Training Plan

We ran with the St Croix Valley Runners, 7:00 am Saturday at Stillwater’s Northland Tennis Courts, as we usually do when we’re in town. I ran the 3.5-mile loop and added a little, making it 3.8 miles, in 46:41, for a pace of 12:17, plenty fast. I ran about 15 seconds of each minute, but more if it was uphill.

We’re developing a plan for the next seven weeks leading up to the Anchorage Marathon. I’ll try to follow these guidelines:

• About 24 total miles per Sat - Fri week, but not more than 30 in any contiguous seven days.
• Extend the longest run in each week from 6.5 (last week), ramping up to 16 or 18 miles two weeks from the marathon.
• No running the day before or the day after any run eight miles or longer.
• Keep the speed down. Running 15 seconds of each minute gives enough speed - no need to increase it.
• Do not enter any races. The temptation to go fast is simply too great. Sigh.
• Taper the last two weeks.

Whining: Just the usual slight ache in the region of the hernia surgery today. It’s almost seven weeks now since the deed was done, and there is still a small scab remaining at the incision, but that will be gone soon. My fingers can feel a hardness right under the incision, but nothing unusual farther north where the actual patch was placed along the abdominal muscles. No other pains.

Life is good. It’s a masterpiece.

This "tropical beach" is actually in Pennsylvania. Care to guess where in Pennsylvania?  Clue: We ran a marathon there: