Perpetually Rungry: Los Angeles Marathon Training Recap, Week 3

Sigh. Two steps forward, one step back. I ran two great marathons towards the end of a last year including lots of high-mileage weeks. Long story short:My body needs more recovery time. The good news is that my physical therapist cleared me to run and that I have a coach designing a conservative training cycle for the Los Angeles Marathon. Instead of running six times a week, I'm only running 3 times a week and cross-training for the rest. Instead of doing my speed workout on the track, streets or treadmill, I'm doing them on the spin bike or elliptical.

I'm currently reading Mastering the Marathon, a book I received as a gift 3-4 years ago, but has been sitting in my book pile since then. Looking for a book to read, I flipped through it. It's the perfect book for me right now because it's all about using cross-training in conjunction with running to train for the marathon. The premise is that the typical marathon training plan has you run 6 times a week. Three of these runs are your easy, aerobic building runs. If you don't have the time or your body can't handle running 6 times a week, you can exchange these 3 runs for cross-training instead. The other three runs are speed work, marathon pace runs (tempo) and long runs. Of these three, speed work is the least important and can also be done with cross-training. Long runs can be combo running/cross-training.

The author writes that you can run a good marathon with only 1 1/2 training runs a week! I know this is true(for me) because for my first marathon, I only ran once a week (Sunday long runs),filled all the rest of the days with spin classes and other aerobic activities, and finished with a decent time (4:25).

Now, mentally, I have to wrap my head around this plan and follow it! I keep reminding myself of the bigger picture: Chicago Marathon in the fall.

Monday: Cycle class +weight lifting (upper-body).
Tuesday: Speed work on the bike, 15 min warm-up; 3x7mins hard; 2x3mins harder; 10 minutes cool-down. Physical Therapy in the afternoon. My PT recognized the problem right away, my right side alignment it off. I was cleared to run and given new PT homework to be done every other day.
Wednesday: Cycle class + weight lifting (lower body). I PR'd my squat weight! After work, I went to the gym and ran easy for 3.5miles on the treadmill.
Thursday: Physical therapy homework
Friday: 30 minutes tabata (all bodyweight), 4.2 mile easy run, Pilates, TRX class
Saturday: 1 hour cycle class + physical therapy homework
Sunday: 45 minute run at the Santa Monica Pier with the Los Angeles area Oiselle Volée. I was also supposed to cycle or cross-train for an hour. That didn't happen.