For the second year in a row, I was lucky enough to get in to the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler, which has a lottery entry system. (You can read my race recap for last year’s race here.) My running so far in 2013 has not been great, but now that my ITB seems to be behaving, I am ready to write out a training plan for the next 7 weeks until the race.
This weekend, I ran about 8.5 miles. It’s a good mileage to be starting from, but it wasn’t easy. It was my longest run so far this year, and the longest by far in over a month. I think I should do another 8-ish mile run next weekend, and then ramp up to 9 and 10 miles over the next few weekends:
March 2: 8-9 miles
March 9: 9-10 miles
March 17: 9-10 miles
March 22: 8-10 miles
March 29: 6 miles
April 7: RACE DAY
That doesn’t look like much of a plan, but I intend to stay flexible and heed my ITB. I’d rather undertrain and sacrifice race-day performance than over-train and risk a DNS due to injury. Plus, my all-time favorite race, the GW Parkway Classic, is only two weeks after the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler, and I don’t want to miss that one.
The Cherry Blossom course is pretty flat, but the GW Parkway Classic course has some hills that I need to get ready for. My neighborhood running routes are pretty hilly and I will do hill intervals on the treadmill every other week. The other weeks I will focus on my pace. I plan to run twice during the week–one harder run on Tuesdays, and one easier run on Thursdays.
Monday, Wednesday, and Friday will be my strength days. I am going to keep doing those ITB rehab exercises and balance that with upper body strength training with my new Cathe XTrain Burn Sets DVD.
This DVD has two main programs: Chest/Back/Shoulders and Bi’s/Tri’s. For each muscle group, there are three exercises. For each exercise, you do three sets with heavy weights, with a goal of reaching failure by the 10th rep of the third set. I usually do supersets and never work to failure, so this is a new experience for me! I’m not sure I like it, but the DOMS tells me that it is working!
I really like that the DVD is set up so that you can choose individual chapters to work whichever muscle group you want (each muscle group chapter takes 10-15 minutes) and the “bonus” core workout (over 10 minutes!) is killer.
If you haven’t done a Cathe DVD before, you probably will find her personality refreshing. She is encouraging without being too “perky” and has a no-nonsense attitude that pushes you without being insane.
I received a copy of the Cathe XTrain DVD for review purposes. All opinions expressed here are my own.
Are you training for a spring race?
Do you follow a written training plan or just wing it?
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Im a WING'er.
which Im not sure is BEST for fitness gains—but it's planned winging 🙂 so theres that….
I'm training for the CB and Nike Women's Half (April 28th). I have always followed a plan because I'm a newbie (just started running a year ago–1st half was Super Bowl Sunday). My plan takes me to CB so I guess I'll be "winging it" for a few weeks between the two races. It honestly makes me a bit nervous. Ha!
Glad your ITB issues aren't giving you any problems.
You should be in good shape for the half after the CB, especially if you've already done one half this year!
What a great way to describe Cathe. She's encouraging without being too perky and no nonsense for sure.
I like the idea of working until fatigue. I have more of a total body Cathe workout. Maybe we should swap after a time?
Good luck with your training plan.
Thanks! I will have to check out your review.
Back in my pre-running days (which was a really long time ago, almost 20 years (!), I did a lot of exercise videos and I loved Cathe's. I too have a video to try and I'm excited about it. I will be good for my cross training in my half marathon plan.
Which one do you have? I will watch for your review too. If I like too many, I will just buy the whole set!
I love the way you describe her, too. You're right! She's not too perky or annoying… but she can still motivate you to work hard. Looks like a great plan for your 10 miler, you'll be ready!
I sure hope so! Hey, you were my 4300 comment. 🙂
So great that you are running the Cherry Blossom 10 miler and glad that to hear that your ITB is behaving. For me, strength training is so important and I definitely intend to keep it up while I'm training this spring too. I've heard great things about Cathe and her workouts. She looks intense!
I bet this is an amazing run.. How do you get in on the lottery.. You just made me want to add this to my list of races i would live to do.
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