The Plan

I've been running competitively since August 1997. By competitively, I mean caring about my race time, buying shoes designed for running and actually training for a race instead of huffing and puffing my way through the Cap10 once a year. The hardest part about running competitively for so long is staying motivated. So, this year's plan is to run the "Tahoe Triple" in September. The appeal for me here is that ...I'm not really sure I can do it. I hate long runs, hate training in the heat and have been swearing off marathons for years. So, it makes perfect sense to run three marathons in three days at 6,700 feet elevation. And since I'd never be satisfied with just finishing, my goal is to average 3:30 ...no, 3 hours and 25 minutes per 26.2 mile stretch and finish in the top 10.

I haven't run more than 120 miles in any month since January and I took 7 days off after Chuys. My highest mileage week ever was 70 miles. I've had no more than a dozen above 60. The latest nagging injury is ...both ankles. Not sure what's up; they just feel pounded.

I printed out four months worth of Outlook calender pages at lunch last week, and tried to write down a schedule that I could roughly stick to. This is what I came up with -

Every other week is a heavy mileage week. The meat of the plan is three consecutive days of long runs (Sat/Sun/Mon), starting with 30 this weekend and working up to 60 by early Sept. The remainder of the "hard weeks" will consist of two or three days of 7 or 8 mile lake loops. I might substitute intervals on Wednesday's ...for no reason other than I like intervals. The "easy weeks" will include one long run of no more than 14 miles and another four or five days of lake loops and Wednesday intervals. The flexible plan will look something like this -

Week 1 - 42 miles
Week 2 - 36 miles
Week 3 - 48 miles
Week 4 - 38 miles
Week 5 - 56 miles
Week 6 - 40 miles
Week 7 - 64 miles
Week 8 - 40 miles
Week 9 - 70 miles
Week 10 - 40 miles
Week 11 - 74 miles
Week 12 - 40 miles
Week 13 - 78 miles
Week 14 - 40 miles
Week 15 - 80 miles
Week 16 - 40 miles
Week 17 - 82 miles
Week 18 - 40 miles
Week 19 - 84 miles
Week 20 - 40 miles
Week 21 - 14 miles