I have talked a little about my injury and training, but I haven’t exactly mentioned my training plan. Ideally, I would want to give this injury another year and possibly run a couple of shorter races vs. a marathon right now. But, it isn’t every day that you get a spot in the New York City Marathon. I could cancel and get guaranteed entry for next year, but I just don’t want to take a chance that I wouldn’t be able to run it next year. To be able to run the New York City Marathon is a dream come true for me! So, I am just going to try to be patient with this training (it can get very tedious going from walking to running) and very cautious and aware of any changes, tenderness, or pain in my feet as I progress on with the training plan.
My specific training plan has three phases:
- Return to Running
- Building A Base
- Marathon Training
Return to Running is a program I adopted from the University of Alaska’s running coach, Michael Friess. He recommended this program to me years ago when I was returning to running after my first injury. I have followed this program several times in the past, but because of this type of injury I will be taking it really slow and easy this time around. I am even taking two days off a week.
It starts with simply walking for 40 minutes x 2 days
Then, running for 30 seconds out of every 5 minutes for 40 minutes x 2 days
Then, running for 1 minute out of every 5 minutes for 40 minutes x 2 days
And continuing to advance the running by 30 seconds every other day to the full 40 minutes.
I also walk for 10 minutes before and after these “runs” to warm up and cool down.
I have already started this phase and currently, I am running 2.5 minutes out of every 5 minutes. I am hoping to be running the full 40 minutes or at least a minimum of 30 minutes by April 5th when I will start building the base.
The program I am using to build the base is Hal Higdon’s 12 Week Spring Training Program. This program gradually builds mileage and fitness. There is a novice, intermediate, and advanced schedule. Because I have not been running for almost 9 months now plus I was only running intermittently for years prior to that, I will be doing the novice program. Click here for specific details.
The final phase is the actual marathon-training program. I will begin Hal Hidgon’s 18 week Marathon Training Guide, Novice One beginning June 28th. I truly do feel like a beginner at this stage, and I believe this program will be a little easier for me. He has multiple training plans to choose from for the marathon.
I have used these programs before but being that they are guidelines, I made some adjustments that didn’t turn out so good (see what went wrong). So this time I will be following them pretty precisely and if any adjustments are made, they will be more on the conservative side.
In addition to the running, I will continue to do the heel drop exercises, yoga, and eventually, I will add more core and strength exercises.
I will continue to keep the blog updated on how the training and the injury are progressing….
As always, any input is greatly appreciated….Happy Running!
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