Roy's Running Update(s)
So, I'm five weeks in to my 18 month long attack on a Boston Qualification marathon. Here's the thread that started it all. So after lots of looking around, I decided to cruise a few months of base, working my way up to mid 50's / low 60's mpw by mid-January and then settle into Pfitzinger 18 / 50-70 plan on the third week of January. I'll look to target a early spring half marathon to see how the legs have responded. Then, I'm retiring from the military in the summer and moving from Japan back home (hopefully the Louisville / Lexington area, it all depends on where the wife gets a job) and will target a Dec 16 California International Marathon and a April 17 Louisville Derby Festival Marathon. I've started decently with the mileage with the first five weeks of training at 38.5 / 27.0 (travel to the states threw this week off) / 47.1 / 48.0 / 50.8. My weeks look something like:
Monday - off
Tuesday - Hour + @ EP
Wednesday - Tempo intervals or Hills (alternating weeks)
Thursday - Medium @ EP (10-ish)
Friday - Hour + @ EP
Saturday - Long @ EP with some tempo in the last third.
Sunday - Hour + at whatever I want (no HR monitor on this one)
For all of my runs except Wednesday and Sunday, I keep my HR capped at <75%. often 10-20 beats below that. I 'want' to add some body weight / total body circuits in on Mondays and Friday's, but these workouts often fall out due to lack of interest. I need to get better about that. </p>
December will be interesting / challenging. I've got a week in Seoul and then two weeks of Christmas vacation that will include travel back to the states and then road tripping from Kentucky to Orlando for Disney and back. My family is supportive (and they sleep late) so I will probably be getting some early morning runs in, at least enough to keep the legs ticking over.
I've learned a few interesting things in the past 5 weeks:
1. It is really nice having my Saturdays and Sundays back. 4/5 hour bike rides and recovery eats a huge hole in your weekends.
2. Slowtwitch is NOT the most evil place on the internet. The people over at Letsrun.com really take it to a whole new level.
3. Road Races (half and full marathons) in Okinawa are almost if not harder to get into than WTC races.
4. Weight does NOT magically fall off at greater than 40 mpw, like a lot of folks advertise.
5. Running in the rain makes you feel like a total bad ass when you are done.
So good so far. HR and PE are starting to drop as pace slowly increases. The temperatures are dipping as well, but I chose to think I'm getting back into decent running shape. Time will tell. Thanks for listening and I welcome any thoughts / suggestions / commentary. 
Comments
It sounds like you have a training plan all scoped out and the like but if it is helpful I did a post on run training about 2 years ago: http://members.endurancenation.us/F...fault.aspx In that post I outlined all of the research I did on training plans and why Pfitzinger didn't work for me personally.
GOOD LUCK!!
Roy,
Big changes, first the run only and now retirement from the military enjoy the time off or what ever you decide to pursue after. My only comment at this point is are the workouts linked to the issues you were trying to correct? Don't blow off these if you are still working on some old nagging issues.
Gordon
Looks like a great start Roy. And yeah Letsrun is a whole 'nother world of crazy and hilarity.