Getting serious about training

After getting a little too excited last week about getting back to walking (and wearing some cheap tennis shoes during my walks), I had to take a few days off to recover from some painful shin splints. I'm feeling better now, but am also going to approach my training for walks this fall more strategically.

Last week, I bought a book, "The Non-Runner's Marathon Trainer," by David A. Whitsett, Forrest A. Dolgener and Tanjala Mabon Kole. The book is based on a course taught at the University of Northern Iowa unofficially called "the marathon class." Following the program in the book, all but one of a few hundred students who took the class ran a marathon by the end of the semester. The book focuses not just on physical training, but on mentally preparing yourself, too (such as saying "but it doesn't matter" if you come up with excuses, such as lousy weather or feeling lethargic, about why you just can't exercise that day). I have to admit that thinking about the psychological aspect of finishing a marathon wasn't really something I had put much thought into. I was taking more of a simplistic, Forrest Gump-style approach: I'll just start walking, have some bouncy music playing in the background and keep going until it's over. The book talks about the importance of visualizing yourself finishing the race and says positive attitude is just as important as physical ability.

As far as training, the book adopts an approach I also hadn't considered before: doing some short walks, a medium walk and a long walk each week (the book is aimed at people who want to run marathons, but for my purposes, I'll say walks). After doing the same number of miles on the treadmill each day for several months last fall and winter, I hadn't thought about varying my routine. I simply thought more was better, and felt guilty if I couldn't walk the same distance one day as I had the day before. So today I did a short walk, tomorrow I'll do a medium one, Wednesday I'll do short again, Thursday medium, Friday off, long walk Saturday and Sunday off. The book suggests doing only four walks a week, but it's also based on a 16-week program and I have just 8 weeks, so I'm adding in an extra walk per week. It also suggests taking the day off before and after a long walk to give your body time to rest. Again, I have to fight my feelings of guilt that I'm not doing as much exercise those days, but having experienced shin splints this weekend, I now see the logic in not pushing yourself too hard. After all, the goal is to finish, not to sit on the sidelines, injured! Of course, I should point out that the marathon I'm doing isn't really a marathon in the classic sense. It's 27 miles over 10 hours, so endurance, rather than speed, really will be the key.