Accountability and More

This past Saturday at our Ten for Texas workout Mike Jackson and I were talking a little about blogs. Mike made the statement that even if no one reads his entries that it gives him some accountability in his training. He does his daily workout and posts the details. A high tech training log so to speak...a public training log. I was thinking about his statement all weekend. Mike's been running now for about 4 weeks ( that's 4 weeks total his whole life ) and he's the one that has pushed me off of dead center.

I have been very successful coaching others but have not been successful keeping myself in shape. Over the next six months I will share my journey in this forum, whether it is successful or not, hopefully back to the ranks of "semi-fast" running. My goals are to get in shape and be ready to run a very good 5K at the TNT Reunion/Team Challenge at the January 27, 2007 Run the Woodlands 5K. I will turn 50 (ouch) the week before the race. I do have other races that I plan on doing including the Ten for Texas, and maybe a slow Sunmart 50K.

I will be using a hard/easy training plan balancing the miles as follows - Mon (1X), Tue (2X), Wed (0-1X), Thur (2X), Fri (0-1X), Sat (3X), Sun (1X). An example of what this pattern would look like is Mon-2mi, Tue-4 mi, Wed-Rest, Thur-4 mi, Fri-Rest, Sat-6 mi, Sun-2 mi - total 18 miles. I will always try to stay close to this ratio. After about 10 weeks I will start working in faster pace runs on Tuesdays & Thursdays. I will increase the mileage at a rate of about 10% per week building the Saturday workout first and following with the week days to keep within the ratios. This is called a hard/easy program because Tuesday, Thursday & Saturdays are considered hard days and the inbetween days are easy or total rest.

I will post a weekly training update.

and.....after a long day at work and a long drive home from Deer Park I actually put on the running gear and hit my two mile loop. No watch will be allowed for several weeks. I don't want to be too depressed. The run felt great. Jon would be proud.