“A goal without a plan is just a wish” (36ish weeks to go)
Quote by Antoine de Saint-Exupery.
I love planning things. I’m the one in the relationship who does all the research, bookings, and itinerary making for any upcoming trip. It’s not really a control freak thing… I don’t mind winging it on a few things, I swear! It’s more that it just brings me joy to do the research and it makes me feel good to revel in the payoff of a smooth trip.
Okay, maybe it’s more of an anxiety thing.
Either way, my wife would agree that I’m really good at it. Or I’ve Stockholm syndromed her into agreeing.
So, trying to figure out how to plan to run a massive 100 mile race that isn’t until September of 2025 was an unique challenge. I had almost a year between when I decided to tackle this goal and race day.
There really aren’t any year long plans out there, (yes, of course I looked), so I had to cobble together a game plan that would work specifically for me. I didn’t want to burn out too early before the race, but I also wanted to challenge myself along the way and keep my weekly mileage high enough that I would be “in shape” enough to even start the 100 mile training plan.
After a lot of research, I decided to string three different three plans together and tacked on a nice little mid-way goal as well.
Phase 1: Aim for 15-20 miles per week of casual running. Also run an 8.5 mile trail race on November 16th called TreeTops Trail Race that was originally scheduled in October but was postponed due to Hurricane Helene.
Phase 2: Train for a road marathon (18 week plan). This would be my midway goal.
Phase 3: Train for a 100 mile trail race (28 week plan). This plan also includes running a 50 mile race about a month before the big show.
I’m going to post later on specifically which marathon plan I am currently using (since I’m currently in Phase 2 right now), and I’ll also dive in to which specific 100 mile plan I decided on.
But as for Phase 1, I found it to be a crucial step to get my butt back into gear. It lasted about the whole month of November and gave me the flexibility to run whenever I was feeling up for it. This was extremely helpful since I was still slowly emerging from my post-hurricane slump and finding the mental and physical energy to put my shoes on was overwhelming at times.
I started with a few extremely slow jog/walks with my dog that were less than 3 miles but I occasionally pushed to 6 or 7 miles around my annoyingly hilly neighborhood in preparation for the TreeTops race. And then, as the damage from Hurricane Helene slowly was cleared away from some of my favorite trail spots, I cautiously went out into the woods and reclaimed my sense of passion for running again. It felt as though I was reclaiming my city back as well, and a sense of “normalcy”.
(Hurricane damage recovery at Bent Creek Experimental Forest)
I gave myself a light goal of trying to hit 15 to 20 miles a week during Phase 1 but I also was patient and forgiving with myself if I skipped a run or didn’t meet that goal. Giving myself a little grace is something that I have a hard time doing so I found this phase to be more of a mental health journey than a physical progression.
Complimenting this effort, I also chose to gave up alcohol for a stint, which ended up lasting about 7 weeks. I think this whole “reset” to my system was what I needed to prepare myself for marathon training since I haven’t run a road marathon since 2016!
This Phase, although it included the least amount of weekly milage, yielded some of my “best” running. I felt great during my training runs and pushed myself at the TreeTops race and met my goal of running sub 10 minute miles.
What started all of this was just making a plan. I believe very deeply in the old saying “Failing to plan is planning to fail.”