Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Back to Training

I'll be heading back to the streets and trails today. Physically I'm back to 100%, although I'm sure I've put a pound or two back on the last couple of days. Yup. The ole' food vacuum has been on.

I feel like I have made a great deal of progress over the last year. My 5K PR has dropped by 3 minutes (25.24), 10K by 6 minutes (55.32) and HM by 10 minutes (2:09.07). I attribute most of that improvement to running more miles more consistently. But, I want to move up to the next level of training. I would love to get into the 45 - 50 mpw range. I think that volume would go a long way to help me get to my ultimate PRs goals - break 24 minutes in a 5K, 50 minutes in a 10K and 2 hours at a HM. I also want to get back to marathons and be in the low 4 hour time frame.

So, I'm actively soliciting input on what to do with my typical training schedule:

Mondays: 4 mile easy run
Tuesdays: Intervals
Wednesday: 4 mile recovery
Thursday: 45 - 60 minute tempo run
Friday: Rest
Saturday: 9 - 12 mile long run
Sunday: 4 mile recovery

A couple of other factors - I am a 51 year old male. 5' 11". I'm carting around some extra "luggage", coming in at a svelte 215 lbs. And, I don't have a goal race right now, since I need to take some weekends over the summer to go hiking/backpacking for my Mt. Whitney assault on Labor Day. What I am looking for is maintenance type plan to maintain fitness and not get stale. When I am ready to start on a goal race, I will probably adopt a Pfitz or Daniels style training plan - I just want to be in good enough shape to pickup on those plans when it's time.

Thanks to all for your input!

5 comments:

  1. I think your training plan looks good. Its all about quality instead of quantity. I would mix things up occasionally so you don't get bored and your running keeps improving!

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  2. You are awesome Glenn. Here I was thinking I would take a week off after my upcoming half marathon-- but you had to go and do a thing like this- start training so soon after your race. Thanks a lot!!! :)

    I will have to follow suit now. After all you've already helped me get this far!

    Keep up the hard work!

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  3. I'm too new to help, but I think you will do great...you have a climbing goal, so what about hill work?

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  4. The Daniels book has a few "training for fitness" plans. They're basically for maintenance when you don't have a particular race in mind. They're all 16 week plans, but easily adjustable for whatever time frame you're looking at. With some reading of the rest of the book, it would be fairly easy to adjust to heart rate training instead of pace training as well - if you're more comfortable with that.

    I think Lindsay is following one now.

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  5. pssh brian. lindsay WAS following one but kind of slacked off the last 2 weeks.

    i was following one though. they seem to be good maintenance plans to me - there have a little variety to keep it interesting and also keep you in decent shape for a race if you decide to jump into (a short) one. overall it's similar to your current schedule -- easy runs, intervals, tempo, just a little more structured for the workout days.

    if you want to see some of them lemme know. i can email. glad you have recovered well!

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