🐺 Decisions, decisions, decisions! 🐺

A lot of the decisions I/we had to make depended on the outcome of the referendum I posted about yesterday. If my wife would be out of a job again, then we would face another period of uncertainty and having to rely on one income. So making certain decisions with regards to my marathon-challenge were pending the outcome of this referendum:

• When is the earliest I want/can do a marathon, depending on how often and intensive I’ll train? Also taking into consideration I’ve never done one in my life and remembering what happened to the first person who ran to Marathon
• Which marathons take time around that time of year or should I wait until 2019?
• Where will I run? If my wife is out of a job, I can’t go flying off to the other side of the world
• Will she get off from work?

Well, I can now announce that I have a where, a when and if all remains as it is also with the support of my family:

🐺 VALENCIA – 2^nd December 2018 🐺

_{Valencia, here I come!!!}

It would be cool if I met some of you there as well!

As I mentioned in my previous Marathon Post, my colleague and training partner is also coming along (he still has to register), so I’ll have someone who’ll be by my side all the way to the finishing line. He has attempted to do a marathon before, but failed during the run. So we also have the same goal, to reach the finish line and if we do that in a reasonable time, even better.

🐺 Sponsorship 🐺

I am considering choosing a charity to run for and donate 1 SBD per achieved kilometer, I am just looking for the appropriate charity. If anyone has any suggestions that suit my ethics, I will consider using that. Otherwise I will donate all my proceeds again to @doctorcro for his Christmas project, however he will get the proceeds of my December-competition for this charity, so preferably I have another charity to help out. Alternatively I'd like to help @drawingly, however I'm not sure if I have until December for her to get the money she needs. So please head over to her page anyway and help her out if you can!

I look forward to hearing your suggestions.

🐺 Marathon Preparation 🐺

I was given the below schedule by @apprentice (@apprentice/my-marathon-training-plan). It is aimed to slowly ease you into marathon training and based on a plan from Hal Higgon. Unfortunately I believe he has given up on Steemit as he hasn’t posted or responded in ages. So I don’t have many opportunities to ask him any questions. So I’d really like to hear from the community over here what you think of this schedule:

_{Schedule 1: This part is to ease you into marathon-training}

_{Schedule 2: This is the actual marathon-training}

I am currently in the mode to train on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. So easing myself from ‘Schedule 1’ into ‘Schedule 2’. On the weekdays I’m doing 5km and on Sunday 11km. I want to maintain this rhythm until May (when I return from a 10 day holiday) and then I really want to pick up the pace and really start with ‘Schedule 2’, unless someone here has better advice for me.

_{Schedule 3: This is what my actual training will look like broadly speaking, but I'm going to give myself much more time to get used to the distances}

The plan as it stands is to ease myself into ‘Schedule 2’, but work ahead of it and build up into those longer distances. I’m approaching 40 years, so I want to utilise the additional time by ensuring that I prepare myself as much as I can and to the best of my abilities, but also without risking any injuries. So rather slow and steady then rushed and getting injured towards the end.

I’m especially anxious to hear from those of you who have marathon experience and also the running coaches that are here @runningdanw & @cstrimel. What do you make of this schedule and can you advice anything else I should be mindful of?

For example one thing that I advised my running partner is that our shoes tend to last about 800/900 kilometres and he’s just bought new shoes. This could mean that he might need new shoes just around the time that we’re going to be running in Valencia. I think that no one wants to run a marathon on new shoes, so I told him about this to be wary of that and maybe buy some shoes in the summer that he can then run in, so that they’re nice and worn when we’re going to be running the marathon.

🐺 Training 🐺

In the mean time, I have not been sitting still and I won’t be sitting still either. The fact that it’s booked now, means that the clock is ticking and I want to use every opportunity that I have to prepare myself as much as possible.

Since my last running update on Friday I’ve done another 3 runs, totalling 21 kilometres.

Sunday 4.3.

_{Some shots of Sundays' run}

It had been snowing since Thursday and despite my hopes it hadn’t melted. This is the most I’ve ran in snow all winter. The temperature was already better than during last week and we even had a blue sky a few times during our run. The snow and me not being 100% really held us back so doing the 11 kilometres in 1 hour and 7 minutes was acceptable under the circumstances.

_{Training Effect was 4,6 at least 60% of the track was covered in 10cm of snow}

Tuesday 6.3.

The snow was gone and my colleague and I set off for another lunchtime run. Circumstances were pleasant and we had a nice pace (when we’re together, we talk a lot, so it’s always slower than running alone as talking takes some of your breath away) , we did the 5 kilometres in 27 minutes.

_{Training Effect was 'only' 3,3}

Wednesday 7.3.

My colleague couldn’t join me today as he had a few meetings to attend before and after our lunch break, so I could run on my own again. I did the 5 kilometres in 25,5 minutes. The weather is also turning to be more pleasant again. Soon I can take my thermo-clothes off again.

_{Training Effect was 3,5 today}

My last 3 runs in comparison. You can see that my 'local' run is much harder and conditions were also worse than they have been the past 2 days.

For those of you that still haven't heard of the @runningproject or its bot @isotonic, if you're a runner and want to be rewarded, join our community. It's easy and quick and the 1 SBD or Steem is earned back in no time as you get an upvote on EACH post, not just the ones about running.

Another way to get rewarded is by joining the #runforsteem challenge.

I look forward to hearing your advice, responses, encouragements, feedback and comments.

Keep running and stay fit!

Doron

!steemitworldmap 47.334180 lat 8.386726 long Oberwil-Lieli, Aargau D3SCR
!steemitworldmap 47.203252 lat 8.780222 long Pfäffikon D3SCR