I have been training for a race that is coming up on April 4th called the Lincoln Memorial Half-Marathon. I consider it special because this year is the bicentennial of President Abraham Lincoln's birth. As I am in the process of training I have let my training plan become more of a "what do I need to do today?" plan and have combined this with changing other things as well.
First, I made a change in the time of day that I train. Before, I would get home from work and go meet a group of people and just run the same four miles every Tuesday and Thursday evening. This was great for socializing and helping to push myself faster while with other people. The down-side was that I found it somewhat hard to focus and push myself during a race. I also changed to running in the morning so that I could have more time in the evenings for family and baby prep classes.
Second, I am following a plan from Runners World's Smart Coach that makes things a lot easier by automatically adjusting a training plan to meet your abilities. I have tried using the FIRST plan before, but found Smart Coach easier to use because it did all of the time calculations for you and inserted them into the plan. It is not a big difference, but seemed helpful to me. The biggest change to running plans was that I am actually following the plan. Before, I would do the three token runs and call every other day a rest day when it should have actually been some sort of cross-training. This time I get up every weekday morning early to workout either by running or doing Yoga. So, yes, I am actually doing the cross training this time with only using Saturday as a full rest day. Trying to do Yoga in the morning, on carpet, trying to not to fall while doing a Warrior three pose can be difficult. Especially before the morning coffee.
Lastly, I am trying out ChiRunning. It is an adjustment in how you run and land on your foot. Most people land on their heel, roll through, and toe off. I haven't really had a problem with the way I was running, but have read that landing mid-foot is better in many aspects. The two that stand out to me are not putting on the brakes with every stride and being easier on the body as a whole. Putting on the brakes, as I define it, is landing on the heel, which slows you down, before you push off with your toes after the roll across the mid-foot. ChiRunning develops landing on the mid-foot which eliminates braking. Braking also adds to the wear and tear of joints from the foot up.
Overall, this has been a training period of changes. Hopefully, these changes will allow for a better experience for my family, with more evening time, and for me, with fewer injuries and better running times. I guess I will just have to wait and see how things transpire, but I consider my efforts to be headed in the right direction.
*President Lincoln received an Honorary Doctor of Laws in 1864 from Princeton.
A GREAT April: a Month in Review
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