125 days until the Prairie Fire Marathon: LET THE TRAINING BEGIN

I just got back from the Start 2 Finish Kick Off.  I plan to once again blog about my training journey.  For those of you that don't know me, my name is Natalie Johnson and I am one of the volunteers for the S2F training program offered by GoRun.  I am 51 years old, have been running for 35 years and I am an average runner.  I will be working with the beginning marathon group and running the Prairie Fire Marathon in 125 days.  This training season I want to put more of the focus on those of you that I run with.  I LOVE hearing your stories.  Your stories will help me get through some of those long dreaded runs. Of course I will ask your permission before I write about you on my blog. My Oklahoma City Marathon a little over a month ago was hard and I have learned from my mistakes and I want to pass that knowledge on to you. Anyway I am sure we will all have great stories to tell one another.  I am really looking forward to our first group run.  

Before training 6/8/14

I had my husband Brad take some "before" pictures of me tonight.  I found my "Run Happy" shorts tonight on clearance at Dicks sports.  I already had the shirt and have another "Run Happy" tank top that my good friend Helaine got for me.  Anyway this is probably what I will wear on race day. In the past when I have trained for long distances I often lose weight.  This really has not been the case now that I am 51.5 and an aging woman.  Today on this eve of our training I weigh 140.  It was fun to see my running peeps tonight and I look forward to all the new people I am going to meet. About those mistakes I made.....................

I DID NOT CROSS TRAIN.  This time I will and it will involve weight training.  
I DID NOT DIET OR PAY ATTENTION TO NUTRITION.  This time I will, at 51.5 years you can not use "I ran 20 miles I can eat whatever I want" as your ticket to indulge.  My body is aging and I have to respect it with proper nutrition.  This is a hard one for me because as runner I WAS able to eat what I wanted and not put on weight, but now things are different.

Before training with Lucky 6/8/14

WEEKLY I WILL ELIMINATE ONE BAD HABIT FROM MY LIFE.  When I get into training mode it makes me really take a long hard look at my life and things I need to improve upon.

I DID NOT DO SPEED WORK.  This time I will so you will be seeing me at the Friends Track night.  I have been assured that I won't be the oldest chick at track night.  Do you have support at home?  I do, my husband Brad is my #1 fan.  He took these before pictures of me.  He is not a runner but shows his support of me with his "0.0" magnet that he has on the back of his car.  He has spent NUMEROUS hours on me waiting to cross the finish line. He is the first person I love to see when I cross a finish line. 

Workouts for the week that begins our journey

MONDAY: Firm Super Sculpt DVD

TUESDAY: 3 EZ and Friends U. track night I AM SCARED!

WEDNESDAY: 2 EZ  Firm DVD

THURSDAY: 3EZ ice-cream run, I plan on doing these Thursday social runs until school resumes.

FRIDAY: REST

SATURDAY: 7 EZ WITH MY NEW BEGINNING MARATHON CREW.