Halfway Point Plan Adjustment (1/18/08)

For a few reasons, I wanted to take a closer look at the remaining weeks of the plan and make some adjustments. A few weeks back I made a change to spread my mid week miles during the Endurance Phase to be shorter in distance, but run more of them, without much change to overall mileage. At this point in the plan, I am pleased to see that I have completed 96% of the total planned mileage.

Looking ahead, I don’t think its smart to be only running three times a week. It will be better to have at least four runs per week. After the mixed results from my 17 miler, I did some more reading and evaluation of my own plan. My general conclusion is that I need to add more miles to the plan. In particular, I need to add significant miles to the Speed Phase.

The first step is to plan my remaining Long Runs and then build around that. My original plan had three more in the Endurance Phase (19, 21 and 23). I know I need a break and will replace one of these Long Runs with a faster weekend workout. I also had one Long Run in the middle of the Speed Phase (23) and another final Long Run (20) at the start of my taper, three weeks before the race. The original plan had 4 runs of 20 miles or more.

After my last Long Run, I gave much thought to giving myself a break from the weekend grind. My decision is to actually increase the length of my next Long Run to 20 miles, then take a one week break from Long Runs and finish the Endurance Phase with a 22 miler. I wouldn’t let myself take a break after a bad run.

In the Speed Phase, I’m going to skip Long Runs altogether. My final Long Run will be as I originally planned: at the start of my three week taper. The net result will be a reduction in 20+ runs from four to three. However, the mileage that I added amounts to approximately 70 miles across the remaining weeks. The thought is that the additional miles will help more than the one extra Long Run. Furthermore, a Long Run during the Speed Phase will take away precious weekend time from the track. There is also time set aside for quality Marathon Pace runs.

It might not make sense to go for a 20 miler this coming weekend, but I am eager to reach that milestone and the confidence that it should bring. I plan to watch my pace and fueling better.