Take It and Run Thursday-- The best-laid plans...

I've trained for two marathons and used two different plans. For my first marathon, I used my own modification of Hal Higdon's intermediate training plan. I don't know what gave me the idea that I was had the kind of knowledge necessary to allow myself to modify his plan, but I did it anyway. I mainly changed the order of the workouts within a single week (moving the long runs to Saturday, for example), and substituted a second day of cross-training for one of the runs. Once my 3yo got put in a body cast and I wasn't able to get to the gym anymore, I also ended up doing shorter versions of the mid-week longer run. I got through the marathon, but came in about 20 minutes past my goal time, but I was also running sick, so I don't want to knock Hal and blame him for my sub-par performance.

This time around I've been using the FIRST to the Finish program by the Furman Institute. There are only three runs per week, which I really like, but they're hard runs. The speedwork is especially killer. I thought I might keel over this Monday when I had 8x800s at a 10mph pace on the schedule. Since pacing has always been an issue for me, I like that the FIRST program focuses on paces for each run. I know exactly how fast to set my treadmill for a middle-distance tempo run, for example. My main worry with this program is how it will translate to running outside, since I tend to do a lot of my runs on the treadmill at the gym, where I can send my kids to the child watch. I've also opted to do a "hill" run on one of the designated rest days. I run at sea level, where it's flat as a pancake, and the Country Music Marathon has a reputation for being somewhat hilly. I'm tapering now, but hoping to find a place nearby where I can do one of my last two long runs where there are natural hills, instead of the artifical ones my treadmill creates for me. I'll let you all know how I like this plan in a couple of weeks.