Marathon Plan Week 17 of 24

Posted on Posted in Fitness

I love recovery weeks. Moving into new territory this coming week. As of this post the marathon is 55 days away. I am starting to get scared. I’m running a 15 mile race Sunday for my long run. I think it will be the longest run I’ve ever done.

The plan for this week:

  • Monday: off
  • Tuesday: Tempo Run 52 minutes total with 32 minutes at threshold pace
  • Wednesday: Strength
  • Thursday: Lactate Intervals 44 minutes total with 12 x 1 minute @ VO2 max pace, 1 minute active recoveries. These are by far my favorite.
  • Friday: Alternate Cardio 45 minutes
  • Saturday: Optional Foundation Run 45 minutes; Strength
  • Sunday: Long Run 2 hour 20 minutes (Hal Higdon recommends 15); I’m signed up for a 15 mile race which I will treat as a training run. Goal is to finish, uninjured. I suspect this run may take me 3 hours.

Since I’ve been shirking most of the non-running workouts, I’m considering signing up for John Stone’s August "100 Challenge" (you may have to register to view this post). I found a link to it on Maggie’s blog. I like the premise of this challenge. The overachiever in me still likes to strive for "A’s." It’s silly but it will help me get ready for this marathon while getting me back where I want to be.

This premise of this challenge is pretty simple: Each participant starts the month of August with 100 points. A point is deducted each time a workout is missed, a meal is missed, an unscheduled "cheat" meal or snack is consumed or a daily update to your official challenge post is missed. The goal, of course, is to finish the month with 100 points!

Here are the rules:

  1. This challenge is for people who want to commit themselves 100%. Please don’t join if you are not prepared to give a total effort.
  2. The challenge begins on August 1, 2006. You must have your starting post up by then. You can not join the challenge after August 1st.
  3. It doesn’t matter if you are cutting, bulking or maintaining. The common goal here is 100% consistency.
  4. Each person participating in the challenge should start a post in this thread. Your Official Challenge post must be updated each and every day in August. The updates won’t take long (examples below). If you miss an update, you must deduct a point. Please note that you should edit your existing Official Challenge post–don’t start a new post every day.
  5. Miss a workout for any reason, deduct a point.
  6. Miss a meal for any reason, deduct a point.
  7. Eat an unscheduled "cheat" meal or snack, deduct a point.

Feel free to post before/after pictures if you like (optional). Of course this challenge is based on the honor system. You can cheat, but that would be pointless.