I’ve been thinking about how I want to train this year for Burlington. I want to train harder than the previous two marathons – you see I trained better for Hartford than I did for Marine Corps but I trained for longer with Marine Corps than I did for Hartford. I need a happy medium.
But I have a goal of being sub 5:00:00. It’s going to take a lot of work. I know this. But I’m ready for the challenge.
So I looked into Hal Higdon – I used a modified version of his novice I for my first marathon but this time? I’m going to do a modified version of his advanced – it’ll be kind of a mix of advanced and intermediate.
I’m technically already a week behind – whoops. Maybe I’ll meander over to the gym tonight after dinner to go for a 3 mile jaunt.
The plan is:
18 weeks.
Running 6 days modified to 4 days with 2 days of Xtraining
Monday runs range from 3 mi going to 4 and then 5 miles in weeks 11-17
Tuesday will be Xtraining (as opposed to a 5-10 mi run)
Wednesday will be speed workouts with the DC Road Runners starting next week
Thursday will be XT
Friday is rest
Saturday will be a 5-10 mi run alternating weeks at pace/slow run.
Sundays will be my long runs – this time I have two 20 milers to run, one on the weekend of the GW Parkway 10 miler. Of course I’ll also be running a 20 miler on my birthday (Easter Sunday) so that’s kind of…crappy.
I want to focus my X training on strength training and yoga and pilates – working on my core more so. I’m thinking about getting a month to month pass at the gym I used to work at at least until I finish the marathon. I want to find a half marathon for the summer that runs just before the wedding which will be right at the beginning of my training for Philly.
So this week:
Run 3 miles (tonight)
Run 3 miles (Wed) (generally Tues/Thurs will be XT days and M, W, Saturday/Sunday will be running days)
Run 5 miles (sat AM)
Run 10 miles Sunday
I’m kind of throwing myself back into everything but I’m okay with that. It’s now or never, a week really isn’t going to change much. I will say that I won’t feel bad about Saturday’s run if I happen to miss it – I’m going with a pal up to a bridal shop in Gaithersburg and we have an 11a appointment which means we probably need to leave the hill around 930 so i’ll have to do a 5 mi. run at 7. Doable. I think.
This is still the tentative training plan. I have some tweeks. I’m going to use a modified training plan – Higdon’s Intermediate/Advanced and a training plan created by Runners World Smart Coach to run a 4:45:00 marathon.
Any other suggestions/tips from my fellow runners? I can’t believe I haven’t ran since November really…yikes!
18 weeks to go.
Related Reading:
Marathon Madness Articles and Resources Runners Lounge
101 Kicks in the Butt Runners World
What’s the Best Way to Train for a Marathon Runners World
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My only tip would be to make sure you get enough rest. I get sick of running and lose my motivation if I don’t take enough time off, at least one day. But you’re better than I am!