The next year or so

I like to run. I like to read. I like to read about running. (I probably read more "sports" books than is wise, but I try to balance it out. That's why I'm muddling my way through Ulysses now.) And I just finished reading Healthy Intelligent Training, by Keith Livingstone. Keith is a coach, who as a runner was coached by Barry Magee, who as a runner was coached by Arthur Lydiard. (See where this is going?) From my experience, this is the best summation of the Lydiard principles I've read. Everything is explained in more thorough detail than the presentation summaries that are collected around the internet.

The focus seems to be on middle-distance runners, 800/1500m, which is where Lydiard had his greatest success, but these same athletes went on to have success at the longer distances as well (5000+ m). So, the principles hold for everyone, especially through the base and hill stages. It's when we get to conditioning/sharpening that things are different, and these differences are cleared up in the text. Although it's to be applied for all levels of running, the examples are definitely skewed to the elite. As an example, the section of Daniels' VDOT chart that is excerpted starts at VDOT 60. Those are some fast folks.

All in all, a good read, and it will serve as the blueprint for my next big block of training. Here's the plan: from October '10 to May '11, there will be a ton of base, with a couple of hill blocks. I still plan on racing once a month at a variety of distances, just to blow out the legs and see if things are moving along. I will then add a brief conditioning/sharpening phase into July, to get ready my A-ish race of the summer, the Acura Ten-Miler. Then more base until October. (I may add a really short sharpening here for a 10k in October, as the local scene wraps up with Zoo Run or Best Buddies.)

At that point, I hope to have had a year of uninterrupted quality running, and confidence that I can handle the training for a fast marathon. Finances allowing, I'm targeting the Surf City marathon as my return to the distance. Disney is still the big goal, my Olympics as it were, but even the elites have to run a qualifier to get to the Games. I'll be following a plan from Pete Pfitzinger, who is another Lydiard disciple, and it seems that everyone posting on the Runner's World forum sub-3 threads is following one of these plans. Right now, I hope to be able to handle the 18 week/55 to 70 mile plan. That should get me about where I want to be.

I have no idea now what kind of time I'll be targeting at Surf City. I know in the last month by easy pace has dropped by roughly 2s/km. If that keeps up for the next year, my easy pace will be faster than my present projected marathon pace, and it's easy to assume that the marathon pace would have bettered by a similar degree. My calendar may seem kind of boring with simply miles everyday and no workouts that take three lines to explain, but I'm excited for what will eventually come out of it.