intro

Hello again world of blogging, Alex here with another chapter in my occasional blog series of special interest topics. Having previously documented my love for silly pop songs and dress ups, it has come time to focus my attentions specifically on my current project - training for my first marathon.

A little bit of background on where I'm at:

1. I've signed up for a marathon, but it's not just any marathon - it's the 45km Great Ocean Road Marathon. A normal marathon is 42.195km, but because this race goes between Lorne and Apollo Bay along the beautiful Great Ocean Road, it's extended that little bit further. Race date: Sunday 19 May 2013.
   
2. Currently, I'm in my fourth week of training, and am using Hal Higdon's Novice 1 training plan as the basis for my weekly running training. So far, I've kept to the distances, and have even done a little more, based on my need to run further on the day. While I'm not 100% strict with the days, I have been doing the requisite number of runs and running the specified number of kilometres each week. This is in spite of travelling on an almost weekly basis (so far I've trained in four cities across Australia) AND having to deal with a couple of hangovers for the Sunday runs. So far, so good though!
   
3. Prior to embarking on this endeavour, the farthest I've previously run is 21.1km during the Run Melbourne half marathon in 2012. That was an enjoyable race but tough all the same!
   
4. I'm also doing strength training to support my running goals - two weights sessions per week. All up, this means I am generally training 5-6 days per week.
   
5. Aside from the training discipline, I am particularly interested in nutrition associated with this type of training and am learning as I'm going. Having been training intensively for four weeks now, I've really noticed how food makes a huge difference to my energy levels - and how much more food I seem to want to eat now!

Through this blog, I am hoping to document my training efforts over the coming weeks as I lead up to the official day. I'd also like to share some of my thoughts around nutrition, injury (I have a niggling knee problem) and all the other fun stuff associated with running, like how AWESOME you feel afterwards and when you don't run with music, the types of songs and thoughts that flow through your mind. 

Primarily, this is for my benefit but if you are reading this, I hope you too can take something from my efforts and join me on the journey. Yay!

xx Alex