I’ve been spending a lot of time since my last race thinking about how I want to move ahead with my training. Technically I have my second Marathon in October, and I’ve been setting up my training to be able to accomplish that one well.

However, doing it well requires that every weekend I’m doing a LOOONG walk (3-5 hours) which takes up a chunk of my weekend! Also, I need to walk between 1-2 hours most days in the week. Having added a part-time job to my life, time is becoming a seriously limited resource. Also, having just turned 49 makes me wonder if I’m not unnecessarily over-stressing my body during a very stressful time.

One can walk for many reasons. Having set myself the goal of a marathon right at the beginning of my walking “career”, I was able to keep quite focused. It’s the knowledge of having a race of some kind on the horizon that keeps me motivated to get outside when it’s -20 and blowing a gale.

Somehow, though, I wonder if this is actually helping my body and my life. I’m thinking that a nice one-hour walk 5-6 days a week for the sheer pleasure of it might be a healthier choice at this time. The big question though, is whether that’s enough to get me outside on days when it’s not so pleasant.

Any thoughts?

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Who is Darlene Hull? Click here: www.darlenehull.com to find out!

My Marathon Countdown – 6 days! (gulp!)

It’s amazing what you learn about the human body when you start to do more intense training.

Like the fact that you can go too far, too fast. I’m thinking this is where I am.

I’ve learned that there are wise ways and foolish ways to train for a big event like a marathon. I’ve managed to incorporate both – foolish at the beginning, and wiser now. Much wiser, I hope.

But here’s the problem. My marathon is in 6 days, and while I’m not suffering any pain or injury, I find I’m exhausted. I can hardly get through the day.

I know that I started the training with too much enthusiasm and not enough knowledge (so what else is new?) I have corrected my training along the way as I’ve done my research, but alas, I find myself less and less able to get through what have been easy, invigorating walks for me. This seems to be due to the phenomenon of overtraining.

I guess you can have too much of a good thing.

So, the plan of attack now is rest, water, good nutrition, while still keeping myself limber with easy walking instead of Bionic Woman stuff. Things any good ADD A-type personality is really great at. Sigh.

But I have found a great resource for the next time around: The Maffetone Method: The Holistic, Low-Stress, No-Pain Way to Exceptional Fitness

Happy walking!

Darlene