Plan to Qualify for Boston

Just in case this works, I thought I should document my training plan. In order to qualify for Boston, I need to run a 3:10 marathon. My goal is a 3:07 pace, just in case I need to slow or stop for something, I won't have to make up lost ground. The person that created my plan is the local shoe store owner, Paul. He's in his early to mid 40's, and ran 2:46 at New York last year.

38 Total 12 Long (3 tempo) - first week of plan
42 Total 14 Long (4 race/tempo) - 4 weeks ago
45 Total 14 Long (8atMP) - 3 weeks ago
37 Total 10 Long - 2 weeks ago
47 Total 16 Long (4 mile tempo) - last week
50 Total 18 Long - This week
52 Total 20 Long - Next week
45 Total 16 Long - 7 weeks out
60 Total 26.2 Long - 4 mile tempo, Marathon at 8:15/mi
56 Total 17 Long (12 at MP)
55 Total 20 Long (5 mi Tempo)
48 Total 18 Long (12 at MP)
44 Total 16 Long - 2 weeks out
37 Total 10 Long - 1 week out
?? Total Race week

Breaking it down... 656 miles over 14 weeks. 46.8 miles per week average. Each week I do a long run and a medium long run. Both of these runs start at 20% (8:36) of my marathon pace for up to 5 miles, and end at 10% (7:53) of my marathon pace for up to 5 miles. The other miles should be somewhere between these 2 paces. Every few weeks I do a long run with a significant portion of the miles at my marathon pace.

The goal pace for a tempo run is 6:20. Originally I didn't think I could do that, so I aimed for 6:30 the first week. The second week I did a 4 mile race at 6:11 pace. I guess I can do tempo runs at 6:20.

A portion of my miles have been way to fast (7:10-7:30 pace) for 6 miles on Tuesday and Thursday mornings with a group. During lunch I account for the rest of my miles. Lunch miles are between 4 to 6 miles, and around 8:00 pace.

Other than that, I do four 75m strides once a week after an easy run. No hills, no reapeats, no weights, no water running, no parachutes, or lunges. I have biked 170 miles in the first 7 weeks, but that's far from my goal of 50 miles/week.

Golfing Next Year

This weekend I attempted to make progress in getting a nutritional plan. At 6:30am it was raining pretty heavy, so I setup the trainer and laptop in the garage. This was probably a good thing. My HR stays lower when I'm on the trainer, and it's easy to adjust my nutrition.

Logged on to Hulu.com and started watching 24. Four episodes, 2.5 hours, 1 banana, 2 gu gels, half a clif bar, and 30 oz of gatorade later, I was ready for my run. The plan was to run 16 miles, but my runs have not been going according to plan lately.

I have a 4.5 mile route that I was able to add another half mile to. As expected, I started off way too fast. Goal was 8:30 for the first 5 miles. One would think I would slow down after passing the first mile at 7:30, but I didn't. Maybe I was thinking I wanted to get done faster. Maybe I thought I was in much better shape than I was a few days ago. Maybe I wasn't thinking.

After 5 miles I ate half a banana, mouthful of gatorade, grabbed the headphones, and started the next 5. Passed my house again around mile 10, drank more gatorade, and started the hard part. My first 5 miles of a long run should be at 8:30 pace, and the last 5 should be at 7:40 pace. Miles 11 and 12 felt fine. Mile 13 I wanted to quit. Mile 14 I started to walk, and Mile 15 was basically a cooldown. Mile 16 never happened.

Falling Off Plan

Up until last week, I was following my training plan for running very well. If the training log is accurate, I was 8.5 miles short. It was a recovery week, so maybe I'm just more recovered? Don't think so. This week I'm going to be more than 2 miles over. This morning I was planning on doing my 16 mile long run, but it turned into a 9 mile medium long run. Woke up at 3:10, but didn't get out the door until 3:55 due to issues with the dog and a lost glove. Sub 30 degrees, so going without a glove did not sound like fun.

Now I need to do 16 on Sunday. Hopefully this will give me a opportunity to test a nutritional plan. If I can manage a 3-4 hour bike ride before my run, it will be a good week.