The Real Training Has Begun

I didn't post last Friday, so here's a quick recap of last week:

Tuesday:  6 miles
Wednesday:  3 miles
Friday:  5 miles

This week was the official start to my marathon training schedule.  And I really think that I'm going to run the Lancaster marathon next April.  So the official training has begun.  Basically, a week consists of 2 short runs, 1 day of either cross training or interval training, and 1 long run.  The day after the long run is a recovery day (a nice walk just to keep the muscles loose).  And then of course 2 days of rest.  Here's the recap from this week:

Monday:  3 miles
Tuesday:  3 miles
Wednesday:  25 mins interval training (which ended up being 4 miles)
Thursday:  REST (Thursday and Sunday will be my rest days)
Friday:  6 miles

The goal of the interval training is to get your heart rate lower so your normal pace can be faster without increasing your heart rate.  So I bought a heart rate monitor to wear while I'm running.  For my long run today, I ran outside (which I'm going to be doing for my long runs from now on).  It's nice to know my heart rate while I'm running so I stay in the zone that's comfortable to me.  That way I can keep running.  Today's run felt really good.  I definitely think that running a marathon is within my reach.

Oh, and that little pain that I was having in my right foot?  Well, I was pretty sure that it was just the muscles in my foot behaving very similar to how my calf muscles were at first.  During the past several runs, my foot would hurt at first, then after about 2 or 3 miles, it wouldn't bother me anymore.  So today I used a foot massager (nothing more than a roller with bumps on it) for about a half hour before I went running.  Loosening up the muscles was all that it took.  My foot didn't bother me today.

So I'm going to stick to my training schedule now and post my weekly recaps here.  I'm excited about all of this and am actually looking forward to the marathon.  Ok, I'm really looking forward to running across the finish line, but I guess I'll have to work for it first.