I've been spending a lot of time obsessing over the numbers these past few days: the numbers associated with my 50k training, or lack thereof. I'm trying to decide if I should just push through and DO IT, despite my lack of training, or if I should drop to the 25k distance on race day and do a race that's a little bit more "my speed". (If anyone reading this has advice either way, I would love to hear it!!!)
A little bit about my plan
If you've trained for a marathon before, or looked into it, you probably came across one or more Hal Higdon training plans, among others. For the 4 marathons I've done, I used his "Novice Supreme" training plan, available here. It's free and available on the internet, pretty much my requirements for a training plan.
When it came to 50k training, I had some trouble finding a plan that was - what I considered to be - my level. Lots of them include strength training, or hill repeats, or timed runs, or whatever else and I really just kind of wanted guidance on mileage. Period. Keep in mind, my only goal is to finish, I have no goals or expectations of what time I should finish in (other than under the 13-hour time limit of the race itself). So getting faster isn't really a goal, I just need to finish. Run, crawl, walk, whatever. What I ended up doing was taking the Hal Higdon plan and working the math, increasing the mileage proportionally to the distance I wanted to do, and just calculated a new plan in Excel. So a 1.5 mi run became a 1.8 mi run, a 5 mi run became a 5.9 mi run, etc. This method certainly has its flaws, like the ridiculous Wednesday runs that get up into double digits around week 25, but it was just mileage. Pretty simple!
Wellllllllll... Now the problem is actually adhering to it. The training plan is 30 weeks long, which is on the long side for training plans, and required me to start training back in May for a race on December 1st. Thankfully and obviously, the mileage is low at the beginning so I can run on the treadmill and not go totally crazy. I've been obsessing over the numbers, and here's what the first 10 weeks looked like:
Okay, so that's about 77% of the miles I was supposed to do. This particular segment of the plan didn't worry me, it's the dead of summer and it's super hot ALL day long, I figured I could pick up the mileage later in the year/plan when the weather cools off. Then, I calculated the next group of ten weeks:
Well... That's concerning but not as bad as I thought it would be. At least I went up in weekly mileage! And I'm doing about 2/3 of what I am supposed to be doing. I could still probably squeak out a 50k if I kept up that rate. Although not quite the same, I calculated the averages for both the plan and my actual for weeks 21-23, taking me up through Sunday 10/14:
A little bit about my plan
If you've trained for a marathon before, or looked into it, you probably came across one or more Hal Higdon training plans, among others. For the 4 marathons I've done, I used his "Novice Supreme" training plan, available here. It's free and available on the internet, pretty much my requirements for a training plan.
When it came to 50k training, I had some trouble finding a plan that was - what I considered to be - my level. Lots of them include strength training, or hill repeats, or timed runs, or whatever else and I really just kind of wanted guidance on mileage. Period. Keep in mind, my only goal is to finish, I have no goals or expectations of what time I should finish in (other than under the 13-hour time limit of the race itself). So getting faster isn't really a goal, I just need to finish. Run, crawl, walk, whatever. What I ended up doing was taking the Hal Higdon plan and working the math, increasing the mileage proportionally to the distance I wanted to do, and just calculated a new plan in Excel. So a 1.5 mi run became a 1.8 mi run, a 5 mi run became a 5.9 mi run, etc. This method certainly has its flaws, like the ridiculous Wednesday runs that get up into double digits around week 25, but it was just mileage. Pretty simple!
Wellllllllll... Now the problem is actually adhering to it. The training plan is 30 weeks long, which is on the long side for training plans, and required me to start training back in May for a race on December 1st. Thankfully and obviously, the mileage is low at the beginning so I can run on the treadmill and not go totally crazy. I've been obsessing over the numbers, and here's what the first 10 weeks looked like:
| Average weekly mileage, first 10 weeks of the plan | Actual average weekly mileage, first 10 weeks |
|---|---|
| 12.56 | 9.69 |
Okay, so that's about 77% of the miles I was supposed to do. This particular segment of the plan didn't worry me, it's the dead of summer and it's super hot ALL day long, I figured I could pick up the mileage later in the year/plan when the weather cools off. Then, I calculated the next group of ten weeks:
| Average weekly mileage, weeks 11-20 of the plan | Actual average weekly mileage, weeks 11-20 |
|---|---|
| 21.43 | 14.22 |
Well... That's concerning but not as bad as I thought it would be. At least I went up in weekly mileage! And I'm doing about 2/3 of what I am supposed to be doing. I could still probably squeak out a 50k if I kept up that rate. Although not quite the same, I calculated the averages for both the plan and my actual for weeks 21-23, taking me up through Sunday 10/14:
| Average weekly mileage, weeks 21-23 of the plan | Actual average weekly mileage, weeks 21-23 |
|---|---|
| 33.60 | 12.50 😂 |
Whoopsie! That's not the way that was supposed to go for me! Why is it so low? A couple of reasons, but mainly I almost never hit the required miles during the weekdays. I could come a lot closer to doing say, 5 miles on a Tuesday, back when I was faster and in better shape. These days, 5 miles will take me at least an hour on the treadmill and even longer if I'm out on the trail. I don't usually have an entire uninterrupted hour to spare after work, so I just run as many miles as I can in the time that I have. And there's no way I can do 8, 9, 10 miles on Wednesdays even when I was fast, so I just run for whatever time I have available.
via me.me
With the exception of, I think, three Saturdays (so far), I've been able to keep up the distance of the long runs. But I am dreading all of the long runs coming next, with a little more than 14 miles due this Saturday. I was supposed to do 19 last Saturday and I did a little over 7, ha! I also lost my main running buddy, she is on the injured reserve list, so I have to find the will to do a lot of these miles BY MYSELF. 7 miles by yourself is one thing... double digits when it's still dark outside is another. I know people do it all the time but, I'm either too old for that or just don't care enough anymore.
Let's just say that dropping from the 50k to the 25k is a very strong possibility. I have about 6 more weeks to decide. Eek!
via me.me
Let's just say that dropping from the 50k to the 25k is a very strong possibility. I have about 6 more weeks to decide. Eek!
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