Every Day in May

Hi! My name is Nick Shippers, web designer for everydayinmay, and I approached Brian with my goal to run my first half-marathon. I am running in the 2009 MVP Marathon supporting the arthritis foundation.

There's so much information out there on how to train, what to eat, how to dress, but the first step is always consistent. Start! So, I decided to blog about my experience training for my first Marathonfor my own encouragement and hopefully something that is helpful to others. With Brian's help, I want you to follow me through my journey. If you are a marathon runner, let me know any tips! I also hope that along the way I can inspire someone else to stay active! Today is Day 2 and I have 6 weeks to get ready, which by most accounts is a tight schedule. For those not familiar, a half marathon is 13.1 miles (21.08km). The key, apparently, is consistency, slow progress, and endurance. My goal is to just finish!

Brian helped to put together a training schedule and I posted my schedule on a google calendar. I have been reading: http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,7120,s6-238-244-258-6851-0,00.html to help train and searched on YouTube to find helpful tips. This post also helped: http://www.mapmyrun.com/community/discussion/11750/your-best-halfmarathon-tips/. Also, I found a nifty site that lets you create your running track online and it will calculate the miles. So, this way, I know I am running the miles I need to! http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/. There's also http://www.mapmyrun.com/, but there's too many ads on it.

This week I:

1. Bought a new pair of shoes that is light weight.
2. Set up a fundraising page: http://09rochestermarathon.kintera.org/nickshippers. Donate $5 to support my first marathon and all funds go to the Arthritis Foundation.
   
3. Planned on first week schedule/goal by spending 2 hours online reading :)
4. Started to drink more water - I cut up a magnet into 8 pieces. You know, those ones from the local pizza place. For each glass of water (8oz) I have, I add a magnet to my office file cabnet. My goal is to drink 1 in the morning, 5 at work, 2 at night.
5. I walked for a little over an hour at a "brisk pace" in the evening.
   
6. I bought a loaf of wheat bread, crunchy peanut butter and jelly, for snacking at work a couple hours before going home to give me energy when I come home to run after work.