My Beginner to 15K in 4 Months Plan:
Nov 2 through Nov 28: So my November goal is to build my base to be able to run 2 miles straight, I think that is doable (at least I keep telling myself). I don’t have a perfect plan in place for this yet, as I cannot find a “program” out there that gets you to 2 miles in a month. So I plan to do walk/run cycles and just begin increasing my run cycles and decreasing my walk cycles. So something like this:
Walk/Run 3 Days/week.
Each Workout: Warm up Walk: 5 min. Walk/Run Cycles: for approx 30 Min. Cool Down Walk: 5 Min. Stretch before and after.
Week 1: 60 sec run/90 sec walk
Week 2: 2 min run/1 min walk (10 cycles)
Week 3: 3 min run/1 min walk (7-8 cycles)
Week 4: 4 min run/1-2 min walk (5-6 cycles)
Week 5/First week of 15k program: 5 min run/90-120 sec run (4-5 cycles).
Week 6/Second week of 15k program: 5 min run/60 sec walk. Then the Saturday of the second week we are supposed to be able to run 2 miles straight. If we could average a 12-13 min pace, that is only 24-26 minutes of running, compared to the 30 minutes of cycle running we would do for week 1-4 in November. Should be easy… ha!
The great thing about intervals is that you can increase or decrease your runs or walks. For instance, my first run was yesterday. I did the “week 1″ above. I felt pretty good out there, so for 2 cycles, I did 3 min run/60-90 sec walk. The other cycles I just followed 60 sec walk/90 sec walk. But when I go out tomorrow, I could feel horrible and only do 30 sec run/2 min walk, or 30 sec run/30 sec walk, etc.
Do you have a watch that does intervals? If not, a
Timex Ironman Watch works pretty good. A notch up would be an interval watch that monitors heart rate too, like the
Polar Heart Rate Monitor. Or, if you have a little extra cash,
Garmin Watches are the bomb, and provide you with pace and heart rate, and on and on.
Beginning Monday, November 30th, here is the training program that I will be using :
I have been informed that Doug Alred and Hal Higdon are big time in the racing world.
You will need to ignore the Dates that are on the calendar, as this is designed for a race in March, of I don’t know what year. So I did the math and we would need to begin this program November 30th.
I chose this one because you didn’t need to have an impressive running base before beginning it. You will notice that you run/walk 2 miles the first two weeks, with the goal of being able to run a solid 2 miles the second Saturday.
I will not be following this exact weekly schedule that is outlined on the PDF, due to my work/home/gym schedules.
So beginning this week, here is my goal for a weekly training schedule:
Mon: Yoga (possible Strength Train)
Tues: Run
Wed: OFF (Strength Train if not on done on Monday)
Thurs: Run
Fri: Strength Train
Sat: Cross Training (Kickbox or Spin)
Sun: Run with Family:)
Let me know your thoughts after looking at it. This is a lofty goal! Can we do it??????
Love Ya!
