Running Plans

Been thinking forward on the running plan front and this is what I have come up with for teh next 3 years....

Running the 5 marathon majors.  These are the "big 5" marathons, and my running buddy and I decided it would be good to run all 5 over the next 2-3 years, so here's the schedule

2009 - Chicago (October)

2010 - Boston (April), Berlin (September)

2011 - London (April), New York (November)

I have signed up for Chicago, and got a spot in corral A based on my half time of 1:25 and full time of 3:06.  Assuming the weather cooperates it is a fast course, so a good time is possible.  I'll set my goal after Ottawa.

I think my Edinburgh time from 2008 will still get me into Boston 2010, and if not I should get a sub 3:20 at Ottawa or Chicago.  Boston isn't the fastest course, but I would want to run it as fast as possible just because it's Boston.

Berlin seems very easy to get into to (you just signup) and they have a well organized corral system so I should be able to run a good time there.  Last year over 1,400 runners ran under 3 hours!  Current world record was run at Berlin.

London has something called "Good for Age", which is open to British people.  As a 40-50 year old my time only needs to be under 3:15, so that should be easy enough.  If the good for age thing doesn't work out I can buy my way in as a foreigner, although not sure what sort of start corral I get that way.  It is also a fast course, so I'd definitely make this one a big effort if I can get a good starting position.

And the finale in New York has guarenteed entry for either sub 3:10 or sub 1:30 half.  Both of which I have run and hope to be able to repeat within the New York entry window for 2011. Course isn't all that fast, and hopefully by then I will have hit all my marathon time goals in the earlier races.

I'll be weaving in a bunch of smaller races in between but will worry about those closer to the time.  I have worked through the plan between Ottawa and Chicago, which is 20 weeks.  I'll take 5 weeks to recover and just run easy miles, then I have a 15 week schedule roughed out.  I'll run the 2nd half of the San Francisco marathon at the end of July and a local 10K 2 weeks before Chicago. 

So that is the 3 year plan - I'll be 46 by the time it's over and probably be too decrepid to run anymore.