Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Work out Plan

I know I spend a lot of time planning and micro-planning only to change plans later. A will agree with that a lot! But, I think planning for a marathon I need to psych myself up a lot.

I run with the dog now. I joke that when I participate in the 5K, I will do really poorly because I won't have the dog pulling me along. But, I also won't have him dodging around me, running any which way and stopping while we run.

It's hard to judge distances while running with the dog. I was trying last night to pay attention to: run between four telephone poles, then walk between 4-8 (walk until I recover), run again... but I have to totally focus on where the dog is while I run.

My loose plan now is to continue using the dog walking as my work out. I need to spend February and maybe a lot of March just building up to running constantly for the 1.5 to 2.2 mile loops that we do. Then, up to early August, I will build up the amount of running that I do - up to running "three to six miles comfortably". In early August, I will start an 18 week marathon training. This is when I will really have to start running without the dog most days - to start working on my pacing and distance. Maybe the dog will be trained enough to run next to me (and I can keep up with the dog) so that we can do the shorter runs together.

Does anyone have a marathon training plan they recommend? Is 18 weeks once you are running 3-6 believable?

4 comments:

MoonFreckle said...

DKA has a great training website, ask her when you get a minute...the name of the guy is escaping me.
What you're doing sounds great so far!

Andria said...

You are doing great so far. There are a ton of plans, and if you want a book, "The non-runner's guide to Marathon Training" is a good one too. It has you build up your milage gradually...

We can talk about more plans this weekend.

Ken said...

Lois -

Not only do I have the Brooks Beast 04' running shoes, I have the Brooks HVAC running shorts, running top, and a Brooks running cap I got for participating in the Louisiana State Championship 5K.

I started training too early for Disney last year. This year I'll follow the 4 months to a 4 hour marathon plan. It emphasizes staying healthy and not overtraining.

What Me Run? said...

Yes Ken, you need to stay healthy for the marathon!