Has it been a week? Odds and Ends

I guess I didn't have much to say this last week. I have been recovering from my marathon and getting back into cross training. The thing I noticed about my marathon training was that it left precious little time for anything else. Now I can get back to normal.



This week I ran 2.51 miles, all on Saturday. I just wanted to get out there and stretch my legs and start back into a running schedule. It went well and I even scored a mile under 10:00. I wasn't really trying to do that, it just happened. Now I will try to get a bit faster over the summer while I get back on track with my martial arts. I have been trying to smooth myself out in that regard over the last week. I was supposed to test like 7 weeks ago, so I am behind schedule. My instructor is an understanding soul so I hope I can work something out over the next couple of weeks. I have been practicing a good deal over the last week and I feel I am close to form. I just need to pick up my push-up totals over the next couple of weeks.



Over the summer I plan on doing a 3 day a week running schedule. I hope to do two runs during the week and then one on the weekend. I am going to be working on speed so I will probably be going shorter than I previously did. I think my long run will be in the neighborhood of 6 miles (a weekly mileage of about 12 to 16 miles). I need a bit of time to get recharged on running. In the mean time I can focus on my martial arts work and get back to a more fluid level. There is always something to do.

In some unrelated news, I finished a book Zen in the Martial Arts by Joe Hyams. For anyone training in the martial arts this is a great book. There are some excellent training insights and philosophical approaches that I found to be helpful to think about. Additionally, there are some nice stories about Mr. Hyams training with Bruce Lee, which is worth the price of the book by itself. Mr. Hyams does a great job of giving personality to some larger than life figures in the martial arts. You get a real sense of who these folks were. I was happy that I picked this up.

Take it and Run: The Training Plan

Is it Thursday again? The good people at Runners Lounge have their take it and run Thursday and this week's topic is running plans. I have a few points I have picked up on the subject that be useful only to myself but here it goes:

1. A Running Plan is not a statute, law or hard set of rules. It took me a while to turn down the anal on this point. If my plan said run 3 on Monday, 5 on Wednesday and 3 on Thursday, that is what I did no more no less. I am much more loose on the plans these days. If the plan calls for 7 on Wednesday and 4 on Friday, I have no problem switching the days if I have some other schedule issues to contend with. Also, I don't beat myself up if I run 3.5 on a day that calls for 4. This is an exercise program not the building of the space shuttle. So I look at it like a guideline rather than a set of rules. As long as I make steady progress toward the end result I am fine with it.

2. Build flexibility into the program, for myself this is a must. I always add one to two extra weeks into the program. I do this because I have a life with demands, much like anyone else. I may intend to get it all done but sometimes I just can't. So I put in a couple of extra weeks in case I spin my wheels for a week or two along the way. This reduces the stress of I have to do 18 this week. If I don't make it I can try again next week with no penalty in the overall training.

3. Write in pencil. I have found that I don't know as much as I like to think I know. When I write the plan out I think this is what I need to do to get to the end. Yet, I reflect on the way. I am currently training for a marathon and have two long runs left on the program. I had set this up in terms of miles but I will be changing to time based for the last two. I believe it will take me 5 hours to do a marathon. So I think for the last two runs I will run for 3.5 hours and 4 hours. I came to this decision because I didn't want to lock myself in 100% to my training plan. I want the flexibility to change my mind, so for me training plans need to be adjustable.

Those are my three points for training plans. I suppose I am just saying take it easy and take it all with a grain of salt. Use the training plan to get where you are going but don't be afraid to change it. It is a sign of my insanity that I have rules about not having rules.

The Coming Seasons of 2008

I am a what is next sort of person. So when I fell ill on Monday, I did some thinking. What is next after the Marathon in May? When the year started I thought I would break the year into seasons. Winter was the season of building the base. I spent my time logging the miles to build a base to get ready for the spring. Spring has been the season of the marathon. With the very nice Philadelphia weather it has been a very nice time to run. What is next? Summer. With the amount of time necessary to train for a marathon I need to make it up this Summer. Running is a wholely selfish act. There really is no doubt or arguing the point. (I will say that you need to be selfish some times in life. If you are not healthy you cannot do for others so in this circumstance selfish is necessary). That said with this marathon kick I have been a bit more selfish than usual. So for the Summer, I will try to take the family a few places and restrict my running to speed work and maintaining some distance work (maybe about 10 miles on the weekend) I will try to fit in a couple of 5k's.

Then comes the fall. I have a half marathon scheduled for Baltimore in October. I think I will add another half marathon in November. However, the amount of time needed for a full marathon is a bit too demanding to do it twice in one year. So there is my year to come. So, Winter was to build a base, Spring for the Marathon, Summer will be for speed and Fall will be for the half marathon.

I am looking forward to the marathon. That said I will said that the training is hard and very time consuming. Phew.

Tonight's run was a tempo - 7.5 miles with 3 miles at 10:05 to 10:10. The remainder was at about 10:45. It was a good run.