Napa Valley Marathon Training Plan

I am officially registered for the Napa Valley Marathon and there isn’t a Half course to bail out on so I actually have to be prepared to run 26.2 miles on March 6, 2011.  I’m pretty excited to run this race because the course is beautiful (and relatively flat) and they keep the field small (only 2,300 runners).  Now, it’s time to think about training and injury prevention.

After some research and a recommendation from one of my running coaches, I decided that the FIRST marathon training program is the ideal plan for me.   Each week, the plan calls for a track workout, a tempo run, a long run, and three cross-training workouts.   I like FIRST because the emphasis on cross-training will allow me to maintain some swimming and cycling fitness so I won’t be back at square one when tri season starts.

I have a couple weeks before I officially start the training program, but I am already following the prescribed weekly schedule for my base fitness training.

Who else is running a marathon in the spring?  What training plans are you using?

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Time to Catch Up

Wow, it’s been a REALLY long time since my last post.  A lot has happened in the last few months, so here is a brief synopsis…

During the summer, I took a break from running for a while to give my foot a chance to heal.  To compensate, I started riding a lot more and joined my local Masters team to improve my swimming.

On August 15, I completed the 65 mile Tour d’Organics course in Sonoma County.  Ben was unable to join me, but I didn’t have to ride solo for very long because a very nice group of ladies from one of the South Bay tri clubs invited me to join them.  If you have the opportunity, I highly recommend participating in this event.  The scenery was beautiful and the food was delicious.  My favorite stop had to be Dry Creek Peaches, where we were served yellow and white peaches fresh from the tree.  I am considering the 100 mile course for next year.

When I started running again, it took a few weeks to get back into the groove.  At first, it was a struggle to do a slow 2-miler without having to take a walk break.  After my endurance started to return, I signed up for a couple of local races.  On September 12, I ran the Walnut Festival 10K as part of my 12 mile LSD run (though I did end up pushing the pace during the race portion of my run).  I also ran Primo’s Half Marathon on 10-10-10 and was very pleased when I finished 11 minutes ahead of my previous PR.

I just registered for the Napa Valley Marathon on March 6, 2011 so I’ll be discussing my training plan in the next post.