Early this year I decided that I would run my first marathon. The half marathon distance had become "comfortable". A few runner buddies decided to run the Rock N Roll San Diego Full. It was time to face up to the challenge of 26.2 miles.
I've always used the Jeff Galloway Run/Walk/Run method. In the beginning it helped me face the increasing distances with a plan. I found that the active recovery of walk intervals helped me with fatigue and prevented injury. I could do back to back half marathons with this method. So I've turned to Jeff Galloway to train for the Marathon as well. I chose the California International Marathon in Sacramento, CA for several reasons. I needed a challenge and the 6 hour time limit is scary. I DO want to FINISH, so I WILL push myself to be better.
The training method suggested that I run 1 min, walk 1 min. But I was finding that I was SOOOO slow. I'd NEVER finish the marathon at the 15:45 pace that I was ending up with. So I've slowly increased the running interval over the last few weeks.
I also found an EXCELLENT walk/run pace calculator at Endocrinology Online. I could put in my desired finish time, my walk pace, my chosen intervals and it told me the pace that my run intervals needed to be. I applied that info to the intervals today and I was faster!!! And it didn't feel like that much more effort.
Math is a REALLY great tool when you are frustrated with your running results.
