The gameplan, round 2

Well, the LOST finale has started, but I don't want to watch commercials, so I'm killing time for a few minutes before starting it off the DVR, and so I thought it was probably time to get my training goals for round 2 set down. Lucky you, my special handful of readers :-)

Anyhow, this week was designated as an easy week, and it turned out to be much easier than initially planned. I followed through with running a mile time-trial on Tuesday on the course that has more inclines to it, as I mentioned in a previous post, and came up with a 6:35 that I was very pleased with. My intent was then to run a two-mile trial on Friday night, and then go 4-5 miles today. However, I wound up doing some fasting this weekend, and I figured serious exercise isn't probably the best idea when you're not eating much, so I put those plans on hold.

Anyhow, this coming week will bring the resumption of training. I have previously mentioned the major tweaks to my approach this time out, and there's another one or two I will mention in the details here.

Speed Intervals
Starting objective: 4 intervals, all run in 1:25 or less
Final objective: 7 intervals, all run in 1:25 or less

This is one of my minor tweaks. The training plan itself calls to start at 3 and go to 6 intervals by the end of the schedule. I could do that, with a goal to get much faster this time out. However, I'm already intervaling at or just above the pace I've read I need to look at if I want to get to my long term goal, so it's more important to be able to add intervals rather than speed them up. I don't need more top-end speed, I need more ability to sustain it. I'd like to be able to get to 8 intervals by the end of the 3rd cycle, so I'm planning on going from 4 to 7 with a slight time drop this time, and then just look to go from 5 to 8 with a similar time in the 3rd cycle. You'll note, as opposed to last time, I'm not looking to drop my times over the course of training - I discovered last time that's just not that realistic. I'm adding an interval at least once every two weeks, so that's all I can really ask - trying to go faster at the same time isn't helpful.

Midweek 2/3 mile runs
Starting objective: 2 miles at 8:20/mile pace
Ending objective: 3 miles at 8:10/mile pace

Again, I could do these faster if I wanted, but it would wind up creating problems with my more important workouts, mainly the tempo runs. I proved that point to myself last cycle, when about week 5 I was feeling really good and wound up going 8:05 pace over 3 miles, which was a good 25 seconds better than I was supposed to run - it led to a couple of subpar workouts in a row until I took some extra rest. 8:20 is about what I was able to do very comfortably at the end of the last training cycle, and I'm really not looking to go much faster with these.

Tempo runs
Starting objective: 30 minutes total, 15 minutes fast (7:25/mile pace)
Finishing objective: 40 minutes total, 20 minutes fast (7:15/mile pace)

At first glance, if you saw my first cycle objectives, it looks like I'm taking a step back. I met my goals and was tempoing at/under 7:10/mile by the end of the first cycle. However, there are a couple mitigating factors here - mainly the change of venue. I'm moving from my half-mile loop, which is pretty flat and may be a bit short, to my mile loop, which has more hills to it, and is definitely at least the length I'm counting it as. Also, I think I was previously tempoing too fast. Given my mile time of 6:35 on the same course, 7:25 is an appropriate tempo pace. We'll see how it goes. Regardless, the change of terrain should make these runs much more indicative of what I would be able to do comfortably on a moderate 5k course.

Long runs
Starting objective: 5 miles, 8:45/mile pace
Finishing objective: 7 miles, 8:30/mile pace

Nothing too fancy here - my last long run of cycle 1 was 7 miles at an 8:37 pace. If I can take these runs a bit faster comfortably, I will, but I'm not looking for crazy improvement here, because pushing these runs will, again, negatively impact my speed/stamina workouts.

So, there's the plan. There is a minor catch this time around. My training plan runs 8 weeks, including the taper week before the race, but the next race I'm officially training for is 12 weeks ago. My plan will be to taper mid-plan for the race in Shippensburg on 6/26, give myself another relatively easy week the week after, and then resume by repeating the last week I had done on the schedule. That will eat up 3 of my 4 extra weeks, so I'll still have a week to play with, and how that gets used will depend on how the rest of the cycle goes.