10K Training Plan

Well, I have a plan!

My target race is the Winter Park Road Race, a local 10K event. I did a search on line and decided to give Hal Higdon's Intermediate plan a try. My challenge will be sticking to the schedule since there is only one rest day in the schedule. In general, the schedule looks like this:

Monday: 3 mile run and strength training
Tuesday: Run (3 to 6 miles)
Wednesday: Either tempo run or interval training
Thursday: 3 or 4 mile run and strength training
Friday: REST
Saturday: 60 min cross train
Sunday: 4-8 mile run

The plan happens to be 8 weeks long which is exactly how long I have until the WPRR. Seemed like a good reason to try it out! My training over the past 2 years has been a homemade integration of various training plans...designed to work around my schedule. This time I am going to try to work my schedule around the plan - with a combination of morning and midday runs. Maybe this combination will get me to a PR :-)

My only concern is to see how my PF (Plantar Fasciitis) does. I am going to push through the training, and if the PF gets to be a problem, I may replace the Monday and/or Thursday run with 30 or so minutes on the elliptical. I am not a fan of the elliptical machine, but it does give me the cardio without the foot pain.

Day 1: I ran 3.34 miles at noontime today - the temperature was around 80 degrees - which made for a rather hot run. I finished in 36:46, an average 11 min/mi pace. I walked a bit more toward the end as my heart rate was around 170 bpm in the final 2 miles. AHR was 167 (anaerobic - 85% max) and MHR was 187 (99% max). Still, I felt good on the run - a bit out of breath, but felt strong. In my weight training, I did two sets with the legs and 3 sets with the upper body, with a stab at some core work with planks and crunches until I felt the burn. My heart rate stayed in the aerobic zone for much of my weight training, giving me more calorie burn. 1 day down!

Next post - weight, body fat and BMI.