the plan.

whew.

I survived my off season and I'm so ready to follow a training program.

The National Marathon (think Marine Corps but much smaller and all contained in the district [unlike MCM, which starts and ends in NoVa]) is on March 21 and I'm following Hal Higdon's Intermediate II training program -- but with one adjustment: Wednesday's run is replaced with 45-75 minutes on the bike.

The schedule looks something like this:
monday: swim (30-60 min)
tuesday: 3-5 mi run
wednesday: bike (45-75 min)
thursday: 3-5 mi run
friday: rest
saturday: 5-10 mi pace
sunday: 10-20 mi long run

The mileage is less than what I'm used to, but although I'm training for National, I'm base building for Ironman Cozumel.

... and the plan will change when I start "officially" training for Ironman Cozumel -- which starts January 26. One of my tri girlfriends is working on a schedule, so I'll have to change the schedule again.

As long as I get my long runs in I think I'll be fine. I'd like to just go a sub 4:00 again and I'll be happy. The goal through training is to keep a strong base and stay healthy!

While I will be racing National, I'm also kind of thinking of it as a supported training run.

Here we go !