When getting started, it is best to put both your long term and short term goals on paper. I suggest a weekly calendar book with space for each day to record your goals and your workouts, either generally or in detail. The top of each page should have the mileage or time goals you plan to reach for that week with perhaps one or two descriptions about the kinds of runs you plan to do. You can get this information as you read further about the schedule. You can also jot down any cross training activities you would like to do that week, such as weight training, biking or swimming. Having these notes written in your schedule book will remind you and motivate each day to reach these smaller weekly goals on the way to the larger or long range goal.
Stress and Tiredness
The body gradually has to adapt to more and more stress in order to get naturally stronger. This happens to each person at their own unique and individual rate, so it is up to you to gauge your own progress and avoid injury. As you are training, try to always be aware of your level of energy and your physical condition. Consulting another experienced marathoner or coach would help if you are not sure of your recovery rate and level of stress.
"Who is my coach?
He who inspires me
Before I run.
Who is my coach?
He who aspires in the through me
During my run.
Who is my coach?
He who corrects and perfects me
For a better future run."
- Sri Chinmoy
While following this or any other training program, if you feel that by increasing your mileage you are hurting or are exhausted, then take an easy week or a few days off. You should always be aware of your own energy levels and your own body's ability to adapt to stress and recover properly. The following question may thus be appropriate:
Question: Should we run even when we are extremely tired?'
Sri Chinmoy: "As a rule, when we are extremely tired it is not advisable to run, for it will not help us in any way. At that time, running will be nothing but fatigue and self-destruction, and it will leave in our mind a bitter taste. But sometimes, even when we are not extremely tired, we feel that we are. At that time we are not actually physically tired. We are only mentally tired or emotionally tired, but the mind convinces us that we are physically tired. Our human lethargy is so clever! It acts like a rogue, a perfect rogue, and we get tremendous joy by offering compassion to our body. We make all kinds of justifications for the body's lethargy and make ourselves feel that the body deserves rest.
So we have to be sincere to ourselves. If we really feel extremely tired, then we should not run. But we have to make sure that it is not our lethargic vital or our lethargic physical consciousness that is making us feel that we are extremely tired.This kind of tricky cleverness we have to conquer.
With our imagination-power we can challenge the tricky mind and win. We weaken ourselves by imagining that we are weak. Again, we can strengthen ourselves by imagining that we are strong. Our imagination often compels us to think we cannot do something or cannot say something. We often use imagination in a wrong direction. So instead of letting imagination take us backwards, we should use it to take us forward toward our goal."
In your weekly plan book, besides having recorded just what the weekly or short term plans are at the top of each page, it is important to record what you actually did each day in your training. You can include the time you spent training or how far you ran or walked, the type of training you did, how you felt, and anything else which you think will help to remind you of your experience or inspire you in the future. It is an effective method of self-motivation as well as a tool to analyze your training and any problems you may encounter in the future.
Another important feature of recording each workout is that it can help you determine the speed at which you will be able to run the marathon. If you know the speed at which you are training and racing shorter distances, you will be able to determine realistic goals for your marathon time. This is important so that you can plan the long term goals with confidence and enthusiasm. For example, if you have run a half-marathon in 1 hour 20 minutes, you should be confident that with regular distance training you have the capacity to run under 3 hours for the marathon. If you cannot run the half-marathon under a sub-3 hour marathon pace, then you cannot expect to run a marathon at a sub 3 hour pace.
