Starting any day now, our lives (“our” meaning me, Janet, and the rest of the folks at our company) are going to change drastically. Gone will be the days of coming in to work when we want and leaving when the work is done. Gone will be the days of working through lunch. Starting soon, our work schedules will become very regimented. My schedule? Most days, I’ll work from 9 to 7, with a required one-hour lunch break at either 11, 12, or 1. On Saturdays, I think I’m scheduled for 9 to 5. While at work, we’ll be taking support calls and trying to squeeze in other work-related tasks when we can. It will be stressful. It will be rewarding at times, and maybe even fun at times … but “support season” is one of the necessary evils of our job. I can’t say I’m looking forward to it.
Why am I writing about this? Because what Janet and I are attempting to do over the next few months – train for a half-marathon – will be particularly challenging, considering the inflexibility of our schedules and the fatigue that will certainly plague us after a few weeks.
But will it be such a challenge?
In school, I generally made my best grades during volleyball season, when practices, games, and travel forced me to regulate the rest of my life, setting aside specific times here and there to accomplish everything I needed to accomplish. Maybe the inflexibility of support season will force us to keep up with our training schedules.
I’m actually kind of excited about the whole thing. I’m planning to do my workouts immediately after work, mostly at the fitness center – at least until Daylight Saving Time kicks in and it stays light late. And here’s the schedule I’m thinking of following:
MONDAYS: Core work and weights (legs, back, biceps)
TUESDAYS: Easy run
WEDNESDAYS: Core work and weights (shoulders, chest, triceps)
THURSDAYS: Tempo run (adding speedwork and hills after a few weeks)
FRIDAYS: Core work and easy run
SATURDAYS: Rest (hopefully find time for an afternoon hike)
SUNDAYS: Long run
Runner’s World has a good article on core work in their February 2009 issue, which I just received a couple of days ago. I’m going to use the exercises suggested in the article for core work.
I just did a long run this evening - 6.3 miles in about 70 minutes. I haven’t officially started following a training plan yet, though.
That starts tomorrow. And support season should officially begin soon after that.
Ready … Set … (take a deep breath) … GO.
I think our training is pretty much the same. I think I’m going to do some Yoga and Pilates for my core work until I’m able to get back to the BOSU classes. If I can afford to, I may try to get a trainer for the weight sessions. I not that comfortable with weights unless I’m using them in the aerobic classes at the fitness center. I’ll let you know what I decide.