15 December 2014

On 07 December 2014, I ran the San Antonio Half Marathon; and, I performed pretty well for an old guy [Official time: 2:02:08]. But, during this past week–between the foot race and today–I simply ran two short recovery workouts and one 10-miler recovery workout.

But, beginning today, I’ve resumed training at Week 5 of a 16 13 week schedule. BTW, I’m planning to follow (more or less) the training schedule from The Non-Runners’ Marathon Trainer, by David Whitsett et al. (It’s the same training plan that I used in 2011 to, successfully, prepare for the Marine Corps Marathon, Official time: 4:34:51). However, one modification that I’ve made to the plan is that I’ve added a one mile WU (warm up) at the beginning of the scheduled workout; also, I, usually, include three, 20 second strides in each WU, but not if there is a steep (8% or greater) grade within the WU mile. [Twenty second strides, as I use the term, are brief, running intervals during which I build my speed, within about 5 seconds, to a 5k race pace (currently, 8:18/mile – 8:26/mile pace) or faster; I hold that race pace for about 10 seconds; and then, I reduce my speed to the workout pace, within about 5 seconds. Other duration strides; e.g., 30 second strides, 60 second strides, etc., use the same buildup and slowdown timing but use the appropriate “hold” pace duration to make the total stride time to equal the duration required. Each stride is separated from the next stride by easy pace running (currently, 11:07/mile – 11:15/mile pace) for 20-to-120 seconds, depending upon my fitness at the time of the workout.]

Endurance Running – Base Building, Week 5 of 13 Weeks, Day 1 of 4 Days

I’m not yet training for a marathon; I’m just building my Continue reading Resuming Endurance Running Training →