Time To Get A Little More Serious With This Thing Called Training.

What a great past few weeks it has been.  The Spring season has definitely lifted the spirits that a long Winter tried to damper.  Over the past two weeks there has been a lot of racing and planning going on.  I along with a group of fellow runner's ran the Clinton Country Run (a group of 3 races 1 mile, 5K and 15K) this past Saturday and an even bigger contingent ran in the Lehigh Valley 1/2 Marathon (I believe it is officially the St. Lukes 1/2 Marathon now, but old habits die hard I guess!)  It was a great weekend from both a intra... and inter...personal standpoint.  I felt strong during my own 15K on Saturday even with the light training effort I have put fourth over the past month, but more importantly I got a ton of inspiration from my wife, Renee, and the other amazing individuals I get to call teammates on our PACER Team.  I won't go back and recap the events, but if you are interested in more check out these blogs to get the run down...

          Lindsay's Blog: Don't forget the sunscreen

          Eric's Blog: Do Unto Other's

          Mike's Blog: Final Prep and a little motivation.....6 days before lift off

"the timeline"

Getting back to the statement I made regarding my lackluster training, it has been exactly that since the bridge run over a month ago now.  Part of my dilemma, like so many of us, I didn't have a clear plan...at least that was until I sat down and sketched out my race schedule.  But like many things in life once you solve one dilemma you are often presented with another.  In planning out my event schedule (a very good thing) I came to realize that the races through September to November are pretty close together.  As for training this will make me have to sit back and think a bit in order to work out exactly how to advance my progression so that I can achieve a few key elements...

1. Stay injury free while holding as true as I can to "The Ladder".

2. Build speed work into ultra training.  (in my last ultra, I could run far, but I was slooooow!)

3. Peak for and run a PR in the marathon while being sure my mileage is on track to run a 50 miler.

***Note to self and to readers***  I am not committed to the 50 mile ultra just yet, definitely to the 50K, but many times I get ahead of myself and require a little talking down off the ledge from Renee who reminds me where I left the part of my brain with the  "reasoning" capabilities!  Need to see how the next month goes before I commit.

4. If the 50 miler is in the cards...how to best peak for it so that I can best my previous 50 mile ultra finish.

I haven't worked it all out yet, but will be completing the work on what looks to be a 7 month training plan this week and will hopefully have it for you all to peruse next week. 

In the meantime, I've got a trail half marathon this weekend.  Here's the info in case anyone wants to join me...NJ Trail Series: Lewis Morris Park.  I'm using this as a training run so it should be a nice relaxed day.

Before I wrap this up I just want to officially say "GOOD LUCK!" to Mike Eisenhart who is currently in transit to St. George, Utah to compete in his first Ironman Triathlon "Ironman St. George".  If you have followed his blog, you know he is ready!  Be sure and become a fan of Pro-Activity's Facebook page to follow his progress this weekend, It's going to be exciting!

Time to get back to work on that training plan!