Back to running again

After taking off all the time I could reasonably justify after my half marathon, I faced the usual dilemma of what to do to keep in shape between races. So I emailed Runner's World with that question, and in less than 24 hours got a long and detailed recipe from Doug Rennie, a contributing editor and the creator of the training program I used. I took his recommendations, added some of my own stuff, and voila, a program.

So here's the deal. Monday and Wednesday I do 45 minutes of free weights for the upper body and some 10 minutes of cardio on a rotation of my elliptical trainer, rowing machine and stationary bike.

Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday I run betweeen 9-10k, as early in the morning as it's daylight to see by, at a comfortable pace, about 20 seconds per k slower than my half marathon pace. During that run, I do four two minute pick-ups in speed, to race pace or better. I end up with 4x100 metre strides, in which you accelerate to 90% of all out, hold for five seconds and then slow down until the next 100 metres.

Sunday is a longer run, about 15k, at a comfortable pace. All the runs are about 95% on great stonedust trails, quite scenic, through some woods near my house. They have some short hills, including a nice down and up a toboggan hill (wince). Friday is a day of rest.

After each run I also do some core strengthening exercises, as described in Runner's World of February 2003. I also bought some push up stands, and they are awesome. So many things you can do with them, and I finish off with a variety of push ups on them.

It all seems to work.