Saturday, December 20, 2008

2009 running plans

Let me say in advance that every single one of these is Lord willing. He may have other ideas for me and it is up to Him. I will gladly skip one of these races if I have a new job and can't get the time off.
January- no major races planned but I may take a road trip on MLK weekend and there is a race series near St. Louis. If I do run, I will do so only if the weather cooperates and it will be nothing more than a training run
Feb- big one will be the Mercedes half marathon in Birmingham on 2/15. Until then, it will be mostly long slow miles with an occasional long interval session and tempo effort.
March- Azalea Trail 10K in Mobile on 3/28. The course has been described as "lightning fast" so I will add some more speed to my training in the month leading up to race day but will keep the mileage fairly high. A PR is a good bet.
Apr-May- Fargo marathon on 5/9, back to high mileage before the taper then a rest for the remainder of the month.
Last half of the year- It's too hot to do 18-22 miles in the Alabama heat so I'll be training like a miler over the summer. It's too soon to make any race plans but I will likely focus on local 5Ks and may enter an open track meet. By late fall, I may run another half mary but not another full.
On another note, unlike most other athletes, my running truly has a cause. If it took me 50 minutes to run a 10K and 4 hours 30 minutes to run a marathon, there will not be too many people that will be convinced that my alternative medicine plans really do work. If I come back stronger than ever (40 min. 10K, 3:30 marathon), I just might make others believe. Still, I can't be stupid about pushing too hard and I must remember the priorities listed in an earlier post.

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