Agnew's Mind He's got a long journey ahead of him.

Marathon…err Wedding Training Part 2

    by Matt

Quick background: As you might have heard from me, I ran my first ever marathon on May 17, 2009. I finished at a 4:43 mark and with the exception of going to the bathroom once and shaking off a cramp, I ran the whole time. It was the single greatest thing ever. Reason why? The journey. It was such a challenge to increase your mileage every week. Plus, prior to the training, the longest I've ever ran was only 10 miles. I loved talking to people that were sick of hearing about me talk about running. If I met a marathon finisher, I would try to suck out all the information I could from them.

Post Marathon Depression: Well, I ran a few times a week after taking about a week off after the marathon. My body was shot. It literally took a good month for me to feel like myself again. I had neck problems and back problems. In fact, I still do. My back is so messed up that I feel a bruise in the middle of my back and for about half of my day, for no apparent reason, it will just start hurting. Since then, I've bought special pillows and take special sleep aides. Fast forward to late June, I'm back to feeling normal again. My legs were fresh. All my old injuries were gone. Minus the neck and back issues, I felt great. What's the problem? I couldn't resume my old schedule of getting up at 5:30 to run or go to the gym. I'm not lying here. I've set my alarm for 5:30 a.m. EVERY day since June. Now here on August 7 do you want to know how many times I woke up? ZERO. Yes, zero. EVERY day I overslept and didn't run. Only to run after work only when I don't have class. Yeah. My runs are sluggish too. It's like I don't care. The fact I don't have a new goal is KILLING me and making me a bad fiancee. The breaking point came last week. I hit rock bottom. My black toenail fell off. Yes, the last badge of honor from my last training program was gone.......But all that's going to change.....

Marathon Training....err Wedding Training Day 1: I've toyed with the idea of training for a marathon and just taking the week off after the wedding. Well, Jenni was very supportive during the last one, but I don't think she will if I start again. This means bed time at 10:00pm on weekends, extreme fatigue especially during the middle of training, bleeding nipples, black toe nails, and lots of naps. I mapped out a plan and of course the most pivotal week in training happens to fall on the week of our honeymoon. It's not meant to be. But who says I can't start a plan anyway just for fun? YES! That's what I will do! A Wedding Training Plan....I'll call it. Of course my Wedding Training Plan is simply a marathon plan with the expectation that I'm ALLOWED to miss some runs and the week of my honeymoon. I've heard some runner stories of people on their honeymoons training and got some runs in on treadmills on the cruise ship. This got them sick since the boat was not stable or something.

Who knows? Maybe if I'm feeling good after the honeymoon....I might just run Philadelphia on November 22.....JUST KIDDING....kinda.

In conclusion, I woke up today at 5:30 feeling good... refreshed....with a purpose....and got in an easy 6 in 59 minutes......slow pace, but my best feeling run since May 17.

Monday kicks off with Day 1 of marathon.....eeeeerrrr wedding training with 45 minutes of biking. Great....

I'm BACK!

Just like Lance the cheater......

I too, will wear a bib with my name on it.....

Maybe he will respond to my open challenge for Delaware 2010....if has the balls.......OHHHHHHHHH low blow!!!