This Is My Hat.....

And this is me throwing it in the ring.

I've decided to take up Deetschei's challenge, and have already chosen my next marathon. It is November 2, and they are currently running the New York Marathon. What better day to make such an anouncement than today?
My plan is as follows:
For the next several months I work on getting my fitness back. I'm still able to run 2 miles with little soreness. Mind you, I haven't run 3 times in a week since sometime in May, maybe even April. So, it's been a while. November, December and January will be rough months while I increase weekly mileage by 10% every week.
Staying on track of this will mean that by the end of February I will be running 21 miles per week. Not bad for someone in my current condition. I'm toying with the idea of working up to 4 runs per week in the near future. The next few weeks would look like this:
Week 1: 3 runs at 2 miles
Week 2: 2 runs at 2 miles, 1 run at 3 miles
Week 3: 4 runs at 2 miles
Week 4: 3 runs at 2 miles, 1 run at 3 miles
Week 5: 2 runs at 2 miles, 2 runs at 3 miles
And so on, until I am running 4 times a week at 5 miles per.

In March the true training begins. I have ordered the book: Sub 4H Marathon in 6 months. Actually, it's called Marathon unter 4H in 6 Monaten--the book is not available in English. I've not read it yet, but am already toying with the idea of offering to translate the book for Runner's World (It's their book). It's really something that should be available for the English market, but that's another story.

6 months of training takes me to the beginning August and to the Paavo Nurmi Marathon on August 8 in Hurley, WI. It's way northern Wisconsin. In fact, it lies just a bit south of Lake Superior on the Michigan border. WAAAAAYYYY North. It will be a good race to try to break 4 hours on, because it should be relatively flat, as most of northern Wisconsin is. It's also nearby, and I can drive there. I'll do my best to make sure Forest joins me at least as a spectator. I'll need to import as many as possible, because there are only winner's medals for the first 300 entrants. I'm guessing this means they rarely have more than 300 entries.

So that's that. I'm off today for a 2 mile run and the true beginning of my training. I ran on Friday, but that will not count toward my plan. Just a little warm up.