5/17/09 - SUMMER!

There may be no better feeling than the feeling you get at the moment you finish your last day of school, and it is summer vacation. It makes no difference whether is elementary school of law school... Its summer break, and i just finished my first year of law school!!

This post is going to be rather long and in depth, so fasten your seatbelt. This week I entered the second "phase" of my training (as nerdy as that sounds). My plan thus far was to get to the point where I could comfortably run about 40 miles a week. I also wanted to build some general strength in my posterior chain. Now I am shifting focus to less "garbage" mileage and more specific and purposeful workouts. My weekly plan will basically consist of 4 main workouts.

1) The long run: This will probably be every Sunday, and will be between 15-22 miles, depending on how long the other runs are. The purpose of this run isn't to simulate the first 15-22 miles of my marathon, but rather to just get used to the feeling of running for 2-3 hours without stopping. The pace will probably be a little slower, between 7:30-8 mins/mile
2) The track workout: There are two track workouts that I will be doing, probably alternating every week. The first one is a pretty standard marathon training workout called Yasso's 800s. Basically you run 800m hard, followed by 400m easy, and repeat. 800m is 2 laps around a standard track. The idea is that you should be able to run your goal marathon pace for 10x800s. In other words, if you want to run a 2 hour 50 minute marathon, you should be able to run 2 minutes 50 seconds for 10x800s. This week I did 4x800s, and I will work my way up to 10. The second track workout is just mile repeats, working my way up to about 5 or so, with a half mile easy in between each. The focus on these is to just get comfortable running at a faster pace. I have the endurance, but it will take some effort now to convert that into speed, and easy speed.
3) The medium long run: This run will probably be about 12-13 miles, and will be at a faster pace than the long run. Probably about 7:15-7:30 per mile.
4) The tempo run: This run will be between 5-9 miles. The idea of the tempo run is to run at the pace that you plan on running the marathon at. During the last few weeks, especially during taper, almost all my runs will be at tempo. The idea is to really tune into that pace that you want to hold for 26 miles, and know what it feels like to run that pace. A 3 hour marathon for example is 6:52 pace.

I will also basically stop all weighted upper body workouts, and hopefully lose some weight there. I am only going to do body weight upper body exerices, which pretty much limits me to pushups, pullups, and inverted rows. Instead, I will be doing alot more core work, and plyometrics. My main core exercises are front and side plank, and derivatives of plank exercises. I can hold the front plank position for 5 minutes, and would like to get up to 8 or so.

Plyometrics, at least for running, basically involves working on getting the most out of each step. It involves alot of jumping, and explosive movements. For example, single leg jumps, double leg jumps, box jumps, jump lunges, bounding, etc. Basically, if you can get one extra cm out of every step with no change in effort, over 26 miles, that will make a huge difference.

So, the weekly plan will look something like this, averaging high 50s in mileage:
Monday: rest day, or easy 3 or so miles; maybe some core/plyometrics
Tuesday: Medium long run: 12-13 miles
Wednesday: easy 4-5 miles, core/plyometrics
Thursday: Tempo run: 5-9 miles
Friday: Track workout: 5-10 miles
Saturday: easy 4-5 miles, core/plyometrics
Sunday: long run: 15-22 miles

Okay, well this week was a very good week in training. I did my first track workout on friday, and it was really good. I love running on a track for 2 reasons: 1)Running on a track after months of running on paved roads is like sleeping on a bed after sleeping on the ground. The track is so cushiony, its like running on clouds. 2) Coming from a swimming background, I am all about times. I like knowing my pace and speed at any given moment. With a track, it is always consistent and always exact. Sure you can use the treadmill pace things, and footpods, and gps watches, but they are often inaccurate. I only did 4x800s this week, but I didn't want to start off with too much. I did my long run this morning and ran 20 miles! Woohoo! a little sore, but it actually wasn't that bad.

Overall, this week I ran 54 miles
Monday: 4 mile run + core
Tueday: 9 mile run
Wednesday: 3 miles on treadmill + core
Thursday: 13 miles + weights
Friday: 5 mile track workout: 4x800s: Times were: 1) 3:05, 2) 3:03, 3) 2:59, 4) 2:49
Saturday: rest
Sunday: 20 mile long run