So... as most of you know I am in the midst of training for my second marathon coming up September 19th, 2009. I was originally NOT going to try again, however my good friend Marie motivated me to give Boston another shot, so that means qualifying sometime in the next six months. I picked September because of the training plan: I could do the bulk of my training over the summer while not working full-time, then the taper would pretty much overlap with my return to full-time teaching the end of August. Despite the good timing work-wise, there couldn't BE worse weather to run in than high humidity and temp's in the 90's on most days. Alas, training must go on.
I have integrated Marie's running plan with that of the FIRST program, created by exericse physiologists at Furman University, one of the top running schools in the country. Basically, you only run three days a week and the rest is cross training. Great news, right? Well let me tell ya, they may be less frequent, but they are brutally hard. It fully embraces the saying "quality over quantity". Yeah, three days a week of running may not sound like much, but when you do run, you gotta have your game face on.
I just finished one full week of the FIRST plan: I had one track workout, one LT run (will explain later) and one long run. One day I swam, the other two "off" days I biked and lifted. I can say with confidence that this plan is revolutionary in the running world. I was able to finish my long run last week (17 miles) in a dead sprint for half a mile which, for me, is a huge accomplishment. To have that much energy saved after more than two hours of running is pretty amazing, so I am fully invested in the FIRST program now!
Yesterday I had the track workout: 10-minute warmup, then 5 repeats of 1000 meters in 4:16 (each), followed by a 10-20 minute cooldown. Oh, and you do get a 400-meter rest interval (RI), so that's nice. 4:16 may not seem like that fast a pace, but if you don't learn how to pace yourself so you average that 4:16 time, you are SPENT by the last repeat. This is a great lesson for runners though, because if you start out too fast in a race, you can build up lactic acid in the muscles too quickly and in essence deplete glycogen stores much faster than you would at a slower, more consistent pace.
Today's workout was cross-training, so I biked for 30 minutes and am going to lift this afternoon after teaching two sessions of Pilates, ugh!
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Introduction to Infinite
Welcome to my new blog, which WILL be updated daily because it is going to hold me accountable for my training plan. I will continue to update my other blog, but with less frequency, as this will be more of my personal journal and the other will be more of a weekly "educational" tool. I hope that by sharing my personal experiences with this training plan, diet, etc., I can motivate you and others to set your bars higher and become more goal-oriented all around.
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