David's Blog

Yesterday I \[grudgingly\] took a day off of running. After waking up this morning I’m not sure that it really made a difference but we shall see tonight when I run. This was the first day I took off in the month and a half+ since I began training again. The hope is that I’ll be fresh enough this week to up my mileage after having 2 weeks of slow, bad runs and feeling on the edge of injury.

I have a number of goals for the coming few months which I have sort of referred to previously. This is my attempt at formalizing these goals and outlining roughly how I plan to get there.

In the immediate term (meaning the next 2-3 months) there are a number of races I’d like to  do and a certain level of training I’d like to be at by the end of this time. I don’t think any of the following is too unreasonable but I am definitely open to suggestions.

This week I plan on increasing my weekly mileage to 40 miles a week. Three weeks ago I hit 38 miles (maybe earlier than I planned on) and the previous two weeks have been 33 and most recently 29 miles. 40 miles, while not nearly what I hope to top out at, is a good place to maintain training as I get back into racing and more frequently do workouts. Additionally I plan on racing the [Shamrocks and Shenanigans 5k](http://www.runshamrocks.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=23&Itemid=42)this Sunday.

Where am I going with all of this?

Essentially, there are a number of races I’d like to be in between now and the end of April and I’d also like to begin increasing my milage again around the end of April. It is my thinking that while 40 miles isn’t \that\** much, it should be enough to have a solid running base in me and begin my journey into regaining some real speed.

I’ve said before that my two big running goals currently are running a sub-17 min 5k and just racing a full marathon. My target marathon is the first ever Ann Arbor Marathon in the middle of June. In order to reach both of these goals I need to increase training volume by June and increase intensity so I can build speed.

I think that it is doable (by no means optimal) to race this marathon in June if I am able to increase my mileage to 50 mpw by the end of April and maybe even hit 60 before June. I’ll be spending my time between now and the end of April focusing on doing more workouts and definitely more races (almost one every 2 weeks between now and then):

• Already mentioned [Shamrocks and Shenanigans](http://www.runshamrocks.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=23&Itemid=42) this weekend (5k)
• Potentially [Pantanal in the Arb III](http://www.pantanalcer.org/arb-run) March 25th (or another race around that time) (5k)
• Meteor 10k at the Martian Festival of Races April 14th (beginning to race higher distances in preparation for the marathon)
• Maybe another race between the 25th and April 14th...

After that time I think I’ll plan just 1, maybe 2, races in May and then focus entirely on the two big races I have planned in June. I’ll be focusing on increasing my training volume from 40 mpw to maybe 60 by the first weeks of June before the Marathon.

I’ll be racing the Dexter-Ann Arbor Half-Marathon (I [ran the 5k](http://davidwilemski.com/blog/2011/06/race-report-dexter-ann-arbor-5k/ "Race Report: Dexter-Ann Arbor 5K") last year). I see this as a chance to see where I’m at two weeks before the Marathon. It will be my first half and should be a good gauge for my marathon training. I don’t really plan on racing it all out but I will say that I’m hoping for somewhere in 1:30 - 1:35 by that time. After this race I’ll be just holding steady until racing my first marathon just a few weeks later. The main goal is to finish but the competitive part of me also wants to do well. I’m thinking that maybe a target of around 3:30 is reasonable, but we shall see. If I can do better than that, great - otherwise I’ll just focus on finishing. I’m really looking forward to this. I don’t really plan on focusing on marathons after this, it’s just a goal to see how far I can push myself. Maybe I’ll try and qualify for Boston one day but I’m not too concerned about it.

Assuming I can get through all of this without any major issues and no injuries (something I’m being very cautious about), I’ll have completed one of my two big running goals\! How will I complete the other? Well, I won’t plan specifics now but in general I’ll spend the rest of June recovering and building mileage back to whatever I was at before the marathon and will hopefully be racing again around the end of June.

I’ll reevaluate when the time comes and decide on a more concrete and specific training and race schedule after what I’ve just outlined. I plan on topping out at 70 miles a week and hopefully with that and some intense speed work I’ll be putting up some fast 5k times once again by this fall\!

Now back to the daily training\!