So any way it has occurred to me that in 2009 I came up with a basic training philosophy for Ice Age. Run consistently, run easy, and the last couple months prior do the usual long runs and throw in a hodgepodge of hill workouts to simulate the kettle. Ah...memories. Having had physical problems in '05, '06, and '07, I was pumped to have finally found I could run again. Well, I pushed it too much and developed a stress fracture which means I had to skip Ice Age in '08. I just made up my mind I was happy to run again and that is basically what I did. I specifically remember people asking me before the '09 Ice Age race what the plan was. There was no plan. Just go out like it was a training run and hold the pace as long as I could. That's exactly the way it went down and I was blown away I ran it in 7:20. I was 47 years old.
Fast forward 8 years and as I'm looking at Ice Age 20 weeks away I'm starting to dial down my plan so I can have a shot at breaking 7:50. Not sure why I picked this number, but that is what I honestly believe I could accomplish on a good day. It is also a very challenging goal for me which has appeal. I guess it wasn't enough to say break 8 hours, I had to up the ante a bit. I also was calculating road pace, trail pace, race pace, and phantom pace on one of my runs and figured averaging 9:20 pace (7:46:40) was a good mean average over the course.
Why don't I just lay over a training plan based off what happened 8 years ago? This isn't some fairy tale program from a book it is me. Now granted I'm 8 years older, but back then I only ran. I paid no attention to anything else like weight, diet, stretching, etc. I can rebuild me...or make a few better choices and perhaps I can achieve my goal. So, 20 weeks out I have started to lay over the weeks. I had no way of knowing then, but I was coaching myself for the future. Thanks coach!
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