Only days after I formally announced my very loose plan for my Six Running Month Challenge, I received an email from the Cleveland Marathon organization inviting me to return as an official blogger for the 2012 race. I replied back immediately with a resounding YES!
I had a ball last year sharing my experience as a volunteer at the finish line and really enjoyed working with their representatives. Plus it turns out that a lot of my favorite local runners – Kali, Jess, Beal & Christian – have already signed up for the 2012 fun! While I believe they are all running the full marathon, I’ll be sticking with my 13.1 miles – thank you very much. That just means I’ll be able to grab some breakfast from the VIP Lounge before cheering them on from the finish line!
Fully committed to running that mileage this May meant I had to get running again now. I can’t expect to get to the finish line under 2:15 by training on an elliptical for the next five or so months. So I threw together this preliminary training plan:
You ask what’s the plan (because you know I always have one): get my running legs back while continuing to use yoga to balance all that cardio. As you’ll see to the far right, I’m starting from the beginning by tackling the Couch to 5K Plan again from the very beginning. I know to get faster I have to run more and take less walking breaks. Building a solid base while regaining my cardio fitness is going to be best accomplished by following the C25K tactics. From there, I plan to follow a similar plan to my Air Force half marathon training plan but with some tweaks. And the yoga isn’t going anywhere as you can tell by the abundance of it being already scheduled.
Cleveland’s going to be one solid race this year – I have a great feeling about this one! Interested in running one of the 2012 events? Here’s the listing of them all:
- The 26.2M Marathon on Sunday, May 20
- The 13.1M Half-Marathon on Sunday, May 20
- The 10K on Sunday, May 20
- The 5K on Saturday, May 19
- The Kids’ Run on Saturday, May 19
For more information via social media, follow the Cleveland Marathon on Facebook and on Twitter at @clevemarathon. On Twitter, the organization holds a Marathon Monday contest at 10AM EST. At that time, they’ll ask a marathon related question and the first person to respond with the right answer wins a fun prize. Sometimes, that prize is a race entry! Definitely worth checking out!
It’s about time to start making those new year’s resolutions: what’s on your fitness calendar for 2012? Will I be seeing you at the start line on May 20th?
Disclosure: I was asked to be an official Rite Aid Cleveland Marathon blogger. I was offered a race entry in return by agreeing to blog about my experience. As always, my thoughts and opinions are 100% my own.
Yay!!! SO glad you are back with us this year!
Congrats Alicia! I will be at the starting line for marathon #3 on May 20!!
Congrats friend!! I can’t wait to follow your training plans, you’re going to do SO GREAT. I can almost guarantee that all that yoga will help you in a BIG way when it comes to running. So excited for you (and now I *really* wish I was running CLE with you guys!!
congrats!!!! that is SO AWESOME!! And super psyched that you are doing another half. I am teetering…but likely will do another in 2012 as well. Would love to run together, I haev a feeling our styles are very similar!!
Congrats! Your motivation is inspiring. I can’t wait to finally go to my first OBA event in January. See you there
yay! Congrats–that’s awesome!
Glad to hear you’re one of the bloggers again. Congrats!
This is so awesome! Congrats!
Awesome, we’re both marathon bloggers! (ALthough I don’t get a free race entry for mine – just $10 off.)
Congratulations! That’s so exciting!
Congrats! I’m still thinking about doing the marathon, but have to wait on a few family things to fall into place first.
Yea!!! I am doing the blogging also this year and the half Marathon!
One of my 2012 resolutions is to run a half marathon, so I will see you (half way) on the 20th!
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Cleveland race has been nice event but I’m very disappointed to see the packet pickup at the X-Center – $8 to park just to pickup an bib and chip! What was wrong with the last years pickup location in Euclid? I’ll have to think hard about doing this race next year –the Akron Marathon is looking allot more inviting!