Urbanathalon Race in Chicago, Oct 2015

[rick_j]

Urbanathalon is a 10-12 mile race with obsticales. im currenty at or around 185 and i want to drop to about 160. is it possible to do so by oct '15? all the time im going to be training for the race. im currious if its even possible. im thinking of paying the registration just as a motivator. any thoughts and suggestions or training plans. im currently running 4-5 miles per hour (snails pace). any help is appreciated. thanks. 

[Heybales · Accepted solution]

Oh sure, this should be easy. As long as 185 isn't a healthy weight already, in which case you'd have a losing battle on your hands trying to get to 160. And losing not as in weight.

So with only 25 lbs to go, set your goal loss amount to 1lb weekly, that's reasonable for first 15 lbs to go.

So that will take 15 weeks, or almost 4 months, if you really stick to that deficit.

And then at 10 lbs left, switch to 1/2 lb weekly, that's reasonable then.

That will take another 20 weeks then.

So 35 weeks in total, that has you done in 9 months about, so September.

Now, try to be too aggressive with it, and you likely won't be reaching your goal in time.

As to speed, merely being lighter will allow you to speed up if you can retain your muscle mass, which reasonable diet will help with too.

Also, training your aerobic system for maximum function will allow speed up too. That means the majority of winter should be spent at lower aerobic zone, getting max benefit from burning fat. You'll speed up as you do this automatically too, and you'll want that training for endurance.

Only need to run 3 days a week, that should allow decent recovery to actually improve.

Improvement comes during the rest, not the actual exercise. Fail to allow recovery - you won't improve nearly as well as you could with rest.

Make 1 long run, starting at 60 min if you can do it. Forget distance, whatever 1 hr gives you, increasing to 90 min through the winter.

Make 1 run medium, staying at 60 min.

Make 1 run short 30 min. This is the test run to see if you improve speed with same level of effort.

Got a HRM?

Here is progression to allow following the guideline of not increasing time on feet by more than 10% weekly total. This is for attempt to get a half-marathon in 2 hrs. But it's still a good start coming out of winter base aerobic building. It's also for someone starting basically at nothing. Start wherever your total weekly running time is already, and adjust the workouts.

Long	Medium	Short	Total time	Week
15	10	10	35	1
15	15	10	40	2
20	15	10	45	3
20	20	10	50	4
25	20	10	55	5
30	20	10	60	6
30	25	10	65	7
30	25	15	70	8
35	25	15	75	9
35	30	15	80	10
35	30	20	85	11
40	30	25	95	12
40	35	30	105	13
45	40	30	115	14
50	45	30	125	15
55	50	30	135	16
60	55	30	145	17
70	60	30	160	18
85	60	30	175	19
100	60	30	190	20
115	60	30	205	21

3 days a week running also allow a couple days for strength training which you may need on obstacle course, and it helps with form anyway.

During the winter, with the runs being so calm, just don't do leg strength day before long run, or day after. Other days don't matter. But day before and after long run should always be rest days, or just upper body strength.