Oh Lord. Every time I look at this blog, I sort of sigh. It’s always so long between posts. But, since blogging is part of my real job at SeenON.com, it’s hard to muster much enthusiasm. However, as my training for the Nike Women’s Marathon starts to pick up, I’m sure there will be more injured toes, more sore muscles, and more training triumphs to blog about.
So what sort of training plan am I using? Last year for the Chicago Marathon, I more or less took plans from a bunch of different sources and made up my own. This year, though, I am going to more or less loosely follow the Nike Intermediate training plan, located here, and the Lasso intermediate training plan I just found in Runner’s World. Lasso’s is less running overall, which makes me happy, but I like the consistency of the Nike plan.
Regardless, I am going to try to do a few things differently this year. First of all, I am going to try to strength train more often in the first half of the training. This will include some upper body strength training (pushups and the like) as well as some hard hill runs in the middle of the week. I am going to leave the speedwork to the second half of my training plan so I don’t get bored.
In general, I’ll be logging about 25-40 miles a week, which is only slightly more than my normal current training. (Usually 3-4 runs during the week from 4-6 miles, and another 9-12 miler on the weekend.) The main difference is going to be the strength (a challenge when I get super-tuckered in the middle of marathon training) and the hill work. (Unlike Chicago, this marathon will be hilly!) I will be doing my long runs with the Nike group at Marina Green like last year, and keep up my post-run dips in the SF Bay. I’m not sure if I’ll set a goal time this year or not – probably will decide when I get some longer-than-14-mile runs under my belt.
I haven’t run longer than 13 for many months (probably since Chicago) so I am looking forward to the challenge. But first, a fabulous trip to Thailand and Cambodia, where I will probably not run all that much. 
