Three Marathons later this year - Let the training begin.

♠ Posted by Paul Naylor at 12:37 PM

I'm officially registered to run in three marathons later this year. I'll be in Santa Rosa, CA for their race the third weekend in August. I'll head up to Northern Utah three weeks later to run Big Cottonwood Canyon Marathon(my favorite race). A few weeks later, I'll run in the St. George Marathon the first weekend in October. I'm looking to one of these races to qualify for Boston.

First race in Santa Rosa is 90 days away. I'm already excited for race and to run in California. The course takes runners through vineyard fields before the finish line in downtown. I first heard of this race during the week I ran the Huntington Beach Marathon. The finisher medal was a main motivator to run this race. I'm now looking forward to the scenery, a chance to qualify for the Boston Marathon, and to spend a few days in California(along with the medal).

Big Cottonwood Canyon in early fall will start near Snow Bird ski resort, and decent down the canyon and finish in Sandy. This race has always been a favorite. I've ran their half marathon the previous two years, this will be my first full marathon in at Big Cottonwood. Seeing the color of the leafs changing throughout the canyon was one of the many reasons I love this race, and I look forward to seeing more great scenery during the full marathon.

I'm really looking forward to the St. George Marathon later this year. This is a bucket list race for me. I've wanted to run this race when I first heard of it back in high school. This race has an lottery for participants, which prevented me from running the race in previous years. I ran two half marathons in Southern Utah as part of the St. George Race Series which guaranteed my spot this year. This will most likely be my last full marathon for 2015.

I'm going to compile three different workouts I received from running greats Jeff Galloway, Sage Canaday and Pete Pfitzinger. I'm wanting to step up my training for the three races, and I have found the best overall workouts from these three runners. It's hard to know which workout will be the best, and the workouts are focused on getting runners qualified for the Boston Marathon. I'm plan on taking parts of these workouts, and apply them to what I have done in my own workouts.

I'm looking to get new shoes during my training. I'm going to get either Hoka OneOne Cliffton or Skechers Strada. These shoes focus on a more cushion stride. I currently run with Skechers GoMEB 2, and I'm looking for a shoe with more support for the Big Cottonwood and St. George Marathons since they're downhill courses.

I'm going to be using the FitBit Surge during training. I want to focus more on tracking workouts, food, heartrate and weight. I have used a Garmin watch previously, which only tracks distance, pace and tracks route on Google Maps. The Fitbit Surge has the same features, but also includes wrist heartrate monitor, pedometer, calories burned, and other workout activates when requested.

Three races, three attempts to qualify for the Boston Marathon later this year. This is a brief overview of my races and training for the next five months. I have a Ragnar Relay and possible half marathon in Bryce Canyon, UT that are going to fall in the summer training months. I'm excited to get started on this journey to learn and grow in the sport of distance running and I'll keep you posted on my experience.