Weekly Training Wrap - 12/20 – 1/1

What a great week! I logged a pretty good chunk of mileage celebrating the great year. It began with a fun hike in Boulder on Boxing Day and peaked with a final long run with Jen and Jon. I have been off of formal training for nearly a month. Next week resumes planned training for the Colorado Marathon in May. And I scheduled a half marathon, Platte River, as a tune-up in April. While I technically finished my training plan for the next 18 weeks, I am sure I will change my mind a few times.

I feel compelled to discuss my training plan since the topic has been discussed quite a bit with the new year and Spring marathon plans.  I have settled on  using a plan designed by Brad Hudson.  Before getting into my logic, here are a few highlights about how Hudson likes to train:

1. Lots of hill work to strengthen legs and prevent injury
2. Varied pace runs (ladder intervals, Fartleks, progressions, etc...)
3. Progression from general training to specific training
4. Constant variation

So why did I pick Hudson?  The truth is that there isn't much magic to it. First of all, I have done a Pfitz cycle already, granted it was cut a bit short because of other races. But still, I want to try something new to keep the stimulus to my body rising.  Second, I like Hudson's philosophy on hill running. It happens that I live in a hilly area and it is convenient for me to play to my home field advantage. Finally, his plan looked a lot like my Arizona buddy Steve's plan and he's having a kick ass training cycle. That's it. Again, no real magic, but I think it will work well for me. If nothing else, the constant variation will keep me from getting bored!

And one last topic worth noting is miles per week. A fundamental decision in any training plan is how many miles you are willing to run. Naturally the miles dictate how many times per week you run, and can impact fatigue, injury and burnout. While any coach will tell you that more miles generally helps to expedite fitness gains, you also have to play to your strengths. Some of us battle injury and cannot take on too many miles.  Many of us have too much going on in life to over commit to running. The limiting factor for me came down to the reality that the Colorado Marathon, while important, is not my goal race for the year. And I don't have a lot of time to recover after the marathon before starting a rigorous training plan for the Leadville Trail 100.  With that in mind, I opted for a conservative 55 mile per week plan. I need to stay fresh and versatile as I work towards my "A" goal for the season.

Day	Miles	Notes
Monday	11	Bear Peak 3200 Vertical
Tuesday	7	Easy pace
Wednesday	Rest	x-training
Thursday	11	GA pace
Friday	6	Recovery pace
Saturday	17	Easy pace
Sunday	5	Easy pace
Total	57	About 6500 vertical feet gained