When I look through my race history, it’s fun to see that it’s been awhile since I’ve set any PR’s. Most of my existing PRs were set without intention or any race plan and most importantly, when I wasn’t on the verge of turning forty.
What I’d like to do this year is take my past experiences from all those hard marathon training sessions and put that same sort of effort and grunt work into shorter distances. I’m signed up for a few baseline/practice races this spring with the first race I’m focusing on being the Brooklyn Half Marathon on May 16th.
It’s been awhile since I’ve blogged about my training and it’s been even longer since I’ve trained for a half marathon (5 years to be exact!) therefore, I thought it might be fun to document my training here again.
The race is a few months away and while I’ll be following a more traditional 10-week training plan, I’ve already been laying down the groundwork for this race. Here’s how I’ve laid things out:
January: Easy Running + Strength
The last week of December and all of January was about re-establishing a routine and changing how I look at my workouts. I’ve let go of piling up more and more cardio based workouts and prioritized strength work. I took two hot power yoga classes at Pure Yoga each week and did 1-2 strength training workouts at home while running outside 3-5 times a week.
Focusing less on running has been a welcomed change of pace!
February: Add in Hills + Indoor Cycling
This month will look similar to January. The only changes will be adding in hill repeats and heading back to indoor cycling classes for higher intensity cardio workouts. I haven’t focused on hill work in quite some time and I took a break from indoor cycling last year, therefore I’m looking forward to adding these things back in.
March: Start Training Plan
I’ve sketched out my long run workouts for the ten weeks, but not the entire plan. I’ll continue to keep up with the strength training and yoga classes, but I’ll drop indoor cycling from the schedule (it’s just too expensive and time consuming to do all of these things at once). I’ll add in track work, tempo runs, long runs and other running-specific workouts to the mix.
Here are a few of the challenges I know I’ll face:
I haven’t strategically raced a race for a PR since June of 2013. However, I’ve already started executing strategies by practicing during shorter non-goal races. I ran a 4-mile race this past Sunday, have a 5k scheduled for March 1, and a 10k scheduled for March 31st. I’ll most likely add one more race to my schedule for April.
Making the switch to shorter distances will take a shift in how I approach my workouts. As it’s something I’m already working on, it’s been interesting to notice thought patterns I developed as a result of marathon training and how a lot of those ingrained habits are no longer applicable.
Overall, I’m excited to put this plan into action and see what transpires.
This is so funny because I’m doing the exact opposite of what you’re doing! After 8 years, I’m tackling the marathon…two of them actually…one in April and another in your great city in November. As for your training, I think you’re going to do fantastic. You have a very well laid plan with enough pre-race ramp up and a great foundation of strength and speed. And I’m loving the variety!! Looking forward to following you on this journey!