And the winner is....

This past week I finally committed to a training plan. I had a realization during a run where it hit me that no matter what plan I pick, I will run a great marathon. I don't know why I was so indecisive for so long, but I know myself, and know that I once I commit to something, I give it my all. I also know that I am in probably the best shape of my life in terms of running. While I have had some taper and recovery periods after races, I basically haven't stopped running since the last Chicago Marathon. I ran all winter, ran all spring, and thankfully I've stayed injury free and have been able to keep my mileage at just the right spot to avoid burnout, but to sustain my fitness.

So the plan I selected? I went with the McMillan Level 3 Combo runner plan (see here for explanation of plan). "Combo" references a fairly equal ability in short and longer distances. While I certainly enjoy the "Endurance" part of running the most, I do enjoy speed and tempo workouts that comprise the "Speedster" plan, hence I selected Combo. The McMillan site is great in that you can enter in a lot of information about yourself and running history, and a plan will be recommended for you (click here for the plans). I believe the reason I got Level 3 instead of 4 is due to my need for 4-5 days of running and not 6-7 like I was doing in Hansons.

Overall my goal for this marathon is to continue to PR. Ideally based upon where my fitness is at now, I am looking to take off more than 10 minutes from my 2016 time.

I selected the plan because it has many of the things that I was looking for:

• tempo runs at marathon pace
• speed workouts
• long runs over 16 miles
• 4-5 days of running
• Paces are automatically provided for each workout
• flexibility to move around easy days of running or substitute for strength training
• focus on strength training - the site provides videos of recommended prehab exercises
• explanations for the purpose of each workout, along with motivational quotes
• Several of the runs are time based vs mileage which helps for busy weekday morning runs, and many are ranges of time which gives you the flexibility to complete what you can

The plan uses the Final Surge site/app that I used for Hansons, which I love because it will sync with my Garmin and my Google calendar. The site/app will email you the workouts for each day as well as the next, and I love that the paces are provided for me. With Hansons I was always having to consult the book to check my paces until they became ingrained, but the plan will do all the thinking for me. There are several 18+ mile runs which will give me that endurance factor that I like, but there are several progression, speed, tempo, and race pace runs each week that will help me continue to build speed and better pace myself. All in all, it is very similar to Hansons, but with more flexibility and some of the other elements that I love. 

I already completed Week 1 last week as a "test" of the plan. Here was what Week 2 looked like:

Sunday: 60 minute easy run

Monday: Rest

Tuesday: 3.33 mile easy run, strength training

Wednesday: 4 mile progression run, Jasyoga - Quick hip reset

Thursday: Strength training

Friday: Rest

Saturday: 12 miles long, Jasyoga - Side Body Reset

Total: 24.37 miles

The plan starts off at a slightly lower ability than I am currently at, so I have been extending my Sunday and Saturday runs to keep my mileage where it is at, but still allows me to have days for strength training during the week. Many of the rest or strength days are optional in that you can choose to rest, do strength, or an easy run. I love this!

For example, Tuesday had a range of 30-40 minutes easy run or strength training. I was planning to my meet my local IL Oiselle team for a fun run and I loved that doing this run did not interfere with my training plan. I didn't have to worry about running a specific time or missing out on a tempo run. I could just run and have fun with it. I ended up running much faster than I should have to keep up with my speedy teammates, but those experiences are what make you a better runner.

Saturday was my last long run before my 10 mile trail race I have coming up. I will be pretty quiet for the next few weeks as I am headed off to Vegas, but I have no doubt that the flexibility of the plan, and some rest and recovery (and hikes in the desert) will prepare me just fine for the race.

So here we go...another marathon, another plan. I have a good feeling about this one!