Chicago marathon training officially kicks off today!

I love starting a new training cycle.  This one will be 16 weeks.  I’ll be training with coach MB and a group from Chanhassen Lifetime again.  But with some changes.  I wasn’t entirely happy with the training plan, so MB is modifying it to suit my needs and to make me even more kick-ass fast than he made me last year (after joining his group I shaved 7 minutes off my time and got a 3:42:19, which is about 2 1/2 minutes under my new BQ time).

What are the new things I’m doing with my training this time around?

• the diet – less crap food and drink; enough said.
• pilates/core – I’m GOING to be more vigilant about this
• strength – 2 times a week; NO excuses!
• midweek medium long run – I LOVED these with the previous Pfitz plans and found them so beneficial for myself
• more cross in the form of cycling – hopefully no more falls!
• focus more on keeping the easy runs easy (likely via my HRM)
• focusing more on doing all my runs at the proper pace – too easy to get swept up in things with the group training.  This time around, my paces/runs are all about me. 🙂
• my attitude – not giving up, pushing through

So maybe these things aren’t really THAT new or THAT ground-breaking.   The biggest difference that I see is my attitude.  I want big things for myself this time around.  I am ultra focused, determined and driven to make big things happen this time.  I don’t have the same life distractions that I had in previous training cycles.  I’m on my own now and at a point where I am able to throw myself 110% into going after my goals.  So that’s my plan.  I’m gonna make big things happen!

I’ll blog more on my goals as training progresses; but I will say that I made a colorful sign of my goal and posted it on my bathroom mirror, so that I can look at it every day.  It’s a Big Goal. 🙂

111 days til Chicago Marathon.  Let the training begin!