more running techniques

I ran this morning and I was feeling like I've been doing the same old thing so I decided to change it up a bit. There's a training technique with a cool name, also described here. I had read about it before. I went a little faster than usual for a block and then back to normal for a block for the last mile or so of my run. I could actually feel it in my abs when I got home which is something I haven't felt in a very long time.

I'm also excited about this because I think I may have mentioned a few thousand times this summer how slow I am. This seems like a way that I can deal with to improve me speed.

Why is improving speed important? Well, I've been thinking about running a marathon. Those of you who live around here know that the Twin Cities Marathon took place last Sunday. I've thought about running a marathon for a while. It's always in the back of my mind every time I start running. For the Twin Cities Marathon this year, runners pace just had to be faster than a 13:45 mile. Even right now I run (slightly) faster than that.

I'm thinking I have a year to train for it so why not. I can just keep running short distances now and then start building up once the snow starts to melt in the spring. That's right folks. I said the snow here doesn't melt 'till the spring. Normally it takes 20 weeks to seriously train for a marathon. If I started in April or March it would give me 25 or so. Hey, this is my first one. I need all the help I can get.

I've also thought that if this is something I'm going to do, I should join a running club around here. I think the running clubs here do have marathon training programs. Do you think the runners there would care that I'm so slow?