Setting Up Training

I'm back with another running post. March is when I plan to start training for a 50K in July. In my last post, I wrote about how I've been feeling kind of bummed that most PRs are behind me, but I honestly think, even with logging fewer miles, that I could still set a PR in the 50K.

It’s going to be interesting planning out my training because I’m going to be helping with a high school track team. What this will basically mean is that I’ll be doing workouts with track athletes during the week, and planning my own thing on the weekend.

Really, I think it’ll work out well. I can run the easier runs with the fastest group of runners, then do the workouts with either the fastest group (or at least try) or the middle group depending on how I’m feeling,

So that leaves January and February to train on my own before track season. Here’s what I’m planning before I officially start training:

Keep a reasonable mileage of thirty-five to forty-five miles per week 
Even if I only run four days in a week, I can still get two longish runs in on the weekend, meaning I’ll only need to run five to eight miles on each of my weekday runs.

Alternate tempo-type efforts and interval efforts each week 
One week I’ll do a tempo run or tempo intervals, and the next week I’ll do a faster interval workout. This should keep in shape, but not be so much quality that I’ll peak too early.

After spending some time feeling a little bummed out, I’m feeling more optimistic about this running season. I’m not planning on running real high mileage (for me), but I do plan to stay injury-free, which should help my consistency this year. While I won’t be setting many PRs, I hope to race well and maybe have some good finishes in my age group.

Run well.