Not a bad run

I had planned to go 8 miles last week but it didn't really work out that way. The humidity was horrid. Today was another story. It was a great run. I managed 8.12 miles at really my normal pace, which was nice. It was a good tune up. I am going to do something a bit unusual in training for this next half marathon. Usually the way it works, stop me if you have heard this, you follow a schedule that usually prescribes 4 to 5 days of running a week. This schedule will have two runs that are short somewhere between 3 to 5 miles then a middle range run that will be a bit longer 6 to 8 and then a long run. I have found that for myself, I need a bit longer to recover from a long run.

I am taking a page, well in spirit, from Tom over at Runner's World. Tom mentioned a while back, I am not going to give you a pin point cite, that the twenty mile run was really not such a big deal to preparing for a marathon. I agree, I could feel my body start to break down once I crossed the 18 mile threshold. I think the logic of what Tom was trying to get at is what I am shooting for. Tom was getting at the point that conventional wisdom is not always what is right for you as an individual runner. Thanks Tom.

I know that after the long run I need more rest. So I will be doing a true long run every other week. There is no real need to do this more often in my mind. I want to preserve my conditioning as well, how to do both. I am going to run two week cycles. For week one, I will run my 4 runs as follows, 3 shorter runs (3-5) and one true long run (8-14) (there will be one speed workout in this week as well). Then for week two, I will run two shorter runs (3-5) and two mid range runs (6-9) (there will be one speed workout in this week as well). I am confident that this will help to preserve my conditioning. It might be a bit challenging to go up a bit faster on the long runs but the extra recover time will probably be what I need.

So there it is my unconventional running plan, self designed (self deluded - perhaps)