Speed vs. Endurance

Today marks the day that I can finally get back into my routine. Over the last 2 months the holidays and working 2 jobs has basically taken over my life and I have fit in running when possible but not much else. I actually miss hitting up the gym and quality workouts!!

I got in my Jillian workout Sunday and my body is still feeling. I can tell the areas that definitely relapsed from missing cross training and strength workouts. They happen to be my problem areas of course and the places I plan to trim off the last 10 lbs so I can reach my goal weight. I am essentially sore from my knees to the bottom of my ribs but that means progress!!

I've done A TON of thinking this past week about running 2 marathons this year. I will be running Chicago and was trying to decide if I also wanted to add in a Spring Marathon. The goal race would be the Cellcom Green Bay Marathon in mid-May but after the fiasco last year it is a little nerve wracking to commit to that race. The main question was do I go for speed or endurance? Here is a good article about the fine balance between the 2.

I want to PR in the 5k, 5 mile, 10K and Half Marathon this year and most of those distance races are also in the spring to early summer. Since this would only be marathon #2 I am leary to throw in speedwork along with the distance so I ultimately decided to stick to speedwork. I have 2 planned half marathons this spring and would love to hit that PR.

In addition to that I will be base building for triathlon training and then ramping up once I get done with the GB half marathon. I found it hard to get in all my cross training workouts during my marathon training so for now I've decided to stick with what has been working for me and look to slowly get better at integrating those items.

By the time I get done with triathlon training it will be ramping up into my mileage for marathon training and I am planning to stick with the cross training to help my endurance to achieve the marathon PR I'm looking for. I can still get in some 15 mile or so runs during half marathon training and I think that will be enough to achieve some of the distance I'm looking forward to doing. I am also trying to keep myself from burning out and getting injured. I think by varying up what my training will be throughout the year that I will achieve all of my goals.

Have you learned to balance the two?