Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Veterans Marathon: Week 1

The time has come. The days of running for fun - or whatever you call it - are done. With 16 weeks until the Veterans Marathon, it is time to start training.

By the way, that's Justin Gillette on his way to win the 2012 Veterans Marathon. We've been tweeting, and he says I can break 4 in November. I pretty much love him.

While I followed "Train Like A Mother" plans for my most recent training cycles - Wisconsin half marathon, Run the Bluegrass half marathon and the Columbus Marathon - I've decided to shake things up a bit. Go crazy. Dare to do something different. For Veterans, I'll be following Hal Higdon's Intermediate I plan.

Bucking tradition, that's me.

While there are a bajillion other plans out there, I decided to go the road tested Hal Higdon because it offered some decent mileage (two 20-milers), little intimidation and a new-to-me way to build endurance - running hard on Saturday and doing a long run on Sunday. His idea is that you put miles on tired legs and are also more likely to take the miles slow.

I was tempted to try a Runner's World plan to break 4 hours, even posting it on Facebook to seek feedback, but in the end, I decided that it was too aggressive and the mileage was too high, especially with my teaching load. However, I will be incorporating some of the things I was attracted to in the plan - hill workouts and tempo runs - into the Higdon schedule.

Oh, and a quick note: Though I call this week 1, I jumped in at week 2 to accommodate Mark's upcoming camping trip and to give myself a "free" week during Hood to Coast festivities. I'll obviously be running during the week and at HTC but I didn't want to worry about long runs and tempos and race pace.

The week:

Monday: Spin class
Tuesday: Piloxing (taught) + BODYPUMP (taught)
Wednesday: 5 miles, hills + 3 miles
Thursday: 3.5 miles + Rip (taught)
Friday: Rest
Saturday: 5 miles, race pace + BODYPUMP (taught)
Sunday: 9 miles

13 comments:

  1. Yay! First week of training! It sounds like this plan has similar principles to Brooks Hanson - running on tired legs! So sub 4:00 is the official goal? :)

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    1. Oh, yeah. A goal. I think sub-4 is the unofficial official goal. I'm working off of paces that would get me there so we'll see. I'd at least like to in come around 4:10, 4:15.

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  2. I'm envious of your position to teach so many classes. I don't have the time to even train for that but to be paid to work out would be amazing!

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    1. I definitely wouldn't take as many if I wasn't getting paid! Mark is uber supportive, which is the only way I could do it, and I leave work early one day to teach.

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  3. Congrats on kicking off your training and good luck with the new plan!

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  4. All the best with marathon training. Here comes sub 4!

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  5. love it!! all the best as you start another round of marathon training! go get that sub-four!!

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  6. Excited for you! Love new training plans and the beginning of training seasons. Yours sounds like a great plan, and I know you are going to rock that marathon!

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  7. Come run the Tuesday night trail 5ks with me - Justin is there! Celebrity running!

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  8. Dude, go for it. KILL IT. And then wait around an hour, and yell at my slow ass to break 5.

    I'm repeating my half-assed Hansons method. Because I hate running more than 16 miles alone.

    Which could explain why I'm so damn slow during long races.

    Meh.

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  9. Good luck with your training! I just started week one, as well!

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  10. Exciting! Good luck with the new training plan. I think it can be good to change things up sometimes. I'm aiming for sub-4 for my marathon this fall too.

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  11. I believe. I believe you will definitely be able to break 4 hours! You'll give me motivation to do the same after this baby comes.

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