Introduction

Hi, I was a smoker for many years and quit smoking 5.5 years ago.  I went back to exercising to ensure I didn't gain 35 pounds like I did the first time I quit smoking.  Ran 1.2 miles and was barely able to finish it a couple months after smoking and was coughing up my whole lungs it felt like.  After that I continued to make use of my gym membership and did the basic cardio equipment, weights, supplements, protein, and all that fun gym stuff.  In 2011 I decided to test myself and do a half marathon.  I trained very poorly for it and finished in 2 hours and 2 minutes.  I was totally wiped out afterwards and vowed to never run far distances again.  Well, in 2012 I ran another half marathon that I poorly trained for again with a similar result, 2 hours and 1 minute, but this time I wasn't as wiped out.  That's when my journey started.

I challenged myself to do a 100-mile charity bike ride 5 weeks after my half marathon, which I thought was a tough goal.  I was able to finish that in about 6.5 hours with around 1-1.5 hours worth of break time.  I later did an Olympic duathlon which was a blast and then a half ironman distance duathlon (5k run/90k bike/21.1k run) and found out what running through pain felt like.  I caught a cold two days before the race, woke up race day with congestion, but for 5 and a half hours all my symptoms just went away while the race went on.  I finished up 2012 with my first full marathon that I trained to do in under 4 hours and finished in 3:59:29.  Since then I ramped up my off season training.

I plan on doing a full distance duathlon (4k run/180k bike/42.2k run) in the end of August 2013.  I did a lot of reading and base training during November-February in order to get myself ready to give a full go at training for a duathlon of this distance.  There isn't really any sort of formal training plans for this, so I decided to take what I learned from reading in triathlon plans and making my own duathlon training program.  I have a calendar of all of my training runs/rides and rest days on the side of my refrigerator that takes me from February 10th all the way through August 31st and then beyond if I choose to do the local marathon in October.

I have much higher goals this year and thus, I have more drive and determination.  My plan is basically as follows starting March 24th, after my 6 week build:

Sundays - 60-90 minutes bike with intervals
Mondays - running speedwork (alternating between tempo and intervals with some easy runs every 4-6 weeks) and easy weights with high reps (30-40 minutes)
Tuesdays - 60-90 minutes bike with intervals
Wednesdays - long run (starting at 60 minutes, longest of 180 minutes)
Thursdays - off
Fridays - long bike ride (starting at 120 minutes, longest of 390 minutes) with a short brick run and 30 minutes of stretching
Saturdays - alternate between easy runs and easy runs with hills

After every day's workout I will stretch for at least 10 minutes and refuel within 20 minutes of my workout.  I have gotten into this habit during my base building.  I will update my workouts and progress starting March 24th, as well as all the races I plan on doing in between.  Here is my race schedule for the year:

10k on March 17th
Half Marathon on May 4th
Sprint duathlon on June 1st (maybe)
100-mile Tour de Cure on June 8th
Olympic duathlon on July 28th
Iron 226 Duathlon on August 31st
Columbus Marathon on October 20th (maybe)

I may add some more races, but this is the schedule I have already planned my training around.