Weekly Running Update: Jan 5th, 2014

I’ve noticed that my blog has been too much into travel and not enough on running. Going forward, I will be posting once a week on Sunday on my running in the past week. It going to gloss over my training strategy for any upcoming race.

As I ran a few marathons in November, I spent Thanksgiving and the first half of December resting. My hamstrings were still a bit tight from Chicago marathon and hadn’t really healed yet.

I knew that I had to start training for the Hong Kong Marathon in Mid February. I am not looking to get a good time, just to finish with some margin. There is an approximately 5hr limit on the marathon and they are strict on the cutoff. They have a few different roadblocks in case you don’t meet the time. They’re serious about it too.

Before Christmas, I spent a few days running about 6 miles a day and took two days off for Christmas eve and Christmas. Afterwards, I ran 6 miles a day for 5 days, with a 12 mile run in the middle. My leg didn’t feel better but I started stretching it after each run. Now its feeling much better so I’m going to continue the training.

Last week:

I ran 12 miles Saturday, and 6 miles Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday. I wanted to get some training for Antarctica, so I ran 14 miles Friday. Most of the roads had 1/2″ to an inch of snow and was 10F with -7F windchill. These conditions are a bit colder than what they advertise for the Antarctica Marathon. I wanted some practice running on snow. I’m fairly sure the road conditions in Antarctica would be better with packed snow instead of just the soft snow I was dealing with in Boston.

Training program:

I’m not following any program. My main goal is to run 6 miles 4-5 times a week and then a long run once a week. This should be enough to build a base and finish the HK marathon. Hopefully in mid March when I get back from Antarctica I can start mixing in some speed and hill workouts to get a new PR sometime in the fall.

I’m not following a set schedule as I have a few mileage run on the weekends. I’m going to keep my long runs either Friday night or Thursday night and then having shorter runs on the weekends. I’ll slowly shift my schedule for the HK marathon, which is a Sunday.