The Pieces Are Falling Into Place

As I mentioned earlier, I love putting together a training plan.  I've been thinking a lot about what I want to accomplish next year, how much time I want to spend on training, and what my big picture of running should look like.  The things I want to work into my program are the start of back to back long run training, keeping my weekday workouts very high quality and time efficient, and to have balance in my week with consistent yoga and running drills. 

I have never done back to back long runs in the past, but would like to incorporate those in later next year if I do decide to commit to the 50 mile race at the North Face Endurance Challenge.  I think I've figured out a moderated way to work that in for my 50K training.   Here's what I think my training weeks will look like:

Saturday - long-ish run of 60% of the distance of my actual long that week
Sunday - long run. 
Monday - shake out / recovery run of 25% of the distance of my long run and yoga
Tuesday - speed work and drills
Wednesday - yoga
Thursday - hills and drills
Friday - off

I still need to think on this to see how well it realistically fits into my life in general, but I think it's a great rough draft.  One last thing I like to add in to my training is to do a marathon as my last long run. I like to do that to have people around, and to also rely on aid stations a little bit so I don't have to carry all my stuff with me.  I thought that finding a marathon in early April would be really difficult, and I'd have to travel south to find one, but I was happy to find the Trailbreaker Marathon April 5th in Waukesha!  That felt like the last big piece of my training puzzle. 

Now that I have things generally figured out, I have to think about how I want to structure my workouts leading up to the start of my training.  I have been spending some of my time lately listening to podcasts on Trail Runner Nation, and there was one I listened to the other day that really hit home.  It was about rest.  Something mentioned was the importance of being somewhat out of shape when we start a training cycle.  I, like most runners, like to get in shape before I get in shape.  As Greg McMillan so expertly explained, it benefits us to rest and give our body a true break before we start a training cycle.  If we get in shape and then go into a training plan, that's often when we plateau or over train - that has been a habit of mine.  I like to prepare - A LOT, so trying this approach to truly scale way back from early November to mid/late December will be a test for me, but I think it will give me a really solid platform to start building on.  Let's hope you are steering me in the right direction Mr. McMillan!  :)   It feels GREAT to have this to look forward to right now. 

Here's the link to the podcast I mentioned - it really helped me to understand the importance of true rest.  Lots to soak up in this one - Trail Runner Nation ROCKS. 
http://trailrunnernation.com/2013/06/give-it-a-rest-with-coach-greg-mcmillan/

Fun fall-like pic from a few years back.  LOVE the changing leaves this week!