Week 9 Base Training Plan

The plan for the week of Nov 27 is Mon - Easy 3 m with Kiki; Tue - 4 m, 1 m tempo, hr 140; Wed - Easy 3 m with Cocoa, hr 125; Thu - 7 m, easy 3 m in the morning with Kiki, easy 4 m at lunch to the base of the hill I'll use for repeats; Fri - Easy 3 m with Cocoa; Sat - 8 m long run; Sun - Easy 3 m with Kiki. This will give me a total of 31 m for the week, 2 m more than Week 8.

Starting with a 2.5 m Tempo is a bad idea

As I looked at my plan to run a 2.5 m tempo every Tuesday I realized that did not make sense. Instead I'm going to start with a 1 m tempo and build up to a 2 m by the end of base training. After the Thanksgiving CU 5K Turkey Trot I'll begin running Thursday at lunch time. I'm going to build up to 4 m by January 1 because this will take me to the base of my 90 second hill. I plan on starting with 3 hill repeats on week 1 building up to 8 hill repeats on week 6 for Thursday lunchtime runs. I will not do any hill repeats during base training ie 2006.

Base Training Plan

I'm halfway through building up my running base to the point I can start marathon training Jan 1, 2007. I injured my leg in August 2005 and have been unable to run a marathon since then. Oct 1, 2006 I started a 13 week base training plan that called for running 3 m every day. I increase my long run in 10% steps so that by the end of base training I will be running 12 m. I divided base training into two halves. The first 6 weeks I ran 3 m on 3 successive days and the long run on day 4. I have 3 bearded collies, also known as Beardies, so it worked out I would take a different one for each of the 3 m runs. I started with Mindy on day 1 because she is sloooow and makes for a good recovery run. Day 2 was Brodie, Mindy's puppy. Brody is fast and running with him is a good tempo run. Third, was Kailey who will run at any pace I choose but she's going to pull on the leash no matter how fast I go. It should be apparent why I do not run with all three. I tried it once and a squirrel ran across the trail. Brodie tried to get it, Kailey ignored it, and Mindy tried to run away. I run by myself on the long days. This schedule worked well until last week when I reached the 6 m long run. I run in the morning and anything longer than 6 m is going to make me late for work. So for the last 7 weeks of base training I am running long on Saturdays, 2.5 m tempo (6 m with warm-up and cool-down) on Tuesdays, and 3 m with a Beardie the other 5 days. Brodie runs on Thursday for a mini tempo and Mindy goes on Sunday for recovery from the long run. I am really thankful I can run 30 minutes every day. It's a short distance but after not being able to run consistently for a year, it is great. Hopefully I will be fit enough at the new year to begin serious marathon training.