Marathon Training Program Break Down

February 14th marked day 1 of my 14 week training program to my SUB 4 FINISH IN FARGOOOOOOO.  Ahem.  Now Fargo is only my 3rd marathon, so I am in no way an expert on marathons.  Or even an "experienced" marathon IMO, unless you're throwing that around in the sense that.... yaysies!  She experienced a marathon (or two)!

The first go around I used the trusty runnersworld.com training program to map out my schedule.  I had been using the site for many recent half marathon and 5ks with great results, and I know better than to mess with a good thing.  The training program got me to the finish line happy and healthy, and roughly in the amount of time I thought it'd take me.

Marathon #2 I enlisted the help of  Runners World yet again, and then had some issues with my IT Bands and knee that cause me to downsize my already short training program to 9 weeks.  Uff.  There were a lot of variables behind the suckfest that was Vegas, but for #3 I decided I wanted to try something new!

At one point I thought about giving the reigns over to Luke or Jason and see what their brilliant minds and speedy selves could come up with, but then I realized a) I'm a control freak (duh!) and b) half of the fun of training is working on the training program!  I started to see what was out there.  I read a lot of books.

 

I took notes!  Because I'm a total nerd.  And then I found an old friend in Hal Higdon.  I was a religious Hal Higdon user for numerous half marathons, 5ks, pretty much everything before I got back in to running "seriously" about two years ago.  And when I saw what was listed in the Advanced-I training program, I was more than intrigued.... I was a little bit smitten.

Through reading and reading and reading.  And chatting with some fasty running pals, I evaluated what I thought I was "missing" from my training.  Or at the very least, what could be tweaked to make me queen bee fasty of SoDak... errr something. 

• Hill repeats.  I don't do them.  I hate them.  They're dumb.  But I should.  Hal has 'em.
• Tempo runs.  I psych myself out so much on long tempo runs that I often will end up skipping them.  Shorter, slightly faster tempos may be the ticket.  While I think tempo runs are grade-A for me for half marathon training and shorter, I don't see the connection as much in marathon training.  Hal...check!
• 800 m. repeats.  Mile repeats = satan's track workout.  Again, I psych myself out of them.  If I like to do shorter repeats, than I should.  And that's that.  Hal has 'em.
• Pace workouts.  This is something I've never done, and I couldn't give you an answer as to why.  When reflecting on Vegas, I was shocked to realize that not a single workout done in training was at the 9:09 mgp.  How are your legs supposed to lock on to a go pace if you're running 7:30s for mile repeats, 8:10s for tempo, and 9:30s for long runs?!?!?  Answer: They don't.  Hal?  You betcha.
• Long runs on fatigued legs.  Somewhere along the way I turned in to a wuss.  If my legs felt like crap at the start of a long run, I would cut it short and move it to the next day.  When my legs felt like junk at the start of Vegas I panicked!  In this schedule every other long run will have a 4-8 mile pace run the day before, so I'll be getting my mental toughness on.

I did a lot of revamping of Hal's schedule to make it fit me, but all in all, I think we may have a winner.  On paper at the very least, we'll see how my body responds to it.  :)  I guess we'll find out in 14 weeks.


Tonight I did my first bit of speedwork in.... uh.... um.... weeks and was unsure how it'd turn out.  I had 5 miles to do with 4 at tempo pace.  According to the McMillan calculator my tempos should be 8:09-8:31 pace.  I was shooting for a pace somewhere in the slower 8:20s.  The wind was intense.  And that's an understatement.  We're talking 17 mph winds with 30 mph wind gusts.  Guess which miles were really into the wind:  9:25 (warm up), 8:14, 8:19, 8:42, 8:11.
If you guessed miles 4 and 5 you'd be correct.  Well and half of mile 3 technically.  Don't ask how I can run an 8:42 followed by an 8:11 in to the same amount of the wind.  Ok do ask:  I'm a slacker.  Ooops.  I should really work on that.


During my run I saw half of a rabbit on the bike trail.  Which prompted me to wonder what was out on the trails feasting on not-so-small furry rabbits.  Which prompted me to wonder if they would also be partial to Jerbears.  And then upon further inspection and thought (clearly this was during the 8:42 mile) I realized it only had one foot.


HOT DOG I JUST FOUND ME A LUCKY RABBIT'S FOOT!
Poor not so lucky 1/2 of a rabbit slash 1/4 of limb rabbit. :(