I'm Training

There I said it.  Although i've been 'back at it' for a few months now I have maintained that I am not 'training,' in the sense that i'm just going running when I feel like it and not forcing any structure or getting stressed out about missing runs, and most of all allowing myself to cancel runs guilt free.  So what's different now, and why have I given that up? The main reason is that I have decided to head out to Edmonton and do the marathon on August 21. I haven't gotten out of town yet this summer and I have a couple of close friends in Edmonton so I decided it was a good opportunity to go out there and i'm familiar with racing there as well. I raced in Edmonton at Canadian Half-marathon championships in 2005, then again later that year at World Half-marathon championships, I had also started the half marathon in 2004 I think but dropped out, and placed 4th in the half marathon in maybe 2007, I really can't remember. So i've had mixed results out there but i'm looking forward to going and pounding out 42k, and seeing what I can do.


I'm interested to see how fast I can run because in the late summer early fall of 2008, I had retuned to school and was just getting in shape doing quite a bit of hill training. In fact it was one of the first times I really felt like I was a strong hill runner. Anyway, I jumped into the Victoria Half marathon with no expectations and I ended up winning in1:08:50. Now I realize the time is nothing to write home about but it was a surprise at the time and the ease at which I did it was a surprise. So, although for some reason I don't 'feel' like i'm a strong hill runner, the fact is i've been doing hill reps and running up mountains for at least a couple of months now, and I figure adding a little structure and honing some speed might surprise me again.


What i'm NOT interested in is being surprisingly slow, so i'm moving from a place of running casually with a few workouts and long hard runs, to being a little more disciplined to ensure i'm ready to run well. Even though i'm doing some over-distance and over-time runs, you still have to respect the marathon distance. The plan to achieve this is a relatively simple one and that is to make sure i'm doing a hill rep session and a long run at least every 10 days. The reason I say this is because I still intend on doing some very long runs, which naturally take a little more recovery, so every week might be a bit too much to ask. In addition to this i'm adding in hill sprints at the end of two off-day runs a week, which I feel are an excellent supplement to training by increasing efficiency. I will also be much more disciplined with the core workouts, doing two each week and run 7 times per week...there was a time when I ran 13 times per week so I feel like 7 is reasonable!  Of course doing some marathon specific stuff would be a good idea like some LT runs and so on, but i'm not willing to go that far. I still want to continue getting strong on long climbs. Lastly, i'm going to have to do a few runs on the roads to be sure my legs aren't too shocked come race day. Part of that plan will likely be to do the Delta half-marathon the week prior to Edmonton.


So, there it is, still a roadie for now I guess. I'll post a log on Sundays.