New Year, New Mindset

"There are no shortcuts to any place worth going."
- Beverly Sills

Happy (very belated) new year! I had an extremely hectic and crazy end of 2011/start of 2012. I took trips across the country and across the state, played in my very last football game, and had an amazing Christmas and New Year. In top of that, I was able to keep running and working out...maybe not as much as I'd like, but a substantial amount.

Now that the marathon is right around the corner (only 112 days away!!) it's really time to kick my training up. Luckily, Penn State hasn't had a typically frigid winter until very recently, so my training has been great so far this year!

I've been a bit slack on tracking my runs and have just enjoyed being outside and running for fun, but it's time to get a plan and track miles!

My friend, idol and amazingly talented runner John sent me a great tool he uses to create customized training plans. It's from Runners World and can be found here. This tool came used for every race distance from a 5k to a marathon.

According to this plan, I have 15 miles to run next week. On Monday I'll be doing a long run of 7 miles, easy run of 4 miles, and a 4 mile speed workout. Can't wait to get started!

Thank you all for reading, and I look forward to making 2012 the best year possible by becoming the best Gretchen I possibly can!

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