MINDBODY LOGIN
So why do I need a coach this time?
There are millions of marathon plans on the internet, in books or I could have copied my Queenstown Marathon plan from last year. I could have been coached by my husband (Mike) as he has run the Gold Coast Marathon twice but we all know that would never work – as I always know better! Can you imagine a frosty July morning at 6.30am, black ice on the road and the grass crispy white and Mike is telling me to get out of bed and go for 10k run, that is never going to happen!
One of the main reasons I am being coached by Richard again is accountability. I am not going to let him or myself down. And I am paying for this and as an accountant we like to get our money’s worth. Richard talks to me at the start of every week and we decide what we can and can’t do for the week. In the beginning I told him I could only run three times a week, well he has me running up to 5 times a week, yoga and two strength trainings as well. It may sound a lot but a couple of the runs are very short and are combined with exercises, I was always doing the yoga anyway and the strength sessions I do at home in front of my TV! It is actually very achievable.
So I have 15 weeks to go until Melbourne. Running a marathon is like having a baby. If we remembered how painful and scary child birth is we would only have one child and marathons are like this. What also made me want to run again was listening to my friends Simon and Lynn talking about their marathon training for Rotorua and I realized I was missing the discipline of training and their enthusiasm was contagious.
The thing about a marathon is it keeps you honest. There is no bullshitting a marathon. You may be able to wing a 10k or even a half but not a marathon. I do love that about running. You get out what you put in and your results are obvious. Sure it never seems to get any easier but that’s because you are getting better, faster and stronger. If I had stayed at my original pace of 8 minute k’s then I guess I would find it easy but you really do progress quickly when you put the work in.
I love being fit. It makes me feel a little bit smug but that’s ok because I have earned it!
