Goofy Challenge training, part 4

So, today is the last day of my contract project position. It’s worked out well and it was great to get a paycheck again! I also have the project with my former employer lined up and should be starting that soon, hopefully sometime next week. I’m not sure how long it will take, but I’ll take anything right now, especially with this employer.

I find it interesting that I was not blogging during my time on the contract position, but I was actually busy with home-related things when I’d get done with work (I should point out that the office where I worked is three miles from my house). This included my training for the Goofy Challenge in January. I had to start running in the late afternoons and it was a bit of an adjustment, but I got used to it. I will enjoy going back to running in the mornings on Monday and I hope to be able to keep doing that during this next project. If not, late afternoons aren’t so bad.

I’ve been following Hal Higdon’s Intermediate I training program since the beginning of September and my fears of too may miles have been unfounded so far. I’ve only missed a couple of days, including this past Wednesday, when I found out I did not get a job that I really wanted. Other than those few days, I’ve been running quite a bit. I’m getting a little faster, which I attribute to the base training I did this summer and to realizing the extra miles are not a bad thing. I ran 12 miles last Saturday at an 11:14 pace. I think I can trim that down a bit and have a decent shot at 11:00 for the marathon. I’m still not sure how I’ll run the half-marathon, but I know that I’ll probably try to stick to that pace or a little slower. I really want to make sure I’m not going to burn out during the marathon.

As far as food and eating goes, well, I’m doing better, but I need to be much more rigid about the portions and more realistic about the choices. I’d really like to be at 200 lbs, if not 195-199, and I know I’m running out of time to get there. Training for the Disney marathon is always problematic in terms of food because you’re training during the holiday season, which for eating and food choices, really starts in October when the Halloween candy and caramel apples and the pumpkin spice lattes at Starbucks!start appearing. Fortunately, my contract position was at an office that had vending machines, so I brought my lunch every day but one, when I tried a vending machine lunch that wasn’t too bad.

Also, when I did the last two marathons (and this next one), my wife has insisted on me having my own room Saturday night before the race. Even though we’ll be at Saratoga Springs for the trip, I booked a room at Pop Century for Saturday night. The CRO person I spoke with when making the reservation thought it was funny when I said that my wife and three-year-old son were kicking me out of the room Saturday night because they didn’t want to get up at 2:30 am!

Hopefully, I’ll be able to blog more to track the training, but we’ll have to see, I guess.