I’m a bit of a planner. I like to have a schedule. I like to know what I’m doing when. If I have a goal, I like to know what steps I need to take to get there. So when I have a race, I like to have a training plan to follow. This is mostly because if I don’t have a plan, I won’t train, and then I will fail miserably at the race.
So I made a great marathon training plan based on a Hal Higdon plan. I modified it slightly to fit my schedule, knowing that I had races on certain weekends and events that would leave me swamped on other weekends. I even left a bit of padding in case something happened and I didn’t get in a long run as planned.
And then I stuck to my schedule. Which is awesome. Except that it now needed some serious tweaking or I was going to be ready for the race way too early. So I enlisted the help of some amazing friends and now I have a new plan.
- Nov 18 – Philadelphia Half
- Nov 25 – 17 miles
- Dec 2 – 14 miles
- Dec 9 – 18 miles (maybe including a 15k race, maybe not)
- Dec 15/16 – 5 mile race and two epic choir concerts that hurt more than any run
- Dec 21 – 20 miles. Eeep.
Yes, December 21 is a Friday. I have that day off and planned to use it for getting ready for my trip to my hometown for Christmas and then to a friend’s wedding in Michigan. But it makes sense to also do a 20 mile run that day. Does that leave me slightly stressed with all of the other things I will need to do, like pack and get the house ready for the pet sitter? Absolutely. But it’s how things work best. And now that I know the plan, I can work the plan and get everything done in time.
And then run a marathon. Yikes.
I have to run a 20 miler that weekend too, so if you wanted to wait until you got here, we could do the Forest Park Loop a few times or run in Highland. Way more fun than running alone 🙂