whack-a-doodle doo

I had a whackadoo idea when I woke up this morning.  shocker.  I know so many people who are venturing into the C25K land with this new year and/or who started it last year.  Somehow/someway when I started my so called running thing last January, I had never heard of such a thing.  By the time my Meliska bamboozled  me into running my first 5K later that month, well I guess it just seemed silly to "backtrack" by doing a program designed to get me prepared for my first 5K that I had already run.

I also started thinking about how I went from doing my 3/1 interval method (February to April) to my 4/1 intervals (April to August) and then to straight-out running (September to current).  I'm kind of all or nothing like that, I suppose.  There was no other gradual progression put into place.  It was like BAM! take that body!  Now I seem to just be struggling to get back into the groove post injury.  I think it's because I want to be able to resume where I left off - not in distance, per say, but in my ability to rock the mileage outright (sans intervals).  I'm not so certain I'm being fair to my body.  In a lot of ways I'm starting over from scratch here.

My Rock 'n' Roll Dallas Half Marathon is in a little over 9 weeks.  My Orange County Half Marathon is in a little over 14 weeks.  I'm not concerned with finishing either of these races in their time limits (4 hours and 3 1/2 hours, respectively), but what I am concerned with is finishing them with my head held high knowing I put forth my best effort.  I don't feel like I've been giving running my best effort in the past week.  I feel like I've been discouraged and so I've just not run.

Well, my friends...there's a new attitude in town - she just arrived today (oh dear - I hope it's a new attitude and not another personality indicative of some kind of personality disorder).  So this leads me to my whackadoo idea.  I'm going to do the C25K, but in fast forward.  This means instead of doing 3 workouts a week for 9 weeks to complete the program, I'm going to do 5 to 6 workouts a week to complete the program in 5 to 6 weeks.  This will be in addition to my long Saturday or Sunday run. 

Now don't be getting any crazy ideas that I will be overworking my pelvis.  I will still be cross-training one day a week with a 24-Hour Fitness class and keep in mind this C25K program incorporates a lot of walking intermixed with the running.  If I feel any pain at any given moment - everything comes to a SCREECHING HALT! 

Oh...I'm also wondering if this C25K program will help increase my speed.  I know I've mentioned it before (perhaps on SEVERAL occasions) that I was faster when I incorporated intervals into the mix than when I nixed them.  Perhaps by taking it back a bit and working through the transitions of intervals to straight running, I will learn how to maintain my speed.  By the way, I do use the term speed very lightly since we all know I'm a special kind of turtle!  =D

So, what do you think?  Whackadoo?  I'm starting tomorrow morning!

In case you are wondering - here is the program in a written out format.  I know I can get an application for my phone, but I don't want to carry my phone with me, so I'm going to set my Garmin for each workout to keep me on program.