Quickie

First I just wanted to say that this is the 11th Blog post. This is only important because now the oldest posts start falling off. They are still available, but they no longer remain on the home page. So Happy 11th, everyone! To celebrate, I will make this one a quickie. I don't want everyone to think I'm going all fatalist on you, but I have made some realizations over the past couple of days. When I spoke before about the importance of Phase 1, I wasn't speaking from a place of experience but, rather, from a place of researched knowledge. As my own Phase 1 is coming to a close, however, things have changed. My whole perspective on training has changed. I am pretty confident that, barring freak accidents between now and October 27th, that I will be able to achieve my goal. But, should I not be able to do so, I now know what I will need to do in the future with 100% certainty. If I had 10 more weeks, I would add all ten to Phase 1. Running in this manner has allowed me to sustain mileage totals never before achieved without injuring myself. I am healthier now than I have ever been 6 weeks into a training cycle. I have literally not missed a single workout. This is crazy. I feel that, if I had another 6 weeks, I could add another 15-20 miles per week to my totals.
I am content, elated really, with the success so far in my training and, as a result of the respect I have for the new process, I am not going to push it or deviate from the plan one bit. Next time around, though, I feel like I can really break through some barriers and elevate above some of the plateaus that I have hit. Phase 1 will encompass all of the available time between the end of my recovery from this marathon and 18 weeks out from my next marathon. 135 days, 19 hours, 19 minutes to go...