**marathon update**

As an update, the Nashville Country Music Marathon sort of fell by the wayside due to J's surgery. It was just too much. Too much stress on me, my family, and J. All of it. So I cancelled the marathon.

Well, that one anyway.

I'm planning my next one, and here are my thoughts:

I've put my application into the lottery for the New York City Marathon. I have run this one 3 times already (1999, 2001, 2003), but this year is the 40th Anniversary! I really hope I get in, because not only is it a special year, but this is a very special city for me!

As a backup, I'm thinking of running the Kiawah Marathon on Kiawah Island, SC. It's a flat course, and a qualifier for the Boston Marathon (nope, I will not be qualifying... that would just be wishful thinking...) The scenery on the golf courses along the ocean is supposed to be spectacular!!

The lottery drawing for NY is supposed to take place in early June, so I'll know soon enough!

Water again... leading up to my long run.

So today I drank about 72 ounces of water, which is below my target of 98 ounces. I did feel better, though, with the increase in water intake. So that's good. I'm leading up to a long run-although only 8 miles-- this weekend. I made a great meat and mushroom sauce with fettuccine tonight. Good carbo-loading.

Angel said to me tonight: "Mommy, you'll run?"

I said, "yep, I'm going to run."

She said, "ok, Mommy, I'll stay here with Daddy."

Too cute.

Wish me luck as I go straight into my first 8!

Water

All I can say today is to stress how important is it to drink LOTS OF WATER when training for a marathon. I ran 4 today on the treadmill. (Not uncommon for this busy mom.) I was a little dehydrated, and I completely felt it.

I have to run 8 by the end of the week, so I'm concentrating on getting more and more water into my body this week.

I've started!

So, finally, I've started my training. Unfortunately a couple of weeks late, but it's done.

4 miles today. 4 again tomorrow. Working up to 8 later this week.

I was a little slow tonight. It was a stressful day. I thought I could run this morning. Made lunches last night, got the kids up, whirlwind to school this morning... and.... no school today. We were waiting on the carpool lane with no luck! So, my morning running plans were foiled.

Oh well, it was the 8 o'clock pm run on the treadmill to "The Batchelor". He's cute! The girls are catty!!!

Training Begins--Belatedly

Because the craziness of the holiday season made it impossible for me to start training for my next marathon in time, I'm actually beginning my training on Monday- two weeks late. Because I just came off training and completing the Spinx Greenville Marathon in October, and kept my base miles at a good level (~20 miles/week), I'm comfortable starting two weeks into the training.

I'll start by telling you what my schedule was supposed to be, then how I'm changing it. I use the New York Road Runners Marathon Training Schedule. This is the First-Time and Casual Marathoner schedule. I also like to consider it the busy mom schedule. It's a step up from the very minimal schedule, but not as stepped-up as the others that would be incredibly hard to fit into my schedule.

First-time and Casual Marathoner
This is the preferred schedule for most first-time marathoners and for experienced marathoners who choose to train moderately (from a 20-mile-per-week base for at least one month to a peak of 40 miles per week).

M T W Th F Sat Sun Total
Base off 3 4 4 off 6 3 20
Week
1 off 3 4 4 off 8 3 22
2 off 4 4 4 off 8 4 24
3 off 4 4 4 off 10 4 26
4 off 4 4 4 off 8 4 24
5 off 4 4 4 off 13 3 28
6 off 4 5 4 off 10 4 27
7 off 4 4 4 off 15 3 30
8 off 5 5 4 off 12 4 30
9 off 4 4 4 off 18 3 33
10 off 6 5 4 4 12 4 35
11 3 5 5 5 off 20 off 38
12 5 6 off 6 4 13 6 40
13 off 6 5 5 4 20 off 40
14 4 6 5 6 off 13 6 40
15 off 4 4 4 4 20 off 36
16 4 4 3 4 off 15 3 33
17 off 5 4 5 off 4 6 24
18 off 4 4 4 off 2 26.2 14+race

Because I missed the first two weeks of training, I'm going to be switching weeks 3 and 4. So my long run this week will be 8 miles, next week, 10 miles, and then on to 13. This should work well to get me back up to speed.

I'll be checking in tomorrow to let you know how it's going!

Intro to Me and Running Marathons

My name is Deb and I'm starting this blog to share with my readers my experiences training for, and completing my marathons. As of today, I've completed 6. They include:

* The KeyBank Vermont City Marathon in Burlington, VT-May 1998
* The ING New York City Marathon, New York, NY-November 1999, 2001 and 2003
* The Marine Corps Marathon, Washington, DC-October 2002
* The Spinx Greenville Marathon, Greenville, SC-October 2008

My next running fix comes from the Country Music Marathon in Nashville, TN on April 25, 2009. Join me as I blog about my training and how I make it work while maintaining my household, and raising my 2-year-old twins and my 9-year-old step-daughter.

This week is my last base week before training begins next week. It's a little hectic... I didn't realize that training would start on Christmas week! My second week of training will be while we are away visiting family.

Stay tuned!

PS-for some more marathoning tips, you can see my guest posts over at Problem Solvin Mom. The first was a post about deciding to run a marathon, and the second was about choosing your marathon.