Ok, I’m going to start shifting things on this blog. I’m getting some different ideas about how I want to move forward with this, and so Fridays are no longer going to be a training program – I’ll show you how to get a training program for yourself in a couple of weeks – but I thought I might just share some of the cool things I’m using and how I’m using them as I train.

Well, the time is fast approaching. We are heading to Kelowna today in preparation for the Marathon on Sunday. My girlfriend and her family are meeting us there on Saturday; she’s walking the half Marathon, and her daughter is running the Marathon. I’m impressed!

I’m madly pulling stuff together. More specifically, I’m preparing my iPod – my most important piece of equipment. It’s going to be very important that I pace myself properly through this, and my recent weeks of fatigue are making it a little difficult to read my own level of preparedness, so I’m putting together a playlist that will keep me a little slower than I might otherwise like to go, but still allowing me to move ahead quickly if that’s how I feel. I thought I’d share with you how I set it up.

I’m hoping to complete the Marathon in 6 hours, so I have arranged my playlist by the hour, so that I know where I am.

• Hour 1: I’m starting off with my Rosary prayers, which take just under 5k to complete, and I’ll do that accompanied by the album “Patrick“, which is a beautiful, celtic instrumental album that I find very relaxing and soothing. It ends about the same time as my Rosary, so it works out well.

  That will be followed by three worship songs: Pour My Love On You (by Philips, Craig, and Dean), Breathe by Daywind Studio Musicians, and then Sanctuary by Jenn Weber. That takes care of the first hour, and will help me calm my nerves, stick to a slow warm-up, and pace myself properly for the race.



• Hour 2: Now I’ll speed up and start proper power walking form. These next 2 hours will be done using the PodRunner Podcasts. This first hour will be “Cool Running” at 140 beats per minute.
• Hour 3: Continuing to speed up using the PodRunner Podcasts, I’ll move up to 143 bpm with “Autopilot“. Somewhere in this hour, I should pass the half-way mark, and I’ll begin with my energy drinks, and possibly some trail mix and apple slices if I feel the need for more fuel.
• Hour 4: I thought by now I might need to change things up a bit, so I’m putting in a session of challenging-but-not-too-challenging interval training using the level 4 program of ZTrainer. This will be followed again by Pour My Love On You (yeah, I know, I’ve already listened to it, but that song truly inspires me, and opens up my soul!) followed by level 5 of ZTrainer, followed again by Breathe (yeah, same as above!). That takes care of hour four, and by now I should have completed somewhere around 30k.
• Hour 5: Now back to some nice, steady walking at 152 bpm using the PodRunner Podcasts, specifically the song mix entitled “Powertrip“
• Hour 6: My final hour will be at 155 bpm using PodRunner’s song mix called “World Cruise“.

Now this Playlist keeps me well within a doable speed range. I’ve trained comfortably at a rate quite a bit higher than this, but I wanted to keep it slow and low so that I am able to complete the race without killing myself. But, just in case I feel great, and want to go faster, I’ve also included the following mixes at the end of this playlist so I can skip ahead:

• PodRunner’s “Relayered” at 158 bpm
• PodRunner’s “Terra Nova” at 160 bpm

And finally, because the song so inspires me, once again I have Pour My Love On You, which is what I want to be listening to as I cross the finish line.

I can hardly wait.

Watch for pictures here on Monday!

Darlene