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I emailed Steve Walker at the end of last week, wanting to know more about his new marathon training plan, the “consistent, but moderate” plan. Steve was kind enough to email me back, and he emailed me a link to his podcast site. He did a podcast all about the new training plan back in December, and also included a link to an article in Running Times about this plan (“Marathoning the Hanson’s Way: Smashing the Myth of the 20-Miler” http://www.runningtimes.com/rt/articles/?id=4447).

Steve’s podcast is called “Phedippidations” and can be found at www.steverunner.com. I highly recommend listening to some of his podcasts, especially #77, the one discussing the Hansons’ marathon training plan.

I’m really, really intrigued by this plan. In my mind, it makes total sense. It’s not as drastic as I first thought—it’s not 10 miles a day, 6 days a week. There is some build-up in there, and some prescribed speed and strength work. But the key is that there are 3 days a week of 10 miles or more, and one day of doing a long-ish run (8 miles or so) at marathon pace.

Another concern that I had about this kind of schedule was that it was for experienced and faster marathoners—not beginners and slower people like me. But in the article in Running Times, the word beginner is mentioned, and there are even mileage adjustments for beginners. It’s as applicable to a 5-hour marathoner as it is to a 3:30 marathoner…and I’m eager to try it.

It’s too late in the Grandma’s game to begin a new training plan. Plus, I’d have to get Val, Steph and Deb on board, and I don’t see that happening. I know that one of Val’s major concerns is not having a 20+-mile run before race day. I, too, wonder how a plan like this could possibly work, but I’m willing to take a leap of faith, and try it—next year.

I do wonder if there is a way to adapt the plan for the TC 10 Mile race. I can already run 10 miles comfortably, so my key is going to be doing more runs at my race pace of 9:30-9:45. (My goal is to finish the TC 10 Mile in 100 minutes, giving me an average total pace of 10 minutes per mile.) I’ll also need to do more runs at my goal interval of 10:1s. I tried simply halving the mileage in the marathon plan, but it still doesn’t quite make sense to me. I think that I may email Steve for his advice.

If I am able to do another marathon next year, I will definitely be adopting the Hansons’ plan.

This past Sunday, we ran 14 miles. My knee flared up at the half-way point, so I stopped and stretched it, and it was ok on the way back. It hurt, but it definitely wasn’t debilitating pain. I took an Aleve before the run, and I think that that may have helped.

But overall, it was a great run. I was tired at the end, but not completely spent. I probably could’ve gone a couple more miles. I think a lot of the good feelings had to do with the weather—it was warm and sunny, and lots of people were out. But I also think that my fuel this time around played a big role. On our past long runs, I’ve brought my Fuel Belt with 4 flasks of Gatorade. For this run, I had that and a pack of ClifBloks. I had 2 flasks of Gatorade and maybe 2 Bloks on the way out, and then I re-filled the two empty flasks with water at the Super America (our halfway point). On the way back, I had the remaining 2 flasks of Gatorade, 2 flasks of water and 4 Bloks, and felt great the whole time. Poor Val bonked around mile 12 (which is where I usually do), but I was able to finish strong. I think it had a lot to do with that extra pack of Bloks. From now on, I am always bringing something more than Gatorade.

I also had a plate of pasta for dinner Saturday night. Nothing excessive, but dinner was definitely heavy on the carbs. I’m not a huge believer in carbo-loading, but I can’t but wonder (like Carrie Bradshaw) if that might have had something to do with it. Abe, is pasta every Saturday night ok with you? : )

Since my climbing dreams were dashed last week, I’ve been thinking more and more about triathlons. Problem—I don’t swim. I looked into taking one of the Total Immersion swimming clinics at the YWCA, and I started making all these grand plans. Then, while talking with Deb this weekend on the long run, I remembered why I gave up swimming in the first place—because I find it lonely and boring. Sure, swimming around in Lake Calhoun with Karen was a blast last summer, but once it came to doing laps 3 times a week at the YWCA, I hated it. I got so bored and so discouraged. A part of me feels that I need to do a triathlon because everyone else is doing triathlons. But I really don’t think they are for me. (And since when do I do something because everyone else is doing it?) I had a blast at the Iron Girl Duathlon—I absolutely loved the multi-sport challenge. But I don’t ever think I’ll be that keen on swimming to want to train for and complete a triathlon.

Who knows? I’ll probably change my mind in the near future. But for now, I’m a 2 sport gal. Maybe someday they’ll create an Ironman Duathlon—bike 50 miles, run 26.2 and bike 50 more miles. FUN!

I’ve been able to get back with the yoga program, too, thanks to a big kick in the pants. Last night, I did one of my 20 minute DVDs, and it just about killed me. It is designed to keep your heart rate up, but mine was skyrocketing! From yoga!! And a lot of the poses presented quite a challenge. I could feel the stretch in many muscles that I have ignored. I have grown quite fond of one yoga DVD, because a lot of the poses are good for stretching your running muscles, but then I’m not necessarily strengthening my other groups. So, I’ve decided to mix it up a bit among my yoga DVDs, and not do the same DVD every morning. Heck, I’ve decided that I have to stop slacking off from the AM yoga and get up!! I’ve also thrown in some old Pilates moves, and discovered that the side-leg series from the Windsor Pilates DVDs really targets some of my weak leg muscles. Morning or night, my goal is to do yoga and some Pilates moves every day. I’m hoping that this will help keep my knee in working order until June 17th.

Also, last night we did Yassos, and they were tough, but amazingly effective. Yassos are named after Bart Yasso, who is the race services manager at RW Magazine. But his form of speedwork involves doing repeats of a half mile, and running those in the number of minutes of your marathon goal time. We want to do a 5 hour marathon, so we did our 1/2 mile repeats in 5 minutes. Last night, we did 4 repeats of this, maintaing a 10 minute/mile pace or better during the Yasso, and then walking/jogging for 5 minutes in between each repetition. The really amazing thing was that the Yassos made our goal pace of 11 min/mile feel slow and comfortable. Awesome! check out this article at runnersworld.com for more info: http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,7120,s6-238-244-255-624-0,00.html

Sunday is 16 miles! Pasta on Saturday for dinner and plenty of fuel for the run are in order. Good times!

posted by Lola @ 12:17 PM