My history teacher Mr. Kittel used to call them "broad significant themes."

These are The BIG Lessons. They were way more important than just the date of this or the place of that. They were ideas monumental enough to change history. And, as the saying goes, they kept repeating themselves.

We can apply the same standard to marathon training.

The next Train with Tim project will have nothing to do with running 26.2 miles, but we can easily use the Big Lessons for any type of training. It doesn't matter what your goal is.

As a way to wrap up the marathon, you can read the final article and catch Kelly and me on "The Morning Blend" talking about the experience. It still seems crazy that we're finally done after months of this.



So what is Train with Tim doing next? You'll have to stay tuned. In the meantime, chew on these Big Lessons.

The Buddy System Works

Be accountable to someone other than yourself. There's no freaking way I would have showed up to all the early Saturday and Sunday morning runs if I didn't know Kelly was there waiting for me.

Commit to a Routine

Do you think about brushing your teeth at night? Maybe a little, but it's mostly automatic. You have a routine and you stick to it. We had a simple 3-day a week training program, and it quickly became habit. Sometimes we missed a day of weekend running, and it became all the more apparent that we needed that routine. I already REALLY miss our training routine.

Listen to Your Body

Once you get in that routine, sometimes it's a little too easy to mindlessly stick to it. That's not always best for your body, especially if you're over-training or injured. That's when you have to stop, listen to what your body is telling you, and do what will help in the long run. When we were dealing with injuries, that meant modifying our workouts or just plain taking time off.

Stay Positive

This can be one of the hardest ones, and it's way harder than it looks on paper. It's toughest to keep a positive outlook when you get injured or just get discouraged with your progress. All that you worked for seems to be slipping away. That's when you need to be mentally toughest. Kelly never got down when she was injured, and she came back to have her best workout yet after that.

There is No Finish Line

After our training program, Kelly and I got our body fat measured. We found out we both lost fat and gained muscle in our lower body. That's good. But the opposite was true of our upper body. That's not so good. But that's real life, and it's only one aspect of this entire training. So now we keep running, but add in workouts for our upper body, such as weight training. This is probably the biggest of The Big Lessons. Training doesn't end at the finish line of a marathon. It never ends.

So that's why this blog is just beginning. In the near future we'll have even more readers with direct participation in Train with Tim.

Like I said, stay tuned.