kevintupper.com

Over the weekend I settled on a training plan for running the marathon.  Initially I was going to use the standard plan at the marathon training site.  After searching the web, I have reconsidered.  I am going use a training plan I found at Runner’s World.  Given the alernatives, it seemed to fit my personality the best.  I like to compete, I like data, I am goal oriented, and I did not want to run 5 days a week.

On Saturday I ordered Run Less Run Faster from Amazon and it arrived today.  I already had most of the plan mapped out from the information on FIRST’s web site.

Having never run in a race of any kind, I am starting at ground zero.  With the Chicago Marathon over 10 months away, I entered the Marine Corps Historic Half on May 17, 2009, to get some experience in training and running a race.  The typical training plans are 16-18 weeks.  I only have 14 weeks before the half marathon.

The first thing I needed to accomplish was to set a goal time for the race so I could determine the paces I would use for the various training activities.  With Run Less Run Faster, there are 3 key runs every week.  The first is a speed work run, the second is a tempo run, and the third is a long run.  Days between runs involve cross training.  Without any race experience I ran and timed my own 5k to determine my half marathon pace.  I ran a 21:55, 5k which puts me at a goal pace for just under 1:42:00 for the half marathon and just over 3:30:00 for the marathon.  I’ll determine my goal and pacing for the marathon after running the half.

Update 2/27:  The training schedule ended up begin a little aggressive.  I pushed hard to meet the times on the 3 key runs but was then spent and was not able to do decent cross training or weight training on off days.  I found a similar program on Runners World and adjusted my goal times slightly.