Austin Marathon Project

Have you noticed that for each required element in marathon training, you have to drop a hundred bones (pardon the expression)? Nothing seems to be less than $100 - good shoes, entry fees, plane tickets, and, optionally, coaching. At least GU is cheap. And since our next marathon requires no travel on my part, I dropped some cash on a training program this morning instead.

I've been debating in my mind whether or not to join - it's cheaper to just train on my own and join free running clubs in town for the longer runs - but in the end I decided that this particular program will be worth it.

The "Austin Marathon Project" is being sponsored by the Texas Running Company, which is, like me, a newcomer to Austin this summer. Because it's new, the group is small, the coaching will be tailored specifically to the individual runners, and they are very enthusiastic. I had a great time running 5 miles with the half marathon group this morning, and am planning on bumping it up so I can run with the full marathoners soon. ALSO! There are Wednesday afternoon track workouts and core workouts, which sounds HARD but also FUN.

Also, it sounds like they are planning on doing a progression like Hal's with the step-back weeks, so hopefully it will align perfectly with my beautiful training calendar.

Since I won't have Jess and Faith to keep me company on the long runs ahead, I'm looking forward to meeting some new runners... but they will have some big five-fingers to fill!