Sunday, August 06, 2006

Looking ahead: Week 8 plan and beyond

I believe that one of the key success factors in traning for a positive marathon experience is PLANNING. I have been doing a lot of planning and it has worked out so far.

The biggest challenge is balancing my commitment to follow the Pfitzinger 18-week schedule while dealing with race schedules, different long run schedules with the CARA group than what my plan says, work travel and general life happenings.

Next Sunday is the CDC. "The plan" (i.e. Pfitz) says I am supposed to run 20 miles. But I want to race the CDC . I'm not naive to think that I am going to be able to do an effective 6+ miles after going all out on the half marathon. I plan to leave it all out there -- with one caveat: If the weather conditions are poor, I will likely scale it back and run marathon goal pace.

Below is a snapshot of this coming week with adjustments for the CDC, as well as a look at the following week. The 8/21 week will get real interesting, as I am going to Europe for work. I purposely scheduled the trip during the 8/21 week since it is considered a "recovery" week.

This week
Mon 8/7 - 6-7 miles w/ 6x100m strides
Tue 8/8 - 12-13 miles med-long run
Wed 8/9 - Rest
Thu 8/10 - 11-12 gen aero (no speed, going to save it for Sunday)
Fri 8/11 - 6 miles w/st

Sat 8/12 - Rest
Sun 8/13 - CDC Half marathon - warmup 1 mile before + recovery 2 after = total 16
Targeted total mileage = 52-54 miles

8/14 week
Mon 8/14 - 4-5 recovery
Tue 8/15 - 12 med-long
Wed 8/16 - 6 recovery
Thu 8/17 - rest
Fri 8/18 - 5 recovery
Sat 8/19 - 20 miles in Pittsburgh
Sun 8/20 - Rest - Leave for Europe
Targeted total mileage = 46-48 miles

The 8/21 week will get tricky with meetings and travels that will take me through London, Switzerland and Germany.

PS - Does anyone know what I did to my blog to cause all of the lists to drop way down to the bottom of the page? It's a mystery to me. Appreciate any tips/clues you may have. thanks

9 comments:

SRR said...

London...Switzerland...Germany! So jealous! Wish teachers could travel for work! :-)

I think blogger is just tempermental. It does fucked up shit like that to me all the time.

MNFirefly said...

Awesome plan! Good luck this week.

Iron Jayhawk said...

So when you finish the CDC you're gunna stick around the finish line for an hour or two to cheer me on, right? ;) You're going to be awesome...I can't wait to see your finish time.

The problem with blogger is the one picture from your 7/23 post is too large. It went into the left hand column, forcing the left hand column to shift to the bottom. Once that post falls off the page it should sort itself out. I've had the same thing happen to me whenever I post larger photos.

Triseverance said...

I have to switch long runs around the two weeks after this and I am also substituting a half race for a long run in September. Don't sweat it.

Jon said...

To add to RJ's comment, you can prevent the problem by adding height and width to your picture's code, i.e., [img src="picture" height="XX" width="XX"]. The "XX" is pixels. As long as the width's under about 300, the photo won't enter the right column.

Arcane said...

Good luck next week with whatever pace you decide to do. Racing a half hard this far out from the marathon shouldn't be too much of a problem.

My Life said...

Congrats on your first "genuine 50!" Good luck this weekend!

Unknown said...

You're revised plan looks good. I say go for it at CDC. Good luck.

yumke said...

Ok, I wanna know cause you know. What time you gunning for? And good luck!