Today’s Workout: 4.2 mile recovery run nice and easy, 8:41 pace***
I’m not sure that anyone who reads this blog really cares about how I train. I am really just an average joe runner who is still wrapping my head around this whole running and training thing. In 2011 I had absolutely no direction to my running. I was naive. I ran a ton, raced almost every weekend and just had a whole heck of a lot of fun.
I do not regret any of it or any of the 27 races I participated in. I had fun, met a ton of people, learned a lot, and got lucky a few times and even won a few age group awards. But the truth is I trained like a complete idiot. I over raced, over trained and am 100% lucky I did not get seriously injured. After my complete blow-up at St. George marathon I realized I needed to change my approach to training. I was training way too hard and needed to get back to basics and back to the simple enjoyment of running.
So with the help and direction of some great friends I gave my training a complete makeover. Instead of running medium-hard every single day and burning myself out I am now focusing on just 2-3 hard workouts a week. I am actually training specifically for races and logging way more easy miles. During December I simply focused on building a solid base and running at a comfortable and maintainable pace which ended up being 8:05-8:20. That pace is “natural” and maintainable to me.
Now that I am training for a 10k and building endurance for Boston my week looks something like this (pulled from last week):
Monday: 11.5 miles easy, 8:12 pace
Tuesday: Hill Workout, 10×60 second hill climbs, 8 miles 7:52 pace
Wednesday: 8 miles easy, 8:00 pace
Thursday: Tempo Workout, 20 minutes at HM pace, 8 miles, 7:37 pace PM: 2 miles easy recovery, 8:24 pace
Friday: 7.2 miles easy, 8:20 pace
Saturday: 15.5 miles moderately hard but maintainable, 7:48 pace. I had the opportunity to do this LR with some faster friends so I ended up pushing myself harder than I would on a normal LR.
Sunday: 4.2 miles easy recovery run, 8:41 pace
64 miles total
I hope this run down didn’t completely bore you to death but I thought it would be beneficial for me to explain that I have completely transformed the way I train. The plan for 2012 will be 9 workouts a week with two 2 a days ideally the night after a hard workout. I feel 100% better if I shake my legs out after a hard morning workout.
Now onto my 2012 race plans.
January: Hale Freezes Over 10k, January 29th
February: Del Sol Ragnar, February 24-25th
March: Shamrock half marathon, March 17thRiverton half marathon, March 31st PACING
April: 5k time trial (hoping to find a 5k close to home), April 7thBoston Marathon, April 16th
May: ? I’m sure I’ll add something
June: Utah Valley Half Marathon, June 9th PACINGAmerican Fork Half Marathon, June 29th
July: Lavendar Days 5k, July 7thColorado Ragnar Relay
August: Dash for Donation 5kUtah Runner Girls Half Marathon
September: Pocetello Marathon, Sept 1stPayson Onion Days 10kLayton Marathon, Sept 29th(I will likely pick one of the two marathons)
October: Halloween Half Marathon, October 27th
November: Turkey Trot 5k
I think it’s shaping up to be a pretty good year. 🙂
If you made it this far I apologize for the overly analytical and insanely boring post. I am really just trying road map my year and be more strategic and methodical about my training and racing in 2012.