Getting back after it

Well, my transition to "off-season" running didn't go as well as I had hoped. What I meant by that is that I didn't keep my running up as much as I would have liked. My intention was to stick to 2-3 times out a week, but I wound up doing more like 1 time a week, due to a combination of factors - climate, softball playoffs (I HATE the way our league schedules them), other scheduling matters, and most recently this past week, illness, as I caught a rare August cold. Other than the week of softball playoffs, the weather was probably the biggest driving factor. It continued to be such a crazily warm summer, and it seemed like no matter how much I tried to plan my schedule to fit in on the decent days, virtually every day I scheduled a run wound up being one of those mornings where when I woke up, it was already 75 and really humid out. Had I been in a rhythm, I think I could probably have fought through a few of those days, but it was just too easy to wait for the next opportunity.

But now, the time has come to begin thinking about training again, as I am but 2 months away from my next planned race, the Falcon Fun Run at Messiah's homecoming on October 16. Back when I started all of this, the plan was for this race to be towards the end of a running season that would run from spring until late fall - now it's to be the beginning of my "second" season, which will run from fall through early summer.

I'm switching my training plan to methods prescribed by Jeff Galloway. Galloway is well-known for his training methods, particularly at the longer distances, and most notably the "walk/run" method, which utilizes walk breaks, even while racing. This also applies to his methods at the 5k/10k level, though the paces I've already run at the 5k level are getting close to the end of where I would be walking during a race. His training plan was attractive to me over my prior plan for a few reasons:

#1 - In general, his approach favors dialing back the intensity slightly and increasing the length of the workout, relative to what I was doing with my old setup. I've already done some of the workouts he details, and I find I enjoy the long runs much more - and the speed work is more managable as well.

#2 - This plan includes workouts designed as "race rehearsals", where I will actually run at shorter, building distances at/near my intended race pace.

#3 - This plan only does 4 day a week running - the other did 5, though one day was very light, and I was just never able to fully make that work. 4 running days also leaves me a desired 3 days a week for strength training, without mixing the 2.

Starting tomorrow, I'll spend the next 2 weeks easing back into a more regular running schedule, and then start "real" training on August 30th. I had hoped to maintain more of my form through the summer, but at this point, I'm guessing that getting ready for this first race will be more about recovering the conditioning I've lost (and shedding the few extra pounds I've put back on) than really advancing my speed significantly. Training for this race will also meet the schedule challenge of a week's vacation in California (including several days camping at altitude) during the 2nd week, and an extended weekend in South Bend, Indiana the weekend before the race - but I shall press on!

Galloway has a 5k training plan for breaking 20 minutes and one for breaking 25 minutes - neither of which fits my immediate needs. He makes the methodlogies for determining the pacing of workouts in the plans pretty clear, so I'll be using the workout schedule for the 20 minute goal, but with workout paces designed more for a 22:30-23:00 time. As I get ready to get back at it, my only firm goal for the October race is to better my PR of 24:27 from the Armed Forced Day 5k back in May - as training begins and progresses, I may set more lofty goals.