Monday, June 16, 2008

The Flexibility of Summer

With summer comes the sun and more opportunity for trail running and cross-training. I love the flexibility and freedom. Hard to believe with summer just underway that I will be beginning a new training plan this week in anticipation of the fall marathon season.

On Thursday, the kiddos wanted to go to the park so I opted to do something of a tempo run to the "Blue Park".
3.08 miles down ... 28:37 = average 9:17 min/mile. Not really tempo pace but good.
Played around. Visited with friends. Did a few strides during a game of Duck Duck Goose.
2.91 miles back ... 33:09 = average 11:22 min/mile. Hot. Hills. Yuck.

Friday was beautiful. I took the kiddos to the pool for about an hour of play swim before Masters. Then, as they enjoyed a snack and the company of friends in the Kids Corner, I jumped into the deep end with other like-minded adults. As it was Friday, Bob had us do his favorite "30 minutes of 100m freestyle". Those in my lane opted to do the intervals on 2:15, thereby allowing for a 15 minute rest between each 100m.

At the end of 30 minutes, we had completed thirteen 100s. With my warm-up (400m) and the drill (6 x 25m '2nd best stroke' - I went with freestyle as I believe backstroke is my best), my total distance was 1850 m. Solid.

I did relatively little over the weekend. Housework. Yard work. Community Weed Pull.

Which brings me to Monday. Today. The start of my new 16 week training plan - that is if I do Portland. As I mentioned briefly in the past, I've moved my long run to Monday rather than Sunday. This does 2 things: 1) alleviates pressure from the weekend when DH may wish to do something and my long run cuts into our flexibility; and 2) gets my week off to a great start - allowing me 7 days to get my long run done in case something comes up. Though today was the first - I believe it is going to be a good system. When school starts again, I'll likely have to move it back to the weekend. But then, we are less apt to go on family outings in the winter months.

11.29 miles at 1:52:23 = average 9:57 min/mile.

I have 2 training plans - one from RW Smart Coach and the other, RW Advanced Marathon Training Plan. I used the Advanced plan for Eugene '08. It basically calls for 1 long run, 1 tempo, 1 speed, 2 easy days, and 2 rest/xtraining days each week. While I liked the plan, I feel that it was too intense for me and I thereby burned out. Smart Coach calls for 1 long, either 1 speed or 1 tempo, 2 easy days, and 3 rest/xtraining days each week.

I'm going to give Smart Coach a try this time. I've said this before and here I say it again... I'm also going to incorporate strength training/core work! Please help me to stick to that. Give me a hard time if I don't post at least 2 strength or core training workouts each week!

I've sent in my race registration for the '08 Circle the Bay. I'm off to a good start.

6 comments:

  1. Even the regular Smart Coach was too aggressive for me ;-) Yikes!!!

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  2. Wow! That looks too aggressive for me. You, however, should be able to handle it fine

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  3. That is a great plan. Aggressive yes - but then you're a way better runner than me!

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  4. Evne though it's summer, you seem to be pretty busy!

    I couldn't imagine starting Marathon training ... with the mindset of it being summer break! hehe.

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  5. Nice job on those hills!

    I just got done using the FIRST marathon program. It's just 3 days of running each week (nice for triathletes): 1 interval day, 1 tempo, and 1 long run. I liked it a lot!

    Good luck!!

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  6. Wes, Kevin, Akshaye, Stacy - I may find it is too aggressive for me as well. We shall see. :)

    Steve - I used FIRST for my first marathon. I really liked it! I desperately want to BQ though so I'm trying to push myself harder. I sometimes feel that my plan is similar to FIRST even now because I often drop 1-2 of the runs... leaving just 3 run days.

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