Put me in coach; I'm ready to run

As someone who has been running for years now I know what I need to do to prepare for long runs and I know how to evaluate my performance after them. It's gotten to where I can pinpoint one certain thing that tripped me up from a good run, such as lack of hydration pre-run, and I can estimate how a run is going to go by how well I've prepared for it. Happily, oftentimes the runs I expect to be poor turn out better than I imagined and that motivates me for the next run when I assume I'll be better prepared for it.

With all this knowledge I have about my specific running needs and ability it would seem that I should be able to use that knowledge to craft the perfect training program for myself to cover any distance. Sadly, that's not the case. With numerous half marathons under my belt I only have minute faith that I could train myself to run a successful half marathon, and I have absolutely no inkling what it takes to get me across a finish line after moving for 26.2 miles.

I've depended on Hal Higdon or the scientists behind FIRST for my training programs for most of the last three years. For this fall's marathon I'm changing things up and putting all of my faith in the expertise of an iPhone app.

What I like about Run Coach Pro so far is all I had to do was punch in the date of my race, how many days a week I want to run and which day I want to run long and it spit out a plan that started that day. Not only does it cover the 16 weeks of training it'll take to get ready but it helps me build up my base to be prepared for when the real training kicks off. In total, I'll have invested 23 weeks in getting prepared for the Marine Corps Marathon.


Actual report in an actual screen shot from my actual marathon training program.
It better be worth it, but ironically the last time I ran a marathon I used an automated training plan [login required] too and I wasn't too impressed with my run. And what's even worse this time is that unlike that training plan that had three, this training program only has one 20+ miler scheduled. For an "intermediate" marathon program!

How I'm supposed to run 26.2 miles after not running any more than 20 or so before race day is beyond me, but since I'm so unable to craft a plan on my own I guess I'll just hold on tight to this one and hope for the best.

Note: This is not a sponsored post. I discovered, paid for and downloaded the Run Coach Pro iPhone app without any suggestion to do so from anyone. I don't remember how much I paid for the app, however. It's quite possible I got it for free at a time when it was offered as such on the App Store.