I have... (oh God!) a plan!

*with a nod to Perfect Strangers for the title inspiration*

Well, spring may not officially be here for a couple more days, but it seems to have gotten to Central PA a little early this year. Blue skies, 60 degree temperatures, and warm breezes have characterized this week, all but eradicating memories of the winter horror that was February. And with the dawning of spring comes the disappearance of my last excuse for not fully getting back into my running training, as the weather is now a reason in favor of going outside for a run, not a strike against.

My basic thought when I took up running backing in the late fall was that if I could survive the winter, I would then really evaluate what I wanted to do going forward. Well, I mostly survived the winter, and was starting to crawl back into my routine last week, so the time had come to really evaluate whether I was just going to be a very casual runner, or whether I was going to have goals and a plan. I have decided on the latter, and so here it is...

This most recent stretch has made it clear to me if I am to maintain any kind of serious training, that I need to be training FOR something. It was just too easy for me to let things go without a stated objective or deadline. So, I've decided to plan for some races, of the 5k variety. When I was sticking to my schedule, I was using this training plan. I really liked it, both in terms of the fact that it seemed appropriate challenging, and presented a good variety so it wasn't boring. I also didn't feel like I was over-training, and I stayed injury-free, which is an obvious plus. This is the plan I intend to use for the forseeable future, and it's an 8 week plan, so that puts my first race in the mid-late May timeframe. I have my eye on a race on May 15th, but I may hold off and look for something over the Memorial Day weekend. It will depend on how my first week goes and whether I think I can step right into the plan. I'm easing back in a bit this week, and early returns are positive, so we'll see.

After I complete the first race, I'll use the results to re-evaluate my fitness level and reset my training paces for another 8 week cycle, which would result in a 2nd race in the late July, early August time frame. After that, I will rinse and repeat, with the intention of running in the Falcon Fun Run at Messiah's homecoming in mid-October. After that, I may look for something in late November/early December time frame, and then slip into a more casual running routine over the winter.

As far as time goals go, it's a little hard to gauge them yet, since I haven't actually run a race. The primary goal for the first race will obviously be to finish, but I have no doubt I can do that unless I do something crazy with my early pacing. Last week I ran a mile (roughly) time-trial in about 6:25, which, according to sites that calculate such things, suggests that with proper training, I ought to be able to run a 5k in roughly 22 minutes. That seems reasonable to me based on where I was before my layoff, but we'll see. My major longer term goal is to eventually go sub 20, but that's definitely a down the road thing.

So, there's the plan. We'll see how long it lasts ;-)