The Plan

The fact is this is my first marathon. To be even fairer, I haven’t consistently run in over four years. But about five months ago, my girlfriend decided to run in this 5 mile adventure race in the Amana Colonies, and I decided to spend the 3 weeks before the race getting into some kind of shape and run it too. I didn’t do terribly, and then I remembered I loved running. Hey-o!

The real point is I barely know what I’m doing when it comes to training for a marathon. I have a few things going for me though. I’m not entirely a stranger to endurance events. In middle school and early high school, I was a tolerable mid to long distance track athlete. And in college, I raced (very poorly) as an intercollegiate road cyclist before packing my bags to ride my bicycle across America (note: east-to-west is the wrong way). But before two weeks ago, I had never run more than 7 miles at a time in my life. Nevertheless, here I am beginning the third week of my training plan.

Concerning my training plan, I’m following the Novice 2 schedule of Mr. Hal Higdon pretty closely. I haven't had the easiest time building up to the mileage necessary for the start of the plan, but I've gotten there and am getting ready to take it a little easier this third week.

Week	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun
1	Rest	3 m run	5 m pace	3 m run	Rest	8	Cross
2	Rest	3 m run	5 m run	3 m run	Rest	9	Cross
3	Rest	3 m run	5 m pace	3 m run	Rest	6	Cross
4	Rest	3 m run	6 m pace	3 m run	Rest	11	Cross
5	Rest	3 m run	6 m run	3 m run	Rest	12	Cross
6	Rest	3 m run	6 m pace	3 m run	Rest	9	Cross
7	Rest	4 m run	7 m pace	4 m run	Rest	14	Cross
8	Rest	4 m run	7 m run	4 m run	Rest	15	Cross
9	Rest	4 m run	7 m pace	4 m run	Rest	Rest	Half Marathon
10	Rest	4 m run	8 m pace	4 m run	Rest	17	Cross
11	Rest	5 m run	8 m run	5 m run	Rest	18	Cross
12	Rest	5 m run	8 m pace	5 m run	Rest	13	Cross
13	Rest	5 m run	5 m pace	5 m run	Rest	19	Cross
14	Rest	5 m run	8 m run	5 m run	Rest	12	Cross
15	Rest	5 m run	5 m pace	5 m run	Rest	20	Cross
16	Rest	5 m run	4 m pace	5 m run	Rest	12	Cross
17	Rest	4 m run	3 m run	4 m run	Rest	8	Cross
18	Rest	3 m run	2 m run	Rest	Rest	2 m run	Marathon

The training schedule's pretty simple to explain. There are 3 types of runs. The runs on Tuesday and Thursdays (and sometimes on Wednesdays) are "comfortable" runs. They're more a matter of just running out the distance prescribed and enjoying the run. Sometimes I like to take these fast. Other times, I'm just tired and gutting it out through the run.

Then there are the pace runs. They're pretty self-explanatory in that I'm training to run the miles at a specific pace. That pace is specifically the one I plan on running my marathon at. Since I'm aiming for a 3:30 marathon time, I need to go for an ~8 minute per mile pace. My Garmin Forerunner GPS watch really helps keep me on track during those runs.

Last, there are the Saturday runs, lovingly referred to as LSD runs (Long Slow Distance), where the goal is to take it easy while making sure I maintain a pace 45 seconds to a minute-and-a-half slower than my pace runs.

Beyond the running, there's also cross-training and rest days. I often try failingly to justify this with my bicycle rides through the city as cross-training. But on the rest days, I rather excel at resting.

Within this training, I have two targets. The first is in a month and a half. The Get Lucky Half Marathon on St. Patrick's Day in the Twin Cities. I'm not building for this race in the way I am the marathon, but rather using it as a way to get used to the nuances of how bigger races are held while having some fun.

The big goal of all this training, though, is the marathon of my adopted hometown: the Madison Marathon on Memorial Day weekend.