Making changes.

Ok, so obviously I am failing at my resolution to post more regularly here.  Good thing there are 49 weeks left this year for me to get my act together.

Anyway, let's just be honest... a big part of the reason I haven't been posting is because there isn't much to post.  I haven't been running as much as I should be, and when I am, I'm definitely not following my training plan.  Some of the missed runs couldn't be avoided - I had a little health issue pop up that meant I couldn't sweat for a few days (all is 100% fine now) and I had to work late a few times to get caught up from the holidays.  That's all good.  It happens.  But there were definitely times when I could have gone for a run, but I chose not to, even though, as stupid as it sounds, I actually wanted to go.   

The truth is that I kinda hate my training plan.  I'm not a high mileage runner and I'm not an every day runner.  That is the part that I got right when I made this plan.  What I got wrong was scheduling every single run as an intense run in order to make up for the lack of mileage.  I mean, this week, I had myself scheduled for 800 repeats, a 5 mi progression run, a 10k race, and 4 mi pace run.  While I'm sure there are tons of runners out there who wouldn't flinch at that, it's way too much for me.  No wonder I don't want to go do that and no wonder that my legs still feel beat up all the time.  Of course, I could've just disregarded the plan and gone anyway, and I have done that several times, but then I feel guilty, like I'm not doing what I should.  That is stupid.  I made the plan for myself; I can change it.

So.  The plan has changed.  I had been playing around with the Runner's World Smart Coach tool, and then Kate wrote a post last week about how it has worked for her, so I took that as a sign that I should give it a try for these last 6 weeks.  It scares me a little bit because I feel like it's a LOT less, but it also sounds kinda nice that I will only have to do one longer-ish weekday run AND Sunday is back to being a rest day, so I feel like I have a little bit of freedom back in my weekends too.  As always, I tweaked the plan a little bit (i.e. 10K this weekend, a trip to Florida, etc.), but I think this is going to be much better.  I'm not convinced I'm going to be able to run a 9:02 pace on race day (too many hills!) but this was never meant to be a PR attempt, so that's fine.

Here is the new plan:

	Mon	Tues	Wed	Thurs	Fri	Sat	Sun
1 Jan. 21-27	Rest	3 mi easy	5 mi w/ 3mi @ 8:54	3 mi easy	Rest	Red Shoe 10K	XT
2 Jan. 28-3	3 mi easy	Rest/XT	1 mi + 2x1600 @ 8:23 + 1mi	3 mi easy	Rest/XT	8 mi easy	Rest/XT
3 Feb. 4-10	3 mi easy	Rest/XT	5 mi w/ 3 mi @ 8:53	3 mi easy	Rest/XT	9 mi easy	Rest/XT
4 Feb. 11-17	4 mi easy	Rest/XT	4 mi easy	Rest/XT	3 mi easy	6 mi easy	Rest/XT
5 Feb. 18-24	3 mi easy	Rest/XT	5 mi w/ 3 @ 8:49	3 mi easy	Rest/XT	10 mi easy	Rest/XT
6 Feb. 25-3	3 mi easy	Rest/XT	1 mi + 2x1600 @ 8:18 + 1 mi	3 mi easy	Rest/XT	11 mi easy	Rest/XT
7 Mar. 4-10	3 mi easy	3 mi easy	1 mi + 1x1600 @ 8:16 + 1mi	Rest	Rest	RACE DAY!

Like I said, not a lot of miles at all, and a definite decrease in the intensity, but also something that feels much more doable for me.  I'm actually excited about it instead of feeling nothing but dread and guilt.

Today was a planned rest day because I went to Barre on Saturday and did 6 easy miles yesterday (i.e. at about 10:20 pace as prescribed by the Smart Coach).  The flat parts of that run were definitely very easy and I had to fight to stay slow.  But the hilly parts - holy crap - I definitely had to fight for the pace on those.  

I'm not sure how I'm going to be able to run a similar course for twice as long and about a 90s faster per mile (which is what Smart Coach assures me I will be able to do), but I guess we'll find out!