Training Update

First things first . . . Although I was originally going to be running the inaugural Rock n' Roll Seattle Marathon all by my lonesome, it looks like I'm now going to have company! Hooray! How did I swing this? Well, I randomly decided to e-mail a handful of my college friends who are also marathoners to lay out my training schedule for the year and see if any of them felt like joining me for any of my proposed races. Well, we must all be suffering from running fever because it just so happened that a couple of them had recently started talking themselves about tackling a summer marathon. They hadn't made any final decisions, but were thinking about running San Fran in July. After much debate, we finally decided on Seattle a few days ago. Actually, the email chain that went back and forth was rather hilarious . . . it went something like this.

Jeff: Ok, let's figure this out. Everybody vote for their top choice. Knowing our crew, we'll sit around emailing how we don't care, anything is fine, until the cows come home. I just want to know what we're doing. I vote SF, because I haven't been there. But I'm happy with either. If Seattle had its summer weather year round, everyone in the country would live in Washington state, and the state's university could have found a better football coach than tyrone.

Brent: I second Jeff's choice. I've never been to SF, but Seattle is awesome.

So:
San Fran: 2, Seattle: 0

But I'm good with both.

Allan: I'm going to go against the grain and vote for Seattle for the same reason you guys voted for San Fran. I have never been to Seattle, but have been to San Francisco before. I think I may be a little bit more able to take off days around the end of June versus the end of July, but that is pure speculation at this point.

Jon: I'm with Allan. I've never been to Seattle, and the pictures on the website look pretty nice. It also looks like a less hilly course.

Jeff: Look folks, this democracy thing is only gonna work if the rest of you blindly go along with what Brent and I are saying. That is a joke of course. I would like the extra four weeks of training we'd get with SF, but I think either are doable.I assume the ladies prefer Seattle? If so, then I move to close the voting and start booking stuff for Seattle.

Irish: I am actually kind of torn . . . which is ridiculous considering I'm the one who was planning on doing Seattle from the get go. I know this is not helpful, but I cast one-half of a vote for Seattle and one-half for SF. I guess that leaves Ann to decide!! ;)

Jeff: Classic buck passing Bailey. Ever think of running for Congress? Ann and I may have to do some research as to whether votes are apportionable like that.

Irish: Looks like I've finally found my calling! In my defense, I was simply trying to avoid the inevitable tie-breaker (the details of which we failed to set forth ahead of the vote) . . . that's all ;)
Okay, fine. In anticipation of you and Ann lawyer-ing me, I guess I have to stick with Seattle . . .

Ann: The SF marathon is the weekend before I'll be taking the bar exam (assuming I get my application done!), so I won't make that one. However, I'm worried that an injury I had last fall might flare up and keep me from finishing training and I think I only deserve 1/2 vote.

So yeah...
SF: 2
Seattle: 3.5 (?)

Jeff: Why do the women get so many votes?Just think of all the legal issues you could consider at a marathon: torts (slip and fall runners), sovereign immunity defense by the government, easements in gross to short cut through neighbors yards, contract disputes about late withdrawals seeking refunds, the possibilities are endless.

Jeff: I stand corrected. I see that you were listing the total votes, and not how many you were casting for each city yourself. My bad.

Allan: And here I thought that you were just trying to end women's suffrage.

Jeff: End the sufferage! End it, I say. There's already enough sufferage in this ugly world.

Irish: Maybe Ann and I shouldn't have votes . . . I mean, as women, our uteruses just might fall out while attempting to run whichever marathon is chosen ;)

Jeff: good point. barefoot in kitchens for you two.......

Allan: Maybe you can just tag along to make us sandwiches and rear our children.

Brent: Without Bailey and Ann voting, I think that leaves us at 2 and 2. Since we're going back to 1800 voting, I say we go back to 1800 tiebreakers...DUELS. Jeff and I will be on one side, Allan and Jon on the other side. Pistols only. Last man standing decides where we run.

Jeff: I also believe I had the tie breaker vote of where to run the next race. I might be willing to trade that in for the superior pistol, but no one asked me.

Allan: I'll be your huckleberry.

Jeff: why allan ringo, you look like someone just walked all over your grave.

Ha, I love my friends! I cannot even begin to describe how much I am looking very forward to receiving emails like those above for the next 3 1/2 months!

Anywho, I promised a training update, so a training update you're going to get! Here's how it went down thus far this week . . .

Monday: Rest day (gotta start marathon training out right, eh?!)

Tuesday: Hill day. I found the hill work-out I completed a little over a year ago on some sort of training web page that I am now completely unable to find--luckily I wrote this one down way back when! It is titled as "Grete's Hill Workout", which I'm assuming is referring to Grete Waitz (just call me Sherlock Holmes!) . . . but anyway, it goes a little something like this:

Complete a 1-mile warm-up. Next, pick a pace 40-45 seconds slower than 10K pace and run at a 2% incline for one minute, followed by a 4% incline for one minute, followed by a 6% incline for one minute. Recover with a jog for 2-3 minutes at a 0% incline. Repeat 3-4 times. Finish up with a one-mile cool down.

I did 4 repeats of this work-out at an 8:49/M pace, and I am shocked to say that it wasn't too, too difficult. I was definitely tired by the end of it and felt like I got a great work-out in, but it was SO much easier than the last time I completed it (it's been nearly a year now!). Anyway, I definitely feel that this work-out will be a great addition to my training schedule considering I will face some rolling hills out in Seattle.

Wednesday: Cross-training/easy-run day. I opted for an easy 2.5-mile run at a 9:40/M pace . . . followed by some serious weight-training and core work. Ouch. I am feeling it today, that is for sure!

Which actually reminds me . . . do any of you use medicine balls to work your abs? I just started doing it, and good golly is it great! Last night I did Medicine Ball Leg Raises, Medicine Ball Crunches on an Exercise Ball and Medicine Ball Russian Twists. Yowsers! I highly recommend these exercises if you REALLY want to feel the burn :)

Up for tonight, I have a 6-mile run: 2 miles easy + 2 miles at short tempo pace (around 8:05) + 2 miles easy.

Oh, and that reminds me! I never shared my training plan with y'all! I'm using the "FIRST To The Finish" training plan, but tweaking it a bit. First of all, I'm replacing the 5(!) 20-mile runs (a bit excessive, don't you think?) with just 2. My long run schedule will look like this (I hope):

15 weeks out: 10 miles
14 weeks out: 12 miles
13 weeks out: 13 miles
12 weeks out: 9 miles
11 weeks out: 14 miles
10 weeks out: 15 miles
9 weeks out: 17 miles
8 weeks out: (Long Branch Half-Marathon)
7 weeks out: 18 miles
6 weeks out: 13 miles
5 weeks out: 20 miles
4 weeks out: 12 miles
3 weeks out: 20 miles
2 weeks out: 12 miles
1 week out: 8 miles
MARATHON WEEKEND!!

Besides that, I am replacing one of my key runs (alternating between speed intervals and tempo runs) every other week with hill training of some sort.

So there you have it!