So based on a combination of what I want to write about and reader feedback, I’ve decided that I’m going to blog about my marathon training on Sundays. I know that for some people posts about sports and such are triggering or just not enjoyable, this way people who don’t want to read that kind of thing can skip the Sunday posts (and who knows, maybe those who are interested will look forward to the Sunday posts…)
Things are different this time around. For my first marathon I trained to walk with the goal of finishing in 8.5 hours. Some of you may remember that in a terrible, painful long day it took me about 13 hours to finish the Seattle Marathon with my Best Friend. This marathon has an 8 hour time limit but they open the roads at 6 hours so it’s 8 hours while contending with traffic lights, no port-a-potties etc. So this time I’ll be doing a run/walk combination, and Kelrick has once again volunteered to do this with me.
One of the things that I promptly forgot when I finished the first marathon, (when I was so sure that I would never ever do another one) was how freaking boring the training is. I train alone late at night (it’s always interesting to me that people congratulate those who get up at 4am to run, but freak out that I go out at 2am) and a lot of times it’s just a grind. I’m doing this marathon for a lot of reasons that I’ll get into in later posts, but a love of running/walking is not one of them. I’ll take this opportunity to remind everyone reading that I’m not trying to be any kind of role model here, nor am I interested in being part of the bullshit good fatty/bad fatty dichotomy This is about my desire to do a marathon and nothing else.
Music has been a really important part of my training, so much so that I actually rescheduled a run last time because my iPod wasn’t working. It helps me to have some ritual around music as I do my run/walks, especially as they get longer. This time around it’s:
Beginning: Mama Told Me Not To Come (In honor of a hilarious e-mail from my awesome mom)
Half-way: Hold On, I’m Coming by Sam and Dave
End: Rebel Beat by the Goo Goo Dolls
Outside of that one of my favorite past times is creating playlists for different training run/walks- for this marathon I have different ones for speedwork, tempo runs, and hill repeats so far. If you have ideas for inspirational songs please feel free to drop them in the comments!
So I have 43 weeks of training until I show up for my next ass kicking. Cross finish line, get medal.
Like the blog? Consider becoming a member! For ten bucks a month you can support size diversity activism, help keep the blog ad free, and get deals from size positive businesses as a thank you.
What do member fees support? I get hundreds of requests a day (not including hatemail of course) from academic to deeply personal. I get paid for some of my speaking and writing (and do both on a sliding scale to keep it affordable), but a lot of the work I do isn’t paid so member support makes it possible (and let me just give a huge THANK YOU to my members, I really can’t tell you how much I appreciate your support!) Click here for details
Here’s more cool stuff:
Are you looking for a way to do some fun movement this summer (and get prizes for it?) Consider a Fit Fatty Virtual Summer Vacation!
My Book: Fat: The Owner’s Manual The E-Book is Name Your Own Price! Click here for detail
Dance Classes: Buy the Dance Class DVDs or download individual classes – Every Body Dance Now! Click here for details
If you are uncomfortable with my selling things on this site, you are invited to check out this post
