Saturday, May 17, 2008

Training Plan

This week I crafted a marathon training plan for my husband. Though we are hardly elite runners, like the couples highlighted in a recent Runner's World article (read it here), our dual participation does give me the opportunity to try out my skills as personal trainer, nutritionist, and coach in addition to the more traditional responsibilities of a wife and mom (chef, chauffer, maid, cruise director, etc.).

I'm a big fan of cross training to prevent boredom and injury. I also encourage running with the jogging stroller to increase strength, but strangely enough, he doesn't seem to prefer that to running alone.

So if you are considering a summer or fall race, my general plan looks something like this:
Sun: off Mon: short run Tues: medium run Wed: XT Thurs: medium run Fri: XT Sat: long run

The actual distances will depend on your experience and the distance of your event: maybe only 12 miles/week for a 5K and up to 40 miles/week or more for a marathon. Your days will depend on your own schedule, but I rarely run two days in a row. You may also choose to include speed work. If you do run with your kids, they can be great coaches too, but I'll save those thoughts for another day.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Jen. Just dropping by to let you know that I added "Blog Mommy Blog" to my Blogroll (of my almost brand new blog).

Thanks to you (or one of the ladies from this site) for popping by my blog yesterday to welcome me to the blogging sisterhood!

I dream of being able to jog / run / do the London Marathon but until I can succeed in losing about half my weight (currently 320 lbs) carrying my own bodyweight is extremely difficult.

But I like reading runner blogs as they inspire me to keep trying!

Best wishes,
Sharon

Crumbs said...

Seems like a great plan. I enjoyed the couples article, too. What a sweet thought, your whole family out there running together.