3 Miles - 3/10

I mentioned previously that this year I was going to give the Jeff Galloway training plan a shot. Although I was pleased with the results of the training plan from coolrunning.com that I followed last year for the half marathon, I like the Galloway one because it seems like it would fit my schedule a bit better.

Training for a long distance event is time consuming. That was one thing I learned from the half marathon last year. Every day had a priority on running - when was I going to get the scheduled run in, how was I going to manage it if I had to travel that week, balancing the run I had to do with other things that needed to be done around the house, etc. While I could do that again this year, I also want to spend more time cycling, as I've found that is a sport that I enjoy as well. Plus, I like the idea of another exercise to accomodate for the imbalance in muscle strength induced by running - which seems to be a major factor in knee injuries, from what I gather.

So, with the Galloway plan, it seems like the emphasis is more on the heavy lifting (the long runs and speed work), being on one of the weekend days. The other weekend day is a running rest day - which allows me the possibility of going for long bike rides if I want. During the week, the runs are on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and anywhere from 30-45 minutes. During these runs, drills such as cadence and hill workouts, are performed.

The nice thing about the runs during the week being on the shorter side is that it also allows me the flexibility to ride my bike to work more often (17 miles each way) - either on the 2 running rest days, or even on days where a run is scheduled. Since the runs aren't extremely intense, I should be able to manage the stamina to do both activities every so often.

So anyway - the point of todays run was to basically follow the idea of the Galloway plan, and just get out there and run - even if its a short distance. To make things a little more interesting, I did it in a fartlek fashion - which means that you simply speed up for a short period of time, followed by a period of rest. It is a type of speed work, but it is not structured.

Total Distance: 3.04 miles
Total Time: 27:16
Avg HR: 159