ATTQOTD: I kinda wing it.
Ok, not really, but I never really seem to have a clear plan, at least not since 2015, when I was following the Galloway plans for Tink and W&D.
In 2016, I tried to use a modified Higdon plan for my spring races, I think it was one of the lower intermediate ones that was a 4x a week plan. I dropped one of the days because I only wanted to do 3 days since I was used to that with Galloway. I don't think it was the plan's fault that I had issues for my 3 spring half marathons. The first one was in mid-May, and I didn't do well at all. It got really hot very fast after an unseasonably cold spring (temps in the 80's when they hadn't been much out of the 40's leading up) and I had been nursing a sore achilles for 3 weeks prior that started during a 10 mile race that I did for a training run. Looking at my Strava it is not any surprise that I tweaked my achilles really, I apparently skipped a lot of week day runs in the weeks leading up to the race. Like, just about all of them. Looking at the time when I am pretty sure I started the plan, in the 10 weeks leading up to and including the 10 miler, I only ran the Saturday long run for 7 of those weeks. Two of the weeks I ran one weekday run of ~2.5, and one of the weeks I did not run at all.
I don't remember skipping that many, but Strava does not lie I guess. It is no wonder my spring did not go so hot that year. I do know I was spinning 2x a week at that time at least, so I wasn't completely inactive. I hadn't started tracking spinning with Strava then.
So the May race was tough, and I was undertrained due to the above, and I blew up and had a 3:05:xx. I had been planning to run 11 and 12 miles in the weeks after the 10 mile race leading up to the HM with no taper, because I had 3 HMs on my calendar in May, June, July. But I scrapped that due to my achilles and only ran shorter distances 4x over the 3 weeks. The June race was the one I was kind of targetting to try and PR, and the others were there because I like doing races and I was trying to qualify for Half Fanatics, which I'd missed the previous fall due to W&D being shortened. I had 3 weeks in between May and June races, and ran 4x total again. The June race actually went pretty well despite the pouring rain, up until about mile 9-10. I just was too undertrained. I had been hoping to PR (2:45) and ended up 2:50:xx, so considering my poop training, not too bad. It is still my 2nd best HM out of 9. Then I had a month until the July race, I ran like 5x total in those weeks, and ended up more of the same... it was raining and chilly, I was undertrained, the late race got real tough, and I ended up 3:00:xx.
After that disastrous spring, I started thinking about what I wanted to do for fall 2016. I had 2 HM scheduled for the fall, late October and 3 weeks later in November. I decided to do Higdon again, but I used his HM3 plan, which was an actual 3 day a week plan. It really wasn't that different than what I had been doing anyways, although I made my first attempt at trying to do tempo runs and stuff. It didn't go so well because at the time I was still doing run/walk intervals and I just found it too hard to figure out paces when I was running and walking. I did train more consistently, though, at least 2 days every week and sometimes actually even doing the 3! The October race went pretty well, but I still felt bad in the late race. The Higdon plan had topped out at 10 miles I think, and judging by my Strava I didn't plan my route well or something because it shows 9.7. Then I ran 2x total over the next 3 weeks and had a pretty miserable second HM.
After that one I did some reflecting and realized I needed some accountability in my running. I just didn't seem to do well sticking to training that year left to my own devices. I did ok in 2015... maybe because I was going to Disney, not just local races? Whatever it was, I knew I needed to get more consistency, so I went way out of my comfort zone and joined my running group Thanksgiving week 2016. I was injured (bulging disc/sciatic issue) for about 5 months in 2017, and lost a lot of fitness. But my running group does a HM in the fall and our coaches have their own time-based training plan. I was skeptical, because I knew that my issues in 2016 had all revolved around not running long enough in either of the 2 Higdon plans... I just didn't have enough for the distance in me. Some people say oh 10 miles is plenty for a HM training plan, but I am either not one of those people that is fine, or I need to be more consistent and run the other 2-3 days a week along with it for 10 miles to be enough. I managed to hit 10 miles during our time-based training plan barely (our last 130 min run I kept going until I hit 10, it took me like another 7 min). My fall HM was pretty miserable. It was Halloween weekend and we had a cold monsoon thing. It poured the entire race and was very chilly. I never felt great, but again hit a wall around 9-10 miles and I think walked more than I ran the last 5K. One thing I can say though is that I was finally consistent in my training since I was training with the group! I ran all 3 days of the group training every week of the 12 weeks except during the taper. I skipped one taper run the week before the race. But I expected that my slow speed coming back from my injury would result in a time based plan not being the greatest for me, and I was right. I should have added some time to some of those longer runs after we finished, but man it is really hard to go back and run more after finishing up with the group and stiffening up.
WOW that was long! So where am I now? I have a HM scheduled again for mid-May, so I need to figure out what do about a training again pretty soon! My running group only officially trains for a HM in the fall, although at least one person is also doing the May HM. I still struggle with running without stopping, although I'm trying to get away from Galloway intervals and only stop and walk occasionally (I had been eliminating it earlier last year but went back to them when I was coming back from my injury) and between the injury last year and love of food have packed on some extra lbs the past year that are not doing my running any favors. I have thought about trying a
@DopeyBadger plan since everyone seems to have success with it, but I feel like kind of a square peg in a round hole... I have problems hitting paces due to stopping and walking, I run with a group 2x a week so I have kind of a fixed run time/distance/pace on 2 of those days (although the Saturday one is easier to add time to, and I'm quite often the slowest, so the pace is either me alone or someone hanging back with me), and I'm going to be starting at Orangetheory when they open up in early March for some extra running and cross training. Once they open, ideally what I'm hoping to do is run 3x a week and do OTF 2-3x a week, maybe subbing OTF for regular runs in case of yucky weather, although since they don't open until March, I need to start doing more at my regular gym until then. I'm really hoping that I can get it together for this spring season and gain enough fitness and lose some lbs so that I don't have such a bad time again this fall.
maybe next year, LOL!
