Training for the next running and juggling marathon

Alright, today was supposed to be the start of my next marathon training schedule. Unfortunately, I haven’t had a chance to create it. Well, let me do it today.

For the last marathon I followed Hal Higdon’s 18 week Advanced Training I schedule. It was ok but I didn’t achieve the results that I wanted. Perhaps I’ve just hit a plateau and need to try something else. Here’s what I’m thinking. Create a custom training schedule that includes a 2 week focus on speed, long runs, and races. I’ll also throw in some core exercises and maybe even some stretching. I’ve never been a big believer in stretching but what the hell. And to top it all off, I’ll adjust my diet so I can shed a few pounds.

First, my marathon training schedule. Since I’ll be doing 2 marathons 1 month apart, I’ve created a schedule all the way to the Chicago marathon in October. That’s 17 weeks of training. Everything will be done joggling except some of the speed days. I’ve found that to do speed days right you need to concentrate on the running.

Here is the general structure of the training schedule.

Monday : Easy run or rest (recovery from long run on Sunday)
Tuesday : Speed work (Hills or Sprints)
Wednesday : Easy run (recovery from hard workout on Tuesday)
Thursday : Speed work (Tempo run)
Friday – Easy run or rest
Saturday : Moderate run (sometimes at race pace)
Sunday : Long run

To achieve my speed goals, I figure need to hit the following paces.

Easy run : 7:48 (7.8 on the treadmill)
Long run : 8:00 (7.5 on the treadmill)
Tempo : 6:29 (9.5 on the treadmill)
Sprints : 6:00 or faster (10.0 on treadmill)

Target race times
5 K : 18:00
10 K : 38:00
Half marathon : 1:28:00
Marathon : 2:58:00

These are all a bit better than my fastest times. But I’ve been inspired by this article I found about running fast.

When I get it done, I’ll make a new page for my training schedule. Today’s run is a simple 3 miler.