Off to the Races
As 2006 was drawing to close and with the prices going up on several Spring races, I plopped my money down. I have decided to go with the familiar this Spring, so I signed up for the Tom King Half Marathon and the Country Music Marathon. I plan to save my “travel money” for the Fall. I’m considering going back to Chicago in October.
In looking at the past year, I proved to myself that I can put in the mileage. But I don’t feel like I’m making much progress toward completing a marathon anywhere near my potential.
So this time around instead of doing a modified Hal Higdon plan, I’ve decided to go with Pfitzinger’s 18 week program as outlined in his book Advanced Marathoning
One thing that I am doing is using my heart rate monitor to set the pace. I feel that way I might be able to run at an optimum pace rather than basing my targets on past performance. Time will tell. This is the start of the second week and today was a rest day.
January 2nd, 2007 at 11:52 pm
If you can handle the mileage, the Pfitz plan is a great choice. It will work you hard and you won’t be bored. No two weeks are alike.
With the Pfitz plan there are several important paces to understand
5K pace (near your VO2max pace)
15Kpace (near your LT pace)
Marathon Pace
General Aerobic Pace
I’m a slow runner, so I push the shorter intervals (1200m and below) 5 to 10 seconds/mile below my 5K PR pace. It gives me a great workout. For LT Tempo runs, I do my best to stay about half way between my PR 10K pace and PR 30K pace. Man these will wear on you.
Your HR monitor will come in handy for the General Aerobic pace since you’ll spend hours and hours running general aerobic medium-long and long runs during the program.
Good luck. It will be fun watching you hit new PRs at every distance on this program.
January 3rd, 2007 at 1:44 pm
That sounds like a good plan, David. I was thinking about giving Pfitz a shot at getting me under 4 hours the next time around. Maybe I’ll see ya at Tom King!