Bowling for Dollars...

"Gentlemen," Cassidy would say, rising at dinner and tapping his glass for silence, "we have got to have a plan. We must have a plan even if it is wrong." Once A Runner

Three weeks have past since the sweet misery and mystical delight of the Vermont City Marathon. Three weeks in the hurt locker with an absurd achilles issue has left me clutching the final shards of my athletic sanity. As the solstice arrives with its usual heat and humidity so comes the arrival of a new training plan.

After three weeks of thought I have decided to structure my training into three distinct periods. Periodization is an important concept of training that I feel adds an individual element to my personal training plans. Looking back on the structure of my last training cycle I feel as though the first two periods were nearly flawless. Coming off the IT band issue in November I did not feel very fit. I felt as thought the majority of the year was spent regaining fitness and confidence following the stress fracture in my sacrum. Things changed on December first with the 800-meter time trial. That morning sparked my training and started the drive to VCM. Along with the faster interval training I was also swimming two or three nights a week at the Keene State pool. I felt that added component jump started my fitness and led to a 8:29, 4:20 double by the end of the year. This first month of cross training with running got me fit fast and led to a great indoor track season. In all honesty January could not have gone better. I was thrilled to run 4:08 on seven weeks of training. My only regret throughout the past six months was that I jumped up my training far to quickly. I went from cranking 200's in 27 to running 5:00 miles and doing long tempos. My body did not seem to respond all that well and this had a detrimental effect on my confidence. Clearly this was an important lesson to learn for next time around.

This leads to the plan for this cycle of training. Right now the tentative plan is to try and get into a fast fall marathon. I don't want to put my name on anything yet as I hope this achilles issue will vanish into thin air. What I will focus on outlining right now is the details of this next month of training. The goal for the first week is to run three or four miles every day and get my legs back under myself. I am also going to try and do three open water swims of over a mile at Goose Pond. The addition that I am going to make for this cycle is the addition of some difficult mountain bike rides. By the second week of July I would like to be running 60-65 a week with the addition of some light workouts. It is my hope that this block of overall base work will lead me refreshed and ready to get back into my traditional training. I have already decided that the second phase of this block is going to be based around the Daniels half marathon plan that I had so much success with a couple of seasons ago.

I have a few tricks up my sleeve that I am wrapping my mind around for the latter period of this block. Right now all I am focused on is getting in work ever day over a couple of different disciplines. There is a lot to fun to be had with period of training and I am looking forward to ever step, rep, stroke and cycle.

Cheers,

Mark