The October "schedule"

Ok, so calling it a “schedule” is probably not entirely accurate because I am notoriously bad about working on schedules.  That’s part of the reason why I don’t like to run with groups.  The way I see it, running at 5:00am is no better than running at 7:00am, so why the hell get up 2 hours early on a Saturday just to run?  The problem is that most runners get up at 5:00am on Saturday to start their day running because, as far as I can tell, they are completely off their nut.

 

The goals for October:  150 total miles (66 for the month) and drop 13 lbs.  I may get some cycling in, but it’ll be hard to budget time for that.

 

 

To accomplish this I have tentatively mapped out what I thought was a rather pedestrian (giggle) October schedule as far as distances go, but ambitious in the sheer volume of work days versus off days.

A typical week (starting on a typical Monday) will look like this:

M: 3.5 AM, 0 pm

TU:  off

W:  3.5 AM, 1.5 speed pm

TH:  6.0  PM

F:  0 AM, 3 easy, plus 1 speed  PM

SA:  10, 11, or 13 miles AM (long run day)

SU:  off

 

That’s around 30 miles for the typical week.  Nothing spectacular, yet, and I’m good with that.  There will also be 2 races on the docket, the 10 for Texas on the 10^th, and the Koala Fitness half marathon on the 25^th.  Calling it a “half marathon” makes it sound so much more daunting than merely 13.1 miles.  I wonder why that is.  This half marathon is the first of 3 tune up races.  Back in 2006 I ran my first half marathon distance in November.  How I do on the 10 and 11 mile runs will determine whether or not I’m going to enter the 13 mile run at the end of October, but it is an excellent target to shoot for.

 

If I take only a week off during October, I still will have run 100 miles for the month, more than passing my 150 total mile mark that I want to hit.  I also have the freedom within the schedule to cut the longer runs short—convert a 11 mile day into an 8 mile day, or a 6 into 3.5—but that needs to not happen simply because I need to get my miles in, even if they are junk miles.