tempo work, and long runs over the past 3 weeks suggest that may be possible.

There are a lot of miles to log between now and then -- not to mention a hot Atlanta summer (90s by next weekend, woohoo!) to survive. But I run better and more comfortably in the heat, so hopefully the weather won't be too troublesome. And since I typically run early in the morning (see previous post), I won't be facing the hottest temperatures anyway.

There are two key challenges I face in the weeks ahead: committing to my cross-training regimen and eating better. The latter is likely already covered. Laura and I began modifying our diet several weeks ago and eat at home much more frequently. We've also begun to eat more "locally." That is, we're trying to consumer more of our food from local producers -- whether we're buying at the Saturday market in Morningside (fresh greens, yum!) or buying Georgia produce at the Whole Foods. And I'm interested in making an even broader commitment to this movement. I'm in the "June" section of Barbara Kingsolver's (and family's) new book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle about the year her family spent minimizing the calories burned to get food to their table (think fertilizer, mechanized harvesting, processing, and transportation). Eating locally, I believe, has powerful social, cultural, environmental, and nutritional value. Laura and I won't eat locally all the time, but we will make more conscious choices about the foods we eat and where they come from.

My second hurdle seems at one level more easily controlled and on another more difficult to surmount. I'm not sure why cross-training has become so difficult. Maybe I need to get myself out of the our development's little exercise room and on my bike. Or maybe I need to do more sit-ups and push-ups and less weight work. I'm not sure what the exact genesis of this fall-off has been, but I've had difficulty the past several months getting in more than a day or two of cross-training per week. No answers on this one yet, just the nagging feeling that the hole in my training will be on Mondays, Wednesday, and Fridays, when I should be cross-training.

Last week: 21 miles, speed work and long run (skipped tempo run on Thursday). Good week but too much work. Distracted by the shift to new work responsibilities. Great run on Saturday -- fantastic to have so much company for the intermediate run at Morning Run!