I'm going to let you all in on a big secret: I am a huge nerd. Oh, you already knew that? Okay. Part of my dorktasticness is my LOVE for all things school. I love the back to school time of year. The thought of buying a nice, clean new backpack and loading it up with fancy mechanical pencils, pink pens, and crisp notebooks gets me quite excited. I almost bought a protractor at WalMart today. I just can't stop myself.
Unfortunately, going back to school isn't an option (at least not until I pay off the $60,000 I owe from the first go-round). But I can mimic all the back to school sports that are starting up. The tennis team with their drills, the cheerleaders with their learning how to spell DRAGONS, you get the picture.
I have been running without a plan since May and my big marathon PR. June, well that was a recovery month. July, I went on vacation, focused on golfing and drinking, and barely ran at all. So far in August, I've managed to eek out a 2 second 10K PR and crap out a 10+ minute half-marathon PW. I feel like I need to hit the reset button.
My focus for fall is on shorter races - a 5 miler and fun 5K in October, and two 5K's in November. Last year, I set successive PR's in all of these races without really training or trying to do so. So I started thinking about what I could do if I actually trained for the 5K. I have never specifically trained to get faster in a 5K.
Welcome to the new plan. Speedwork at the track on Mondays. Tempo runs of 5-8 miles on Wednesday nights (well, on Wednesday nights after golf is finished -- only two weeks left). And faster "long" runs on the weekends. Easy runs throw in between. The "long" runs aren't really long at all - 6-9 miles. But I am planning on attempting these at a significantly faster pace than I run true long runs. We'll see how it goes.
If I can improve my 5K and 5 mile times, I will consider the plan a success. An added bonus? I'm hoping that the faster "long" runs will give me a good boost going into marathon training in January. Now I just need to go pack my running clothes into my new backpack . . . some things never change.
12 comments:
Yeah - you are a marathoner when you start saying 6-9 miles aren't really that long of runs.
Fellow nerd here. I bought a penicil case :)
Glad to hear I am not the only one! I get so giddy when I go through the school supply aisle. Now that my daughter is in school I get to have fun buying all of her supplies, backpack, lunch bag and school clothes...such fun!
Cool plan! Fall is a good time to go fast!
MCM Mama
LOL! I got all excited looking at all the shiny new pens & binders in the store yesterday - I totally know what you mean :)
Fortunately, I can live vicariously through my kiddies (I might still need a new something-or-other for myself though).
I am a nerd too! I always loved getting ready for the sart of school.
Sounds like you have a great plan for fall.
Great idea! I did the same approach this spring with focusing on speed, and I feel like it's helped me tremendously now that I'm in HM training. Always good to teach the legs to be a bit faster. :D
I miss all the back-to-school excitement, but mostly I miss having SUMMERS OFF! I should have been a teacher...
Sounds like a great plan for Fall! I really enjoyed training for shorter, faster distances earlier this year.
Yeah I love taking my kids to get school supplies so I can live vicariously...
Looks like you are ready to race!
Aw Heather. I am sorry my post made you a little weepy. My dad passed away 2 years ago so I completely understand...he kind of looked like Billy Joel so I understand the look alike thing too!
awesome... this will be a nice change of pace (hehe). those are great goals!! cant wait to follow along :)
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