Making the perfect training plan
There are many things to consider when making your training plan. First you have to find the race. Now when picking a race you have to find one with enough distance out to train for it, then in a place that works for you. You can pick this as a vacation or something the is in your local town and convenient. I use to pick races as a part of my vacation, California, Ireland, and South Dakota. Now I have had fun on these vacations, I have competed well but it did not always make for the best situations. Having to foot around the cities to figure out the race course, starting line and expo locations as well as just wanting to see a place you have never been as well as the tourist that you want to do after the race is more difficult when you are sore. Since I have taken a year off of the marathon I decided to stick close to home. Now I have not exactly pinned down what race but I have narrowed the field to two. The Omaha Marathon, and the Des Moines Marathon.
The Omaha Marathon is in my home town and is on September 27, 2009. I have ran the Omaha half several years and competed very well but I have some reserve. First its my home town, no new scenery to me, second being the weather. Omaha in September can be either perfect, raining or so hot and humid you need a snorkel to swim through the air. The First half of the marathon is actually very hilly as well. But in comparison to Big Sur, no chance. The hills do not scare me. Also I know the course will have to change this year because of the construction of the new baseball field for the new home of the College World Series. Now I live fifteen minutes from the starting line. I will have “homefield” advantage and generally in the weather is well people to well. I have known several friends to BQ.
The DesMoines Marathon is the one I am leaning toward more. It is only four hours from my home. Quick weekend trip and is the weekend of October 18th. It is close to my birthday, a little more time to train. I have never rain it before and the weather is more predictable. Cool fall air, my favorite. It is advertised as a fast and flat race. So how do I decide between the two. I will have to do a little more research to decided. I will also start to make my training plan the go from there.
This year I am really struggling with the training plan idea. The last marathons I have trained for I have had a different work schedule. I worked the 2nd shift 3 p.m. to 11p.m. five days a week. I also worked the night shift 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. three days a week. Now I work 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. three days a week. I have a semi set schedule that I asked my boss to change so it would help with training some. But I have the problem of deciding what to do on the days I work. Do I count those as my off days? Are these to be my easy days? Do I get up in the morning and run, yet knowing I have a 13 hour shift ahead of me? Or do I run when I get off work and I am more certain to know by the time I get home I will not want to go workout. I know the getting up in the morning has advantages of running at the time you are racing, beating the heat, and being more likely to run then when I get off of work. The other challenge is that not everyday at work is easy as a nurse. It is usually physically demanding, long hours on my feet and sometimes lasts longer than the 12 hours that I am scheduled.
The next is picking the plan that will get me across the line with a new PR. I have been researching several training plans including some from Runners World Magazine, the book by David Kuehls 4 Months to a 4 Hour Marathon. Also some of the Hanson brothers training plan and the book by Jack Daniels, Daniels’ Running Formula. It will take some work and I am sure some tweaking here and there but I am open to suggestions from anyone. Especially in the area of the workdays. Once I get a plan I will keep you posted.
http://www.desmoinesmarathon.com/IMT_Des_Moines_Marathon.htm
http://www.omahamarathon.com/