Marathon training – Building the core

The training schedule I’m following is one that has 3 “hard” days, 1 “moderate” day and 2 “easy” days of running. I even get to take one day off a week if I want.  That means no joggling on Fridays.

On the easy days I like to add some core training exercises and the good folks over at Runner’s World have published a great article. Too bad the online version doesn’t have the pictures showing how to do it like they had in the paper version. You might consider getting a subscription or checking it out at your library.

Yesterday was an easy day of training, only 3 miles. I didn’t follow the ab workout in that article but instead did 100 situps, 30 pushups and 44 pull-ups. I like doing 44 of something as it is my favorite number. Little mind tricks (like doing a favorite number of boring exercises) are a great way to keep motivated.

This morning my legs are a little sore. I’m way overdue for some new shoes. When training for a marathon, the experts say you should change shoes every 300 – 350 miles. The Reebok shoes I’m wearing now have well over 500 miles on them. But that’s my way. Experts don’t tell me when to change my shoes, my legs tell me. When they start to hurt, it’s time for new shoes.

My stats for 6/28/2006

Weight: 192

Distance: 3.07 m

Time: 23:30

Listening to The Naked Scientist