Plan for 2011

Planned Training Plan

1. 12 weeks or so Aerobic Base Building through February. Trying to go longer. Maybe up to 14+ for long run. 40+ for week. Tuesday/Friday Steady State "workout" runs.

2. 6 weeks Hills. Tuesday/Friday hill workouts. 2 weeks each of High Knees, Bounding, then Springing.

3. 11 weeks 5k training based on the Younger Legs 5k plan.

4. 10 weeks 1-mile training leading into 5th Ave Mile in September.

Planned Races (Goal)

Apr Lost Brook 10-mile Trail Race, Tenafly Nature Center (Good Hard Effort - No Bonk!)
Apr Muddy Half Marathon (Avoid the DNF!)
Apr-Sep 5k Wednesday Cross Country Series (Mostly Tempo - Sometimes Racing)
Jun Tenafly 5k (6:00-pace)
Jun Bloomfield Sunset Classic 5-mile Road Race (Course PR: 31:20)
Aug Mahlon Mayhem 25k Trail Race (Start & Finish)
Sep Closter 5k (18:0?)
Sep 5th Avenue Mile (5:00 or better)
Oct Mountain Madness 25k (Start & Finish)

We'll see how it goes!

Fall 5Ks

Ran a couple 5ks this fall. 19:31 in Norwood on a flat course. 19:22 in Montclair on a tough course. Was following the 11 week 5k plan pretty closely with a goal of running a final one in early December. But I got sick and just seemed like I needed a break after the Montclair race in mid-November. So just starting up again and will spend the winter base building.

5th Avenue Mile 2010

Last year: 80, 91, 86, 85 for 5:42.

This year: 73, 81, 80, 79 for 5:14 (fractions rounded it up).

Was hoping to break 5:20 so very happy with this.

After the 5k 3 weeks ago did several 400m repeat workouts and one 800m repeat workout.

I guess they helped.

Doesn't look like I'll get to 5:00 before my 50th but the prospects are looking better for a post-50th 5:00 mile.

Closter 5k

Well that 10-week 5k plan took more like 20 weeks and I probably only got in about 6 weeks worth of the workouts. On the Sunday of Labor Day weekend I ran the Closter 5k in 19:08. That is my fastest 5k time since just getting under 19 minutes at the 1986 Ridgewood 5k. Yes -- 1986.

5k Plan - Week 2

The 6 x 3 minutes intervals were actually easier this week then the 8 x 2 minutes last week. Much more comfortable at the pace. Did the full form drill workout on Friday. None of the weird tiredness of last week.

Carlsbad 5k 10-week Program, Week 1

I started the 10-week 5k program from the (now defunct, unfortunately) Younger Legs blog this week. I'm looking to run the Teterboro 5k on July 17th. It's run on the airport runway so you can't get much flatter than that. Though it's the middle of July so even at 8:00 a.m. it's likely to be somewhat hot. I got started a week later than I had planned so I will likely have to cut out one of the weeks (already breaking the rules, oh well) as there doesn't seem to be a convenient 5k on the weekend of the 24th.

The plan has 2 workouts each week -- Tuesday and Friday -- with the rest of the days being your usual recovery/distance/long run stuff.

The first week's workouts were of the "dipping your toe in the water" variety. Tuesday was intervals: 8 x 2 minutes @ 5k pace with 3 minutes jog recovery. The interval workouts work up towards a total of 15 minutes @5k pace. But there's a catch: the first 2 minutes of each interval don't count towards that total, as it takes 2 minutes to get up to VO2 max effort. So this first week counted for zero minutes. The marsh trail where I would normally do this type of workout is still closed for repairs following the big wind storm in the spring so I did this on the treadmill. I used 6:15 pace as my 5k pace based on my 5:39 mile earlier this spring. The first interval felt really, really fast at this pace on the treadmill. The intervals got easier up to about number 6, then 7 was about the same as 6, and 8 was tougher, and then it was over.

The Friday workout was 6 x 30 seconds up a hill at around mile race pace with 2.5 minutes jog/walk recovery. Again the first one was the toughest and by the 5th and 6th they started getting tougher.

The main thing I noticed from both of this was that I was quite exhausted the following day. Wednesday I did a usual 50-minute or so recovery run. Similar on Thursday. Saturday I was planning my long run. I never got to it because of ferrying the kids around but that was probably a good thing as I was pretty exhausted. Felt much better Sunday morning. Looking forward to week 2.

Cross Country 5k Series

[Updated with more XC and 5k results.]

Have done a couple XC 5Ks with my son the past few weeks and he's looking to do one every other week or so throughout the summer. So far (and his complete 5k career)....

Closter Labor Day 5k (9) -- 25:56
Tenalfy 5k (8) -- 26:24
Week 9 XC Series 2010 (8) -- 26:56
Week 6 XC Series 2010 (8) -- 27:18
Week 3 XC Series 2010 (8) -- 28:08
Week 1 XC Series 2010 (8) -- 28:58

Sept 2008 (7) -- DNF, side stitch
July 2008 (6) -- DNF, blisters
June 2008 (6) -- 30:42