This past week has been full of ups, downs and a lot of firsts. Thanks to some wacky weather, running this week has ranged from fantastic to terrible. I ran on my lunch break in just a T-shirt and shorts (first time in February), towed my friend AJ up an icy hill on Crow Pass with a dog leash, lost a toe nail, got disqualified from a race, wrote a blog post and finally created a training plan which starts next week.
The training plan is the most significant “first” in my opinion. Never have I truly planned out a season of training. Typically, I’ve penciled in a half dozen key workouts- planning backwards from an important race by making vague attempts at fitting in a long run on the weekends. I wanted to get this done because believe it or not- Valentines Day was exactly 21 weeks out from Crow Pass, which is my first priority race of the 2015 season. After a lot of reading and research this winter I selected a fairly standard 21-week marathon-training plan. Which I then adapted using some of what I’ve learned from collegiate cross country ski training, and to better suit mountain trail and ultra races.
Points I considered while designing my plan are…
- Delete week one as I recover from the Susitna 50k
- Adjust mileage goals to account for technical trail runs and mountains
- Factor in races as workouts
- Multiple priority races which require a sustained peak/competition period similar to a XC skiing season
Hopefully establishing a plan will help make this next season a breakthrough one. I am coming into this first week in great shape with a lot of base mileage thanks to a very mild winter and extra motivation from the Salomon sponsorship. Additionally I think having an actual plan will make getting out the door easier since I already have a planned run to do.
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