training to run
March 17, 2009 at 8:11 pm | Posted in exercise | 4 CommentsTags: exercise, plan, race, running, training
as promised, i have fleshed out the first part of my training plan for this season, which will take me to race #1. the plan i am planning to follow this year is from runners world. it is called the FIRST training program from this book (which i highly recommend if you are into running!). it is a 3plus2 plan, where you run intensely 3 days a week and do 2 “plus two” days of cross training. my cross training will be primarily on the bike (they also recommend swimming).
it seems like a good plan for busy people. each workout has a specific purpose – there aren’t a lot of “junk miles” and you only run every other day or so to allow your body to recover on the days in between. recommended cross training are less joint-intensive impact activites, like swimming and biking. rowing is also an option. i plan to incorporate lots of yoga and i hope to also continue to do some strength training on my cross train days.
i am going for a 2:07 half marathon run on may 23 so this is what i have come up with. the key issue with my season is that i have an 18 week plan but my season is 8 weeks till the 1st race, 16 weeks between the 1st and 2nd, and 4 weeks between the 2nd and 3rd. i’m working on the wiggling. i’ll post the next section when i’ve got it done.
i work in metric units, so i had to do some calculations to switch from miles to km. it’s 1.6 km to the mile.
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I follow this plan as well (and have had great success with it) – if I recall correctly, on the website they have metric conversions of all the training plans (just a tip that may save you some conversion time/effort).
Comment by runshorts— March 17, 2009 #
that’s awesome to hear that it worked well for you. it is for sure not an easy plan and i may have to re-evaluate how realistic my times are after a few weeks, but it looks like it will be quite solid.
Comment by haya— March 20, 2009 #
wow! that’s ambitious. good luck on the plan!
Comment by Sophia— March 19, 2009 #
i hope it’s not TOO ambitious! maybe after a few weeks, i’ll re-evaluate. it’s definitely a lot more intense than other seasons where i’ve basically just “winged” it but i’m really hoping to gain a lot of ground on speed here without getting injured. (the 3 days per week is supposed to be good for that)
Comment by haya— March 19, 2009 #