About My RR USA Half Training Plan

Even though training for the Rock N' Roll USA Half Marathon officially started a few weeks ago, I still wanted to do a post about my training. I didn't stick to a training plan while training for Baltimore and it showed. When I was training for Baltimore I was only concerned with finishing. I didn't really care about what my time would be or what paces I should be training at. While I don't want to put a lot of pressure on myself for this race, I still want to PR in a big way. I really truly believe that I can crush my current PR with some actual training.

I really enjoyed having the ability to look back on the things I did, and didn't do, while training for Baltimore. When I was writing my training plan for this race I wanted to incorporate a lot of cross training. First, I get injured very easily and I really don't want to get injured. Second, I want to also use this time to build a solid base for triathlon training. I also had to really take my class schedule into account. Some days I have class earlier than others and I can only get to the pool on certain days.

So here it is:

• Monday: speed run AM/ long bike PM
• Tuesday: swim & strength AM/ medium bike PM
• Wednesday: tempo run & short bike PM
• Thursday: swim & strength AM/ long run PM
• Friday: rest
• Saturday: rest
• Sunday: easy run & short bike

I decided to stick to four runs a week because any more and my IT band becomes very angry. As for what types of runs, I chose to do a long run, an easy run, a tempo run and a speed run. Originally I wanted to do two easy runs but I opted for only one easy run since four runs a week isn't really that many. I thought doing two hard runs a week would help build strength and increase speed. My main goal for my runs during this training cycle is to hit all of my long runs. I am aiming for between 8-12 miles. I didn't do runs that long last time it really hurt me in the end.

I also decided on biking four days a week. I am not an experienced cyclist and need to work on this leg the most. I don't have many guidelines for my rides, it is all about spending time in the saddle and getting used to being back on the bike. I have a longish ride planned for Monday nights and I want to do some interval work since I am such a slow cyclist but other than that my rides will probably be at a pretty easy pace and used for recovery.

I knew I wanted to do a few days of swimming a week so that I would be able to take advantage of my experience in the pool come tri season. Since I have two scheduled swims a week I want to do one as a recovery and technique swim and the other as a speed workout. Swimming will be the least important part of my training though. Swimming is what I am best at and I know that I can still do well in a tri with minimal time in the pool. 

The part I am most excited about is actually strength training. I only lifted weight while swimming during my last year but I saw an insane amount of improvement. Not to mention how much strength training helps prevent injuries. I will focus on upper body one day and lower body on the other day. And I won't be able to start strength training until I go back to school at the end of January.

Not written into my schedule is yoga and Insanity. I want to try to go to yoga once a week but I don't know what the spring schedule is yet. I wanted to be able to do Insanity regularly but I just don't have enough time. In the end I decided on using Insanity as cross training if I miss a run. For example, if I am unable to do my tempo run for some reason I will do an Insanity workout instead.