Pre-training Begins

I'm starting with some pre-training for a couple of weeks before I start the real training. This week I'll be running 3 miles today, 4 miles each tomorrow and Thursday, 6 miles on Saturday and 3 miles on Sunday. That's going to be my basic schedule until August 9 when I start the training plan.

I went back and forth on which beginner marathon plan to use. I had one I thought was good from coolrunning.com, but I have decided to go with a different plan from runnersworld.com. It came highly recommended from a co-worker that has run several marathons. She said that this is the plan that she used for her first one and it was great for a first timer. I'm willing to take that, especially since she has quite a bit of experience with marathon running.

So... pre-training. Today's run was on a treadmill. The bonus to running on a treadmill is that it's inside and I can miss most of the effects of all the wonderful allergens floating around out there. It's air conditioned. I know exactly how far I go. When the treadmill says 3.00 miles, I can stop. When you're running outside, you're settling for being close to your mileage. Sure the route may say you're going 3 miles, but in reality it might be 3.02 miles or something like that. That's a whole 20 seconds of extra running!

Scenery is a neutral element. Sometimes I get lucky and I can change the channel on the television to what I want to watch. I love watching the Food Network when I'm running. Not that I'll ever be cooking like they do, but I like to think that I'm running so that I can eat all that good food. But you have to be careful when you're changing the channel on one of the common televisions at the gym. You have to be polite and not just change because you want it changed. I'm not fool enough to think that everyone around me wants to watch Iron Chef America while they're running. So today I watched one of the "Law and Order" series instead of messing up someone else's view. If I had been outside I would have had plenty of stuff to watch just to make sure that I didn't trip and fall.

One of the negatives for running inside is that I get no breeze at all. The treadmill has a little-bitty fan, but the wind from it only hits my face when I'm perfectly positioned for it. Outside, I'm cooled down by my passage across the earth. That sounds so poetic. Additionally, I'm stuck at whatever pace I have the treadmill set on, which is so mechanical, for lack of a better word. When I set my own pace, I average about 6 mph, but that's helped by me going slower going uphill and much faster going down. I might need to make a pro/con list for inside and outside running. Maybe since I'm doing two 4 mile runs this week I should do one inside and one outside. I have a good 4 mile route already, so maybe I should take advantage of it again.