The Plan is Being Formed

Whatever marathon I decide to do in 2009, the plan is being formed now, so I will be ready. As I previously wrote, my doctor gave me the green light for a marathon next year, but I have to develop a 32-week training plan, which would have 3-4 days of running, and lots of cross training.

Yesterday I met with Scott, my marathon coach from last year, and also the manager of my gym. He and I exchanged emails over the last couple of weeks about him helping me develop a plan. There does not seem to be one out there. Lords knows I have looked. Scott is a great guy, who is eager to help. He made it seem very easy to work on.

He agrees with the doctor about the running 3 days a week. In fact he suggested as I work on a base towards the program, I run 3 days a week for 45 minutes. Scott's plan would have me run 4 days a week when I am towards the month before the marathon. No speed work, but tempo work is fine. His idea is that this plan would get me to finish a marathon, but would not be a "looking to PR" plan. I told him I still want to finish sub 6 hours, and he told me that was fine.

He will work on it, and get it to me next week.

If this is successful, I think this has the potential to be a great plan for people with arthritis who want to run long distances.

One a side note, Scott asked me who my doctor is. I told him it is Dr. Natarajan, and he laughed. He starts going to him next week.

After my meeting with Scott, I met up with Josh, my off and on personal trainer. My gym has a program called ActivTrax. With ActivTrax you go through an assessment - your fitness goals, weight, height, BMI, body fat percentage, cardio stamina and strength ability. All of that is put into the computer and your workouts are created based one your personal information. Every 6 months you are re-assesed and the workouts are altered accordingly.

At the start I will say up front that I currently weigh 212 lbs. This is up from where I was this time last year. My body fat is 29%. At my best I was at 23%. So all of this makes sense with the lack of activity I have done this year. I want to head back to 200 lbs, and I know that will take some time. As you all know, I have been there before.

I have a good team working with me. Dr. Natarajan, Scott, Josh and Beth my PT are all working with me to be healthy and get focused on 2009.

Charlie