Thursday, October 26, 2006

What's next?

Well no running for a few more days. I decided to give myself a full week off from running, since I have been training basically since January 1st with little to no days off. This was a great idea until I remembered that the reason I love to run is that I get to step away from all the other shit happening in my life (read : work) and just run and get away from it and refocus. It's weird that how just a few days off makes me feel so unbalanced.

Either way I am sticking to not running until next week. My legs are just starting to feel better today and I have a busy weekend with a halloween party on Friday and then DA BEARS game on Sunday which I am so looking forward to. (Hope they look better than they did against Arizona).

As far as what's next for our training. We are going to run the Sarasota marathon on March 4th. My mom lives in Sarasota and since I won't be seeing her for Christmas this year and she hasn't seen me run in a marathon I thought that would one to do. This way I get to keep up my milage and my mom gets to see me run a marathon. Training throughout the Chicago winter will probably keep me at about where I am now speedwise so I am going to treat that marathon more as practice and not worry about setting a PR. It's a small race too so it'll be wierd to go from running with 39,999 of my closest friends to 2999 of my closest friends. I am sticking with the Pfitz plan since I have seen such good results, not only from my own race, but from many who follow the plan. Since I don't have 18 weeks however, I am going to do the 12 week 55 mile week plan. I know it'll be tough to get out there for long runs in bad wintery conditions, but I am confident that we can do it.

After that, Jason and I are doing some relays and then will most likely train for another fall marathon (most likely Chicago) where I can move towards a BQ. Next summer I'll either do the 18/55 or perhaps try and push it up to the 18/70 or 24/70 to get more milage under me. I would actually like to train for a 3:30....then I have a nice 10 minute BQ buffer.

So that's our plans and I'm looking forward to getting back on the running shoes next week.

12 comments:

Thomas said...

I had a great time with the 24/70 plan, and can recommend it. Having said that, everyone is different.

LeahC said...

i was also thinking about that one. Is it hard to stay focused for the 24 weeks?

Theoutofshapeguy said...

55 miles a week?

Ring Ring":
"Leah, you are nutz"

LeahC said...

"hello"

um yeah actually :-)

TX Runner Mom said...

Congrats to both of you for your great finish in Chicago!!!

Full Metal Lunchbox said...

Good luck training this winter.  I'm sure if you keep active this winter you'll have no trouble pouring on the miles next summer.

Boston, here you come!

(BTW, thanks for coming to my birthday party.)

Triseverance said...

Leah I think you plan sounds good, but I think you underestimate yourself. I think keeping up quality Pfitz like miles all winter will have a solid effect on your fitness and make you an even better endurance athlete. I truly believe it is all about the miles. In my opinion you could BQ in march given the right day, there certanitly is no reason not to at least leave the possibility open.

Anyway you guys keep on running.

Like the new doo by the way.

Iron Jayhawk said...

I'm so excited for you to get back out there and running. Heck, I'm excited for me to get back out there running!! I've got the itch today! I think we're on for teh 18/55 for our spring marathon...whatever that will be.

So you're gunna drag me to the track this winter...right?

Let's make a deal for Chicago '07...you and Jason run a 3:30 and I'll run a 5:15...and then let's make Mike run a 4:30 while we're at it. Sound like a plan?

MNFirefly said...

Leah, that sounds like an awesome plan. You go girl!

Ryan said...

Wow, no rest for the wicked after this week! I am curious about what training in Jan will be like for the city dwellers. Do you run all of your miles on the lakefront path? That seems like it will be REALLY cold in Jan-Feb with the wind.

Enjoy your no-running weekend.

LeahC said...

running in the winter is almost better in the city I think. It's warmer by the lake in the winter (cause the lake is all heated up from the summer). As far as the wind goes, well yeah that can be a problem. We'll probably do some running in the streets and some on the lake front path. At least when it's super windy on the lakefront path, it's usually only bad in one direction :-)

Jason said...

I remember the wind being the worst out in the suburbs because it would build up over the plains. Maybe that's just because we worked so far west.