Perhaps, the title of this entry should be "Be Prepared". I know that it has been a while since posting here, but I have had a couple (positive) life transitions over the year. That said, I plan to give weekly updates in the near future.
This is supposed to be a running blog; but to be honest, I really have not ran much during the past year. Once again, my lower back was giving me problems through most of the year. I was quite upset that my injury prevented me from running the United Airlines NYC Half Marathon, which had a brand new route. Additionally, I just was not really interested in running, so I took a bit of a break.
Now, I am back and ready to do this running thing again, because I plan to run TCS NYC Marathon . . . once again. Fingers crossed for a better marathon than last year's. As of today, there are "only" 149 days left until the marathon, which will be held on Nov. 4th, 2018, so it is time to get moving on a training plan.
The first step (no pun) of marathon training is to make a plan. I have decided to use Hal HIgdon's Novice Training plan II ( *** ), as a starting point for the next five months. Basically, I will follow the plan's distances and running days (four runs per week), but I will incorporate my own tempo, pace, intervals, and recovery runs.
Since I am pretty much live by Google calendar for work, I have created an NYC Marathon calendar and scheduled all 80 or runs.
General advice from the plan:
Each topic had a paragraph of info, so I'm quoting the aspects that meant the most to me.
Long runs: You can skip an occasional workout, or juggle the schedule depending on other commitments, but do not cheat on the long runs.
Run slow: [their] long runs anywhere from 30 to 90 seconds or more per mile slower than their marathon pace.
Walking: It’s best to walk when you want to, not when your (fatigued) body forces you too.
Strength training: For gym rats, continue to work out, but you might want to cut back on the weights as the long run mileage moves into the double digits.
Midweek training: How fast is “comfortably easy?” That might vary from day to day.
Race pace: duh
Rest: Coaches also will tell you that you can’t run hard unless you are well rested.