The training plan I have for the Goodlife Fitness Marathon/Rock n’Roll Las Vegas Marathon is a modification of a bunch of plans I found on the web. The problem I have with most plans is that they assume you work a Monday-Friday day job with free weekends to do the long runs.
My schedule is still pretty regular, but my “week” is actually 9 days long (2 days, 2 nights, 5 off). In the past, I’ve tried to modify the training plans I found to get in the long runs during my days off. The problem is that I need a lot more time than the training plan calls for to get all those long runs in.
This time, I made a plan that follows my work schedule, rather than just trying to work around it. The idea was to “train smarter, not harder” by having each run serve a particular purpose, rather than just getting in the mileage. I also scheduled regular speedwork sessions (track runs, hill runs, and “faux” races) to try to get faster.
Here is the breakdown:
Day 1 (1st day shift): rest
Day 2 (2nd day shift): track
Day 3 (1st night shift): “short” long run
Day 4 (2nd night shift): rest
Day 5 (1st day off/sleep day): rest
Day 6(2nd day off): hills/”faux” race
Day 7 (3rd day off): rest
Day 8 (4th day off): easy/recovery
Day 9 (5th day off): long run
We’ll see how my training schedule works.
