So, after my little break, it’s time to get back to it.  I feel about 90% recovered from my cold, my glute seems to have calmed down, and though I have some weird foot things going on after my 8 miler last weekend, my legs feel pretty great in general.  Considering how I thought that would feel, after 3 weeks of little to no running, I’m very happy.

That means I can pretty much jump in with both feet and not worry about training anything under double digits.  Let’s run some milezes, shall we?

I’m following, as I have for the last few half marathon cycles, the FIRST program (at least my own little variation) running 3 days per week, 1 long, 1 speedwork, 1 tempo.  Every few weeks, I replace a speedwork or tempo run with hill work.  The other two days I’ll do 30-60 mins of swimming or biking.  I will attempt to maintain 2 – 30 min strength sessions per week (crunchtime and one do-it-myself session).  I will also attempt to add back some at-home yoga.

I imagine a typical week will look like this:

Monday: speedwork + crunchtime
Tuesday: swim + yoga
Wednesday: tempo run
Thursday: bike + weights
Friday: off (yoga/stretching)
Saturday: long run
Sunday: off

And since my week is generally anything but typical, I imagine those will be switched around but the rules I will try to stick by are 1) no 2 run days in a row – they are ALL hard runs, and I don’t do well back to back days, 2) Sunday is an off day (unless I have to do my long run Sun instead of Sat).  If that means I have to skip a day, so be it.  I don’t do well going into the week without a rest day before, and c) listen to my body and make sure if I feel like I need more rest/stepback week, I do it.

My speedwork is varied.  I’m doing everything from 12×400 to 2k repeats.  I am a sick puppy and I actually love speedwork of just about any flavor.

My tempos are anything from 10 miles at planned marathon pace or 5-8 mile tempos below pace.  I don’t love tempo work, but these actually seem easier than what I was going for with the half training since my PMP is a lot slower than my PHMP.  I’m always aiming for 9:10 for my halfs (to finally get that damn sub-2), but I’m considering a much more sane 10:15s for my marathon, I’d like to finish in 4:30.  Really, I’ll be stoked to finish in whatever.  But considering this training requires a pace goal, I think this is pretty safe as long as the weather is good, my body feels good, and training goes as planned.

My long runs include 3 half marathon races, and include 3-4 20+ milers topping out at 23.   This is a pretty controversial decision, I know, and most people would probably tell me to cool it on the miles and do 1-2 20s max.  However, I just can’t in my head grasp the idea of adding a 10k to the end of the longest run I’ve ever done once like the beginner training program tells you to do (and even the advanced has you doing a few 20s but no more).  I’m doing a 23 specifically due to the race I’m running.  The last 3 miles of the course are downhill, I figure I can handle that – the 23 miler 5 weeks out will be the most cruicial run I believe I’m going to do (and I’m going to do it on the race course).  Again, I’ll listen to my body and make sure that the mileage isn’t killing me.  Worst case, I’ll do a 20, step back, do my 23, and then taper.

Also, I want to keep tracking my weight and nutrition: starting is 176.  Maybe I can buck the odds and lose a bunch by M day.  I’ll also definitely be consulting with my nutritionist to find out if I need to adjust my daily intakes up due to activity or if the fueling during the longer exercises is enough.  Also, I’m working on switching from beans to gels.  So far, the pineapple GU (uncaffinated) I had Saturday seemed to work a-ok, so that’s good news!

This week’s plan:

Monday: 12×400 (90 sec rest intervals) + crunchtime
Tuesday: 30 min swim + yoga
Wednesday: 10 mile long run outside
Thursday: 30 mins bike hills + weights
Friday: off (yoga/stretching)
Saturday: 5k race (let’s call it a tempo.  Goal is in the 26s)
Sunday: off

So, yeah.  Let’s do this.  I’m a little nervous about embarking on this crazy adventure but I have to do something to keep myself amused in triathlon off season, right?