Dumbo Training

Dopey image via

I hope everyone had a nice weekend!  Mine was good, but a bit busy.  Saturday I went to NJ to have Crab Day with my family.  It's exactly as it sounds - we cook a bunch of crabs and BBQ and hang out. The weather yesterday was perfect for it and we had a blast.  It was a long day and I wasn't able to get a lot done at home, but it was worth it.  

I still need to get done my posts of Dumbo Double Dare, but as today is officially 18 weeks out from Dopey and tomorrow starts my training for it, I thought I'd share my plan for that insanity.

Even months after registering, I am still having a little trouble wrapping my head around what is going to happen.  It most definitely seems insane.  But I feel like I have a good base coming off Dumbo training with some of my highest mileage yet and Dumbo was like a mini Dopey (good practice!).  I know the next couple of months will be intense and will require a lot of dedication, but I am excited.

I have a good base and am ready to get into the schedule.  I am trying to not freak out over it and take it one week at a time, but make no mistake - I am not taking this easy.  It's a tough 4 days and requires the appropriate training.

I debated a lot of plans.  Do I use a modified Hanson's plan?  Create something on my own?  Modify the runDisney plan?  In the end, I have decided to go with a slightly modified plan created by Hal Higdon (see the plan here).

I like that he alternates the back to back weekend runs (something I incorporated into the end of my Dumbo training) and includes tempo work.  My modification to the plan will be to add in some speed and strength work as I do not want all the hard work I did for Dumbo training to fade.

While I don't want my new speed from my Dumbo training to fade, I am also being realistic that I won't be doing this race for a new personal record.  This race is all about endurance and time on my feet.  While I will be doing speed/strength work, it will be at a slower pace.  My goal is to make my marathon pace feel easy without being crazy slow.  I think the new speed and base I acquired for Dumbo will help with this.  I'll be running slower, but longer and it should (fingers crossed) work well for me.

I'll be continuing to recap my training each week as we go through.  I've got a bunch of halves in the schedule (Philly, Providence, Wine and Dine) and will keep you posted as it goes on.

Wish me luck!