First Marathon ... Planning

Forgive me, it’s my first day and I’m a bit excited!  Yeah, I know it’s May, I get that.  

I’ve been reading, studying, thinking, planning, re-planning, reading, thinking, talking, listening, planning, re-planning … get it?

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, I want to run my first marathon in the fall or early winter.  The marathon I wanted to run is just three weeks on the heels of a bike ride I’d like to do well in.  The consensus was that it’s probably a little too close to my first marathon, unless I want to put up a bunny of a ride.  Yeah, I could plan on doing that … but I know myself.

I decided on moving the marathon from early December to late January, giving me much more time in between and allowing me to maximize my performance in both.

I planned the bike schedule as I normally would, not stretching it out to allow extra time for rest and also having to worry about doubling up long runs and long rides in one weekend.  Then I worked the weeks for the marathon training schedule (Hal Higdon) backwards, maneuvering different runs to fit around previously scheduled races, both running and riding, as well as leaving room for the tapering before the bike race.

And the timing, on paper, looks great.   I have the next three months to work on a running base, get that 5K goal knocked out (sub-20), and drop some weight.  After that, the bike training starts.   As I’ll get into the 200 mile weeks on the bike my long runs will only be about 12 to 14 miles, which I can handle.  

The weeks leading up the bike race will have one two-a-day per week, on Tuesdays, featuring a recovery run (which I could skip) and a bike ride in the afternoon.  That’s actually less than I have been doing as I usually do two, two-a-days per week.  

The longest run before the bike race on 11/19 is a 15 miler, which occurs in the first week of the taper for the bike ride.  I think that’ll be okay.  After the bike race is done, the next 8 or 9 weeks line up almost perfectly with the Hidgon plan, save the half marathon I’d like to run six weeks before the marathon.

Either way, this plan feels right.  I’m excited about it.  

Now to figure out what my marathon pace will be!