It’s here again, and it came a lot sooner than I had originally planned. In just 16 weeks, I’ll be running my second marathon, something I didn’t think I’d do until 2014. But the more I thought about it, the more I decided I wanted to give it another shot this year. Today marks the first day in a 109 day journey. I know what to expect this time around, and I know what to change. I’m looking forward to seeing how I can improve and what else I can learn from this challenging distance. I’ve come up with some important training goals for this round.

1. Follow the plan. I want to drop some major time off the marathon and PR, so I need to follow my training plan exactly. I can’t skip on the long runs or the track workouts. Plus, I want to show up at the starting line with no regrets.

2. Eat Healthier. If it weren’t for running, I’d probably gain 50lbs easily with all the junk food I put in my body. I definitely need to cut this out and start eating more fruits and veggies. The better I eat, the better I’ll feel and the better my running will  be.

3. Cross train. I really can’t remind myself enough about this. I fully believe I managed to stay injury free this year based on the fact that I cross trained. I can tell yoga is helping, but I need more personal time with the weights and the bike.

4. Listen to my body. So important. My body will let me know exactly how training is going and I need to listen to it and not ignore it. If I don’t listen to it, I could end up injured, something I don’t want this time around.

5. Run with friends. One perk of joining a run club is that I have access to group runs. I can’t make them during the week due to my work schedule, but weekends will be open to joining the group for some long runs. This is something I definitely want to take advantage of.

6. Plan ahead. Planning my routes for the week will make it easier to just get out there and run. There will definitely be days that I’ll want to lounge on the couch, but if I have a set plan, I’ll be less likely to back out. And maybe, just maybe, I’ll plan a few weekday morning runs when it gets too hot.

7. Switch it up. I usually run the same routes over and over and over again. I burn myself out by doing this. I want to mix up my routes and find new ones. Hopefully this will keep  me motivated, especially on the long runs.

Alright, so there are a few of my goals. The only one missing is my goal time, which will eventually show up as we get closer to race day.

Only 109 days to go….