The Spring of Speed!

I'm sort of obsessed with my new McMillan plan for spring.

Before the Houston Marathon earlier this month, I mentioned that my husband asked me not to train for another marathon until summer. So I decided that for the rest of this winter and into spring I will concentrate on shorter races and on getting faster. Once Houston was over, I ordered my third custom plan from McMillan Running (McMillan wrote my plans for both Houston and the Top of Utah Marathon last September; I enjoyed and had good results from both plans).

One of the questions you answer for McMillan ahead of getting your plan is which race you want to target. Since it's not about a marathon and qualifying for Boston this time, I put a whole bunch of races ranging from 5K to half-marathon on there and told him to pick, keeping in mind my main goal of gaining speed without losing too much endurance. I submitted the questionnaire, asking for a start date for the plan of Monday, Feb. 6....and then I waited. I couldn't sign up for any races until the plan arrived, because I didn't know which of the ones I suggested McMillan would choose. Instead, I've been concentrating on gradually increasing the length of my recovery runs and on sleeping well.

Today, at last, the plan arrived. I've been poring over it and calling it "My precious." And I know what my spring race schedule looks like at last! Here's what's on the docket:

The Snowman Stampede 5 Mile--Feb. 18
The Platte River Half Marathon--April 15
Boulder Distance Classic 15K--April 28 (guaranteed PR; I've never done a 15K)
Flat-Out 5K or Westminster Women's Classic 5K--May 13 (the Flat-Out 5K hasn't been scheduled yet, but I'm hoping it will happen that Saturday; if it doesn't, I'll go to Westminster)
Bolder Boulder 10K--May 28

The training looks like a nice switch-up from marathon prep, with things I haven't done in a while like 400-meter intervals and 90-minute progression runs in there. I'm hoping that not only will the frequent races leave me faster (relatively) and fired-up, but also fit going into summer prep for a fall marathon. At that time, if I work hard and stay lucky and humble, I hope to be able to run my Boston qualifying time of 3:44:59 or better at last.

Meanwhile, bring on the Spring of Speed!