GAR Training - Day 1

It's that time again! Great Aloha Run is just a little under two months away. Time to get training! My goal this year is to finish in under an hour. Same goal as last year but last year I finished in 1 hour and 3 minutes. The year before my goal was to finish in under 1:05:00, but I finished in 1:05:25. Two years in a row I missed the goal. So this year I'm gunning to hit the mark.

In previous years my training focused heavily on running. I'd run 4, sometimes 5 times a week. This year I think I'll mix it up. The plan is to focus on overall fitness and run twice a week. The running is more to work on form and to condition my knees and ankles for impact. And I got started today.

A 3 mile run around Ala Moana Beach Park got things started. In a word, I felt sluggish. My footfalls were loud, my knees started getting sore around mile 2, and I just felt slow. Great start! Actually it's not too surprising considering I haven't ran in about a month and I've been loading up on junk food over the holidays. On the upside I never felt out of breath and recovered pretty quickly once the run was over.

Following the run I jumped into the ocean for an 800m swim. The cool water felt nicely refreshing on my legs. I took it easy in the water and kept a steady pace. Last year when I began training I went too hard too soon and ended up losing 2 weeks of training due to injury. Don't want to do that again.

I think it was a good start. As I write this my legs feel like they got some good work but they're not sore. They feel like they're ready for day 2 tomorrow. Now I just need to clean up the diet a bit (definitely avoid the junk food), get some new running shoes, and stay diligent with the workouts. And if anybody reading this has any advice, please share!