One step at a time: My journey to marathon number 2 (Part 1)

Last week I found out I was running another marathon in 8 weeks time. This week I started my official training.

Running for SKINS

When I first received the news I would be running in the Blackmores Sydney Marathon for SKINS, I was a bit nervous, but when I received my new training plan I was excited! I love having a plan. It makes me feel ‘safe’. It takes all the anxiety out of it for me. Actually, one of my mantras that I now teach to others is ‘Trust the plan’. So once super star Australian tri-athlete Matilda Raynolds and I got chatting and designed a training plan specifically for me, I felt a lot better.

This week I set about executing the plan in full force. I made sure I didn’t miss a day’s training. I got to bed early to give my body enough rest and recovery. I also made sure my nutrition and hydration were in check.

An icy start

At the end of this first week I feel great. I am not sore or overly tired. I completed my furthest distance run (20km) since the Great Ocean Road Marathon (GORM) pretty comfortably on the coldest morning Sydney has had in four years (1 degree celcius in my part of town to be exact). I even managed to keep my household running effectively, spend time with my family, keep on top of my day job as a teacher and coordinate Rachel’s Runners without any major problems. So far, so good!

Running with friends makes the kilometeres pass by so quickly!

This next week brings with it the infamous Sydney fun run City2Surf, so my training plan has already changed, but that’s ok. I learnt a lot when training for GORM and as much as I trust in the plan, I also now know that being flexible is a great skill to have as well.

Here’s to a successful week 2 of marathon training! Here’s to feeling safe but being flexible 🙂