The hill in my neighborhood park kicked my ASS this morning. Not that I ever motored up it without a problem, but I was hurting out there. Fine, hills! If you want me to destroy you, I will!
Now I’m just going to ramble on about marathon training plans for a bit.
I’m basing my training to follow the Hal Higdon Marathon Novice 1 and possibly picking up some workouts from my running team’s suggested training plan. (Most of the team is quite advanced, but usually there’s a base-builder/ first-timer modification.) But I’m not completely sold on it.
I thought about buying one of the official NYC Marathon training plans, but I don’t think they’re a good investment for me. Just for a printout of my training plan with paces I’d have to shell out $100. If I wanted to have a coach I could contact with questions about it, that’s $200. While it’s true I have a million questions about running, I would rather pay $100 for a coach and no plan than $100 for a plan and no coach.
I tried the Runner’s WorldSmartCoach feature (free) to make a plan, and it has me running 2 days a week and cross-training the rest of the time. That just seems wrong. It’s like a running plan for people who hate running and just want to get it over with. The Runner’s World Challenge gives you a plan AND experts to ask questions of for $99, and you get a T-shirt — but they don’t say which experts and how many. (But you get emails from Bart Yasso. I love that guy!)
I don’t think my questions are all that unique for first-timers, not that that means they aren’t important. My first question about good ol’ Hal was, what is the utility of running 3 days in a row (Tues-Wed-Thurs) each week? And taking off Monday, my personal Day O’Momentum, after which it seems easier to work out every day? I would rather run Mon-Wed-Thurs, but then what benefit am I giving up? Some Google searching suggests that the 3-day run teaches you to run on tired legs, as you will have to do at the end of a marathon unless you’re a superhero. (Nothing about Monday though.)
Where was I? Oh, hills. They’ll come in handy for Ragnar Napa as well, assuming there won’t be a sign on the top of every hill proclaiming “This Way To Wine.”
