Friday, October 27, 2006

Back To Business

I ventured out on to my first post-marathon run this evening around 5:30 PM. It is the soonest after a marathon that I have ever run, which may be an indication that I am excited to get back into it.

I did an easy 4-miler in my residential surroundings. Upon starting out, I looked down at the Garmin with interest to see my first first mile pace. 8:14. This is fine, actually faster than I had planned. However, it struck me as funny since it felt like 7:45.

Total run time was 32:34 - 8:08 per mile for 4 miles.

All and all, I felt really good, but I was content doing only 4. I will do some easier mileage over the next two days.

The next goal is the Las Vegas Half Marathon. Days to race: 44. Goal: 1:29:30 -- a PR by 56 seconds. Why this goal time? It seemed like a nice, round number; a realistic, yet stretching goal given only 44 days to recover and train.

I did a little research to see if I could find a worthwile 1/2 marathon training program that I could jump onto for 6 weeks to get me ready. I didn't really find anything that really fit with my circumstances or desired schedule.

I decided that I am going to create my own schedule based on my own experience. I know my body and am still at a decent level of fitness, so I can run my own show.

I will consider this an experiment. I am not going to follow Pfitz, Hal, RW, Coolrunning or any other pre-designed plan. I am going to follow my own plan.

Here is the rough draft (click on the image below to see the mileage):

Mondays - Easy, comfortable pace (7:40-8:00)
Tuesdays - Speed work - vary btw Yassos (3:00 800m repeats) and Tempo runs (6:50 pace)
Wednesdays - Rest
Thursdays - Warm-up with 2, then Run half the schedule distance at race pace, finish easy
Fridays - Recovery runs (8:40-9:00 pace)
Saturdays - Long runs - Pace range: 7:40-8:00, finish last two miles around 7:30
Sundays - Rest

8 comments:

Chad said...

Good luck, Ryan. Just wanted to mention that your tempo pace needs to be quicker than half marathon race pace. It should be somewhere between 10K pace and half marathon pace - as they say "it's the pace you could race for 1 hour."

Also, I'd go heavier on tempo runs than yasso's for a half marathon.

Ryan said...

Good point, Zeke. Check that, we'll make the Tempo's around 6:40.

Iron Jayhawk said...

Your schedule looks solid to me. You'll be able to get that goal with ease. Just you watch.

yumke said...

Now we all get to live our racing lives through Ryan.. look forward to following your road to Boston!

Arcane said...

Looks good Ryan! Plan looks great. 44 days seems like an eternity away.

Unknown said...

It's nice to have a goal always in sight. Tempo's are tough.

MNFirefly said...

Sounds like fun. I am SO itching to get out there.

Anonymous said...

Hi Ryan, my name is Robert and I'm trying to qualify for Boston for the 1st time next month in Houston. I'm 30 and got the itch about 6 months ago. my fastest marathon is 330. I didn't know where to post a question to you and see how you did it. my question to you is about weight and diet. I weigh 175 @ 5'10'' and its been hard to drop more weight even though I could easily drop about 10 to 15. Hopefully you can give me some tips on what to do, because I believe that being light, will make me faster. Well, if you can, you can also email me at bcmramirez@aol.com Thanks.