Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Devil's Training Plan

With the moon walk competition going on, I'm trying to increase my mileage and I need a little extra structure to ensure I accumulate steady miles every single day.  So, I have adopted a plan I have used in the past--it's called the "Devil's Training Plan."  I run 6 miles at 6am and 6pm.  That simplifies to 666 (6 miles, 6am, 6pm).  Get it...666, the number of the beast?  Anyway, it actually seems pretty doable.  Everyone can run an easy 6 miles, right?  Do that twice a day and the plan is in effect!  If I keep with this plan, I'll have 12 miles per day which translates into 84 miles of running per week.  That ain't bad!  The problem is committing to this every single day so I actually have that full weekly mileage.  I've tried this in the past and it didn't last long. 

The moon run rules count "miles run" at 1.5--which means my 84 miles per week will count as 126 miles.  Now we are accumulating serious miles!  Add in my "walking around work" pedometer steps (about 3-5 miles per day), and I have around 150 MILES PER WEEK for the moon walk event.  Sweet.  Of course, with any training plan, the devil is in the details.  I can run very slow every day, or mix in some tempo or interval sessions.  For the next two months, my ONLY concern is steady accumulation of miles.  With two runs per day, I plan on running 13 runs each week in my aerobic zone, with one tempo session for variety.  I'm already loading my iPod with plenty of devil music: AC/DC, Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Ozzy Osbourne, Judas Priest, Metallica, etc.  This could be fun.

What do you think?  Can the devil's training plan work for me?  Will I stick to this through June 11 (end of the moon walk)?  If this 666 "Devil's Plan" works, I may need to ramp it up a bit for the Canadian Death Race.  How about 766 (7 miles at 6am and 6pm)?  Doesn't have the same power of alliteration, eh? Although 14 miles per day would get me 98 for each week...that's close to one of my dreams...the 100 mile training week.  Hmmm....

5 comments:

Mike said...

Personally, the issue I see with it is that there doesn't appear to be any flexibility built in for days off. I'm all for structure, but there is such a thing as too much, and with this program, it seems too easy to miss a few runs, become discouraged, and abandon it in favor of something else.

Chris Ⓥ said...

That's the devil talking Mike! :-)

It's all about discipline and putting running first among priorities. Six easy miles in the morning and evening aren't hard on the body. If you do lots of hard running then you'll need time off. You are right, it's not easy getting in the 2 runs/day...even if they are "easy." Very easy to get discouraged and miss a run or a day and then toss the whole plan. This is a temporary motivator for me. Don't plan on keeping with it for more than a few weeks. A real training plan would schedule a day off and include much more variety (tempo, intervals, long, short, etc).

Mike said...

You're right. 6 easy miles in the morning / evening aren't hard on the body.

You're a talented runner Chris. I won't forget how you blew past me at McNotAgain last October. :-) Rematch?

In any case, it's a bit too regimented for me is all. I certainly wish you luck.

Chris Ⓥ said...

It's too regimented for me too! I hope to just trudge through the next few weeks. Then back to a more normal training plan.

Definitely plan on doing McNotAgain 30 this October. I'm up for a rematch...maybe in my KSOs this time!

Unknown said...

I like it! That's a lot of miles. Don't forget the Misfits, Danzig, and Slayer.

To amp up the miles for your race you could do 7 at 7am and 7pm. Maybe put some gospel on your ipod :D