Day one.

I went to bed last night intent on doing my first day run outside, but wouldn't you know it, I woke up to over an inch of fresh snow on the ground. So, I decided to stay inside and use the treadmill. I do see certain advantages to the treadmill, such as easier gauging of time and speed, but unfortunately my treadmill is dying a slow death. A few weeks ago the tread belt started tearing, big time. I used an utility knife to shear off a few inches from the side of the belt, which has made the treadmill usable, for now. But the motor is also starting to go out now, and the thing has just "died" on me in the middle of working out, and I have to unplug to reset it. Keep in mind this treadmill is about 4 years old now, and I've been using it everyday of those 4 years, and it's also the least expensive model on the market, aside from the manual treadmills.
In a stroke of sheer coincidence and luck, a few days ago one of Chris' friends and co-workers asked him if he'd like to have his wife's treadmill. He told Chris that she'd only used it a few times and that it's too big and they want to get it out of the house. He said we could have it, yes, as in FREE! I can't believe it. He's going to pick it up tonight and I can hardly wait.
So, back to day one of training. My schedule for today had me starting out with a 1.5 mile run. Initially I was thinking that was a little silly, as someone who has been consistently working out 1-2 hours everyday, a 1.5 mile run seemed like nothing. But I'm feeling in my gut that the best preparation for the big run for me is going to include starting small and slow, gradually building and following my training schedule to a tee. I started off with 10 minutes of Pilates to stretch out and warm up, then I did a 5 minute walk before pushing the treadmill speed up to 5.8 and running the 1.5 miles. I ended with another 10 minutes of walking, and then I did 30 minutes on the elliptical.
Since I am starting training for a marathon that isn't even until November, I feel like I'm going to have plenty of time to build a good mileage base before I start doing the long runs.