Saturday, March 28, 2009

A New Training Program

Farmington Canal Linear Park (a.k.a. the linear trail). 63 degrees; splits 9:45; 10:24; 10:37; 10:21; 10:40; 10:30; 1:02:17 total for 6 miles; 10:23 per mile pace.

An absolutely PERFECT day for running after a week off to rest my heel and instep. I chose to run today, for the first time, using the Jeff Galloway (http://www.jeffgalloway.com/) run-walk-run (TM) method. I purchased Jeff's book a couple of weeks ago, and am convinced that his method of training will work well for me. The most difficult part of his training methods for me will be to let go of my obsession about time and pace. After today's run, I think I can. I'm already convinced that alternating running for 5 minutes with walking for a minute is the way to go. I felt very little twinges of pain from my troublesome foot. I was so focused on watching my Garmin for the 5 minute and 1 minute times that the 6 miles went by very quickly. Plus I enjoyed my run a lot more. No pressure, just pleasure. My overall pace of 10:23 per mile is equal to a marathon time of 4:32:09 (thanks Cool Running Pace Calculator). I'd be satisfied running NYC or Hartford at that time 6 1/2 months (Hartford) or 7 1/2 months (NYC) from now. I'm confident if I follow his entire running plan of running, cross training, hill training, acceleration gliders, etc. that I can even beat my best marathon time of 4:22:19. It seems that with less pain I will have more gain. This is the most excited I have been about training and running since I began. Also, I saw "roller blading, disco dancing, karaoke singing, linear trail lady." again....

4 comments:

Anais said...

This is so great Rick!! I really hope this works out for you :) I kind of do the run-walk-run, but simply because I keep getting side stitches lol :)

You've also really got me interested in running a race soon...i'm hoping to do a 5k in may, then maybe a half-marathon in the looming future? maybe even a marathon at one point? :)

You're an inspiration, keep up the great work!!! :)

Anonymous said...

I still havent seen her!!!!!

Lindsay said...

glad you had a good run. it's hard to not focus on speed and pace the whole time, but it sounds like you have a great plan. stick with it and it'll pay off.

Irish Cream said...

I am so glad the new plan seems to be working out and getting you excited about running again! :) Keep up the great work!