Mohawk Hudson vs. Hartford

I have a fall marathon weighing heavily on my mind today...well, not heavily. That's an exaggeration :) Actually, I have much more important things weighing heavily on my mind, the marathon is just mixed in with everything else.

I mapped out a training plan today using the Galloway method. Alyson, Larry and I experimented with it 2 weeks ago and it went really well. We used a run/walk ratio of run 4 minutes/walk 1 minute. We did a 10K training run and we started the run/walk from the very start.

We all felt great at the end. Even Larry - and he absolutely hates running. In fact, that was the farthest he has ever run. I think his exact words were "I think I found my niche." He also said he felt like he could keep going at the end. So, Galloway gets 2 thumbs up from Larry :)

Alyson and I felt really good, too. I have to admit I have a bit of a mental block about walking at all during a run. It's going to be hard for me to overcome that barrier, but I want to be open to giving this a chance.

To be honest, I think when we were running for the 4 minutes, our pace was faster than it would be if we had been just running (no walking). Overall, our time was almost exactly what it normally would be had we not been walking.

So, what does that mean? It means that even though we were walking for a total of 6 minutes - we didn't lose ANY time. Isn't that crazy? The biggest benefit of using this method is you feel better & less tired during your run. The recovery time is also much faster afterward.

The Galloway method also calls for running just 3 days a week + one day of an easy walk. Sounds pretty good, doesn't it? Plus, you can't argue with the success rate of this method. I think something like 99% people that Jeff Galloway has trained with this method complete marathons AND they do not get injured. There is certainly something to be said for that!

So, I think we're going to continue using this method for our Saturday long runs and see how it goes.

I have somewhat of a dilemma about which marathon I want to register for. Do I want to run local and do the Mohawk Hudson or do I want to stick with my original plan of running Hartford?

I love the Hartford race because it's so festive. There are tons of people there and there's a really great atmosphere. They also do an awesome job of putting on the race - top of the line. I've done the Hartford half 2 other times and my plan has always been to do my first full there.

I have a few friends who will be running the half locally - some of the women who were in my running group last year. I'd love to be there with them even though they will probably be home & showered by the time I finish my race ;-)

I don't know what to do...I also just found out that one of my "Running Wild" team members (Brian) already registered for Hartford. Not sure what the others are going to do..

Decisions, decisions.