Anyone who knows me, knows that I love to plan.  Running, language learning, my own research — you name it, and I’ve probably made a lovely, color-coded Excel spreadsheet to guide me to my goal.  So it shouldn’t surprise you too much to find out that I also have a plan to build up my base fitness before my next training cycle starts in the new year…

On the racing calendar for next year are the Hannover Half Marathon on May 5th (to be confirmed), and the Bremen Half Marathon on October 6th (never mind that I’ll be in the throes of wrapping up my dissertation by then and will have zero free time whatsoever).   With my shiny new 10K PR, the FIRST 3Plus2 pace charts are saying that I may be able hit a 2:07-ish half marathon, which is about six minutes faster than my current half marathon PR.  My BIG GOAL would be to someday hit under two hours — maybe 2013 is the year?

In any case, I have some serious training ahead of me, which will probably start sometime in January or February.  I took a peek already at the FIRST 3Plus2 half marathon training plan (of course), and the first week starts off with a bang with longer distances and faster paces than I usually run in between training cycles.

So that means I’m going to be spending the next couple months building up my base fitness and mileage so that that first week of the training cycle doesn’t come as quite a shock to the system.

To do that, I’m making sure to:

• Run three days a week, slowly building up my weekly mileage and the pace of my long runs.  Since it’s now dark when I wake up as well as when I come home, it’s time to start doing my runs during the week at the gym — but thank goodness my long run on the weekend is always outdoors, rain or shine, otherwise I might go a little crazy.
• Incorporate both strength and cardio cross-training at least twice a week.  My default will be to use the Shred, because it’s effective and I can do it at home rather than spend another two evenings of my week at the gym.
• Yoga at least once a week!  I’ve signed up for the 90 Days of Yoga because I wanted to commit myself to focus on my stretching and breathing and all that stuff that serves as a counter balance to the rest of my workouts.

I know it sounds kind of dorky, but I’m actually excited to be building up my base, because I know it’ll make me stronger once my race training starts back up.

Do you like to plan and use fun, colored charts?  How do you handle the down time in between races?