A Journey to My First Marathon Part 4

How do I start preparing for a marathon? The obvious answer is from the internet of course. At the beginning of March 2012, I started to look for information on marathon training. I have been an iTunes user since the IPod nano days and I have always got a lot of information from podcasts at the iTunes store. The good part of it, it is FREE !!! So I started typing in the word "Marathon" at the iTunes store looking under Podcasts. The first one I noticed was "Marathon Training Academy". And it was rated four and half stars then. (I think now it is rated five stars).

I downloaded a few episodes of the podcasts which was hosted by Angie and Trevor, basically a husband and wife team. They provide information mainly to newbie marathoners like me. Very informative, motivational and entertaining too. Angie is more an experienced runner and Trevor is new to running. It has been my best buddy and information for marathon training for the past few months.  They have a website at www.marathontrainingacademy.com with training programs for half and full marathons. They also have a couch to 5K programs. Their podcasts is very structured and the first part is the shout out from listeners which has improved their lives or running through the Marathon Training Academy. These shout outs are the most inspiring part of the podcasts with people telling about their personal experiences. One of the most inspiring podcast is "Marathon Success Stories". Their tag line is "Empowering you to run a marathon and change your life". A very fitting one.

iTunes link for the podcasts of The Marathon Training Academy

I also downloaded their beginners and intermediate training plans for marathon. It was free then. Unfortunately they are charging a fee now to keep the podcasts going. Their training plans has a 3 running days and two cross-training days with a long run on the weekend. The cross-training days are avoid to injuries. The middle of the week training will be for tempo run or hill run alternating. Their training plans are all in miles so I have to convert them into kilometers. So I started following the first week of the training plan on 6 March 2012. I have decided to follow the first two days of the easy and tempo run/hill run on a treadmill so that I can monitor the distance. I started with a 6.5km of easy run on Tuesday and a hill run of 8km on Thursday. The hill run was definitely torturing. You have start to run on a incline of a treadmill for about 6km. After the run, your body will be completely covered with sweat!! Just like you have just taken a shower. But my running speed then was still very slow at a pace about 8.4min/km.

The next problem arose...how I am going to track the long run when I have to run 9km on the road. The long run is crucial as it puts the tiger in the cat.

To be continued.....