February 04, 2019
Is there any better way to motivate yourself to achieve a goal than to put money on the line? I’m not sure, but just the act of signing up for something is effective for me. (There have been a few times where I’ve signed up, paid, and then not made an event due to injury, but that’s a different story) Since this works for me, I signed up for the Martha’s Vineyard Marathon immediately after I finished my 2018 goal of running a half marathon in every state in New England.
Well, you have to either finish another marathon below a particular time, or join a charity team and raise large quantities of money to run the Boston Marathon. I prefer to do my best to try and qualify first. Thus, I need to run a different marathon. There’s really only two times in the year to do that around here: Spring and Fall, and I want to get it done ASAP! The best, most fun-looking option for Spring is the MV Marathon. It’s in a beautiful place, the course is fairly flat (ideal for a first attempt), well-supported (lots of aid stations), and we can make a nice long weekend trip out of it. I love the Cape & Vineyard, and we haven’t been in a few years.
Well, before I even signed up I had been thinking about this new goal and looking into training plans. I eventually found the Less-is-More Marathon Plan(pdf link). There are plenty of other plans out there. There’s also articles deriding this plan. But, the core idea of it struck a chord with me (you don’t have to run every day!), and it looks easy enough to work into an existing schedule.
You can’t just run. As the article says, you need some cross-training also.
In years past I had done P90X, Insanity, and other workouts. P90X workouts are long, and Insanity is definitely not a workout program you want to be doing when training for long distance running, as it involves a lot of high impact cardio. In 2018 I tried out P90X3. I had a friend who did it, so I borrowed it from him at first. I found working out difficult after having a kid, and the idea of 30-min workouts piqued my interest. I was able to get through all of P90X3 and got in the best shape of my life doing that, combined with running. I’m totally sold on it.
What I’ve done for my marathon plan is to integrate P90X3 workouts into the Less-is-More Marathon Plan for the cross-training portions. I’ve come up with a combined schedule that I think will work. I even tried out a few weeks of it in December, and I didn’t have any problems with it, so that’s what I’m going to do.
I had to push my schedule back a week to let a minor foot injury heal, but I’ve begun my training officially this week. So, here it is:
I have taken the three running exercises for each week and kept those in place. Some of those days have been augmented with additional work from P90X3 (primarily stretching and core work). For the cross-training, I have based my schedule around the P90X3 Classic schedule. Since that schedule is 12 weeks, and this training plan is 16 weeks, I ended up doubling the final 4 weeks. I kept in the rest weeks (4, 8, 12 & 16) for the cross training part in order to avoid the plateaus as well.
In addition to this, I may throw in some cycling and other exercises from time to time.
| Week | Sun | Mon | Tues (Speed) |
Wed | Thurs (Tempo) |
Fri | Sat (Long) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Y Abs |
TS AHHIT |
8x400m | TC LM |
3mi Abs |
TW AHHIT |
10mi DYN |
| 2 | Y Abs |
TS AHHIT |
4x1200m | TC LM |
5mi Abs |
TW AHHIT |
12mi DYN |
| 3 | Y Abs |
TS AHHIT |
6x800m | TC LM |
7mi Abs |
TW AHHIT |
13mi DYN |
| 4 | Y Abs |
ISO AHHIT |
3x1600m | DYN | 3mi Abs |
P AHHIT |
13mi DYN |
| 5 | Y Abs |
EU AHHIT |
10x400m | EL LM |
5mi Abs |
IN AHHIT |
14mi DYN |
| 6 | Y Abs |
EU AHHIT |
5x1200m | EL LM |
5mi Abs |
IN AHHIT |
15mi DYN |
| 7 | Y Abs |
EU AHHIT |
7x800m | EL LM |
8mi Abs |
IN AHHIT |
17mi DYN |
| 8 | Y Abs |
ISO AHHIT |
3x1600m | DYN | 10mi Abs |
P AHHIT |
13mi DYN |
| 9 | Y Abs |
TS AHHIT |
12x400m | TC LM |
3mi Abs |
TW AHHIT |
18mi DYN |
| 10 | Y Abs |
EU AHHIT |
8x800m | EL LM |
5mi Abs |
IN AHHIT |
15mi DYN |
| 11 | Y Abs |
TS AHHIT |
4x1600m | TC LM |
8mi Abs |
TW AHHIT |
20mi DYN |
| 12 | Y Abs |
ISO AHHIT |
12x400m | DYN | 5mi Abs |
P AHHIT |
15mi DYN |
| 13 | Y Abs |
EU AHHIT |
6x1200m | EL LM |
5mi Abs |
IN AHHIT |
20mi DYN |
| 14 | Y Abs |
TS AHHIT |
7x800m | TC LM |
4mi Abs |
TW AHHIT |
15mi DYN |
| 15 | Y Abs |
EU AHHIT |
3x1600m | EL LM |
8mi Abs |
IN AHHIT |
10mi DYN |
| 16 | Y Abs |
ISO AHHIT |
30min easy 5x60s |
DYN | 20min easy Abs |
P AHHIT |
26.2mi DYN |
| Code | Workout Name |
|---|---|
| Y | P90X3 Yoga |
| Abs | P90X Ab Ripper X |
| TS | P90X3 Total Synergistics |
| AHHIT | Ankle/Hip/Hamstring/IT band strengthening routine (from physical therapy) |
| TC | P90X3 The Challenge |
| TW | P90X3 The Warrior |
| DYN | P90X3 Dynamix |
| ISO | P90X3 Isometrix |
| EU | P90X3 Eccentric Upper |
| EL | P90X3 Eccentric Lower |
| LM | Leg Machines (at my gym) |
| P | P90X3 Pilates |
| IN | P90X3 Incinerator |
I’ve gotten in a good habit of exercising almost every day. I’ve completed four 24-day workout challenges in the past four months (exercise 24 days out of 30). Sometimes you just need rest days, or you just don’t have time. I don’t beat myself up. I just accept it and move on (and usually do a double to make up for it).
I use a physical calendar to track my workouts. I pencil in the workouts from my schedule one month at a time. As I go through the month, I write in what I actually did in pen. I also track everything with my Garmin watch & their Connect app, as well as Strava.
One week at a time I’m moving towards my goal. We’ll see what happens on May 18th.