What is this blog all about? This blog will document one person's experience with the First to the Finish Marathon training program developed by the Furman Insitute of Running and Scientific Training. This program is not new. It has been the subject of an article in Runner's World and a book by Bill Pierce, Scott Murr and Ray Moss. The book is titled, Run Less, Run Faster. This should tell you the basis of the program if you are not familiar with it. The concept is to reduce the number of miles run while training for a marathon but to run more quality miles. It is an interesting concept, let's see if it works.
My name is Sean Cusack. I am 44 years old and live in Glen Allen, Virginia (Richmond Metro Area). I started running in 2002 and have been running steady since then. For more information about my running experience prior to this program, check out www.runrichmond.com. I have run 5 marathons for time. My first was Richmond in 2003, I ran a 3:39 and was almost incoherent at the end. I followed that with a 3:32 at Shamrock in March 2004 and a 3:25 in Richmond in November 2004. I have since run Detroit in 2005 and 2006. I ran 3:22 in 2005 and 3:18 in 2006 (Boston Qualifying time). I did not run a marathon in 2007, I was kind of burned out on training and decided to run for fun and ride more. I have coached with the Sportsbackers Marathon Training Team for the past three years.
I plan to run 3 marathons in 2008. I will run Shamrock in March, Boston in April and then either Marine Corp in October or New York in November. The fall marathon will be determined by my experience at Shamrock. If I meet my goal of 3:10 at Shamrock, I will be qualified for New York. Otherwise, I will run Marine Corp (I grew up in the DC area and was born in New York so either race will be a phenominal experience).
The First to the Finish program is a 16 week program designed to run a fast marathon. It is not intended for first-timers. The program calls for 3 runs per week and 2 or 3 cross-training sessions. Each week includes a track workout, a tempo run and a long run. Paces for all three workouts are determined based on a current 5K time and the planned marathon pace. There is also 2 or 3 cross-training workouts.
I am currently three weeks into the program. I started the program without any injuries and a solid base of 35 to 45 miles per week with some tempo work. The first week's speed work was 3x1600 meters with 1 minute rest intervals. Week 2 was 4x800 meters with 2:00 rest and last week was a 1200, 1000, 800, 600, 400, 200 set with 200M rest intervals. That workout was the easiest so far. The tempo runs have been 2 to 5 miles at moderates paces so far. The long runs in this program are long. They start at 13 miles and get to 20 in 4 weeks. There are 5 twenty mile runs in the 16 week program. The long runs are done at paces between 10 and 45 seconds slower than planned marathon pace. This week was 17 miles, it went very well.
So this is the beginning. I hope to add to this blog a couple of times per week. When I was trying to make a decision about using this program, I couldn't find much information from people that had used it. I thought that by blogging during the training, others might benefit.
This week's workouts - 5x1000M (3:41 each) with 400M rest intervals and 4 miles at 6:55 per mile, then 20 miles at 8 minutes per mile on Saturday. Sounds like fun...
The website for the program is http://www.furman.edu/first/fmtp.htm
Thanks for stopping by-
Q
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