Daily details:
Mo: 7
Tu: 3 x 2k averaging 6:34/mi. pace with 1 min. recoveries, then 1 x 800 in 3:02 before overheating
We: 5.5
Th: 11
Fr: 6
Sa: 6.5
Su: 15, pushing miles 3-5 (7:00, 6:42, 6:34) and 11-13 (6:34, 6:33, 6:18)
Week total: 60
I wrote last week about beginning to feel the accumulating mileage, which has now nearly doubled from the low 30s that I had been running for most of 2014 before Grandma's. The fatigue seemed to peak last weekend and in the first part of this week. In spite of (or maybe partly because of) losing what had been my one weekly off day (Wednesdays) prior to this week, I started feeling more energetic mid-week and especially by the weekend, after two short and easy days leading up to my first long run workout of this cycle. Before that, on Tuesday I did what was supposed to be a workout combining some tempo and faster paced intervals, but the humidity and heat on the track stopped me during only the second of what was supposed to be four 800s (with two minute recoveries) eventually getting under 6:00 pace. The magnified heat on the track, together with the 80 or so high school girls wandering all over the place at lacrosse camp, were enough to deter me from using the track again this summer. I'll do my remaining workouts somewhere more shaded and less busy before heading to Italy, where I'll be unlikely to have access to a track anyway. The main running event of my week, though, was Sunday's long run workout. The second tempo section in miles 11-13 was the main focus. The idea was to push when I was tired out and had some miles in my legs. My target was 6:30 pace. I took things easier on the first tempo section, because it was 98% humidity when I started, from fear of running out of gas early. But my 6:18 last tempo mile indicates that I started out a little too conservatively. It was an encouraging workout, though, and it felt good to dig deep at the end of a longish run while thinking about the last stage of a marathon. I'm all in for the marathon now, though I do miss getting the legs moving faster and was disappointed to miss an opportunity for that on Tuesday. But nothing in running compares with the feeling of running long and (relatively) fast, in my opinion. When you still feel strong, or find a second (or third) wind, after running 15 or so miles and can then actually accelerate while staying loose, gliding faster over the ground long after it seems possible to continue without tying up or just stopping - that, in my opinion, beats the exhilaration of running faster but shorter any day. I won't say that it's harder, in terms of the effort required or the pain to be endured. But both training for and execution in longer races do seem to involve more variables and thus have more opportunities for things to go wrong. I have some memory of reading Desi Davila, now Desi Linden - one of the top US marathoners - saying that in the marathon it doesn't matter how fast you can run; what matters is how fast you can run after 20 miles. I think about that a lot when running. And lately I've also been motivated by the image, seared in memory, of the guy in my running club, Rob Wolfe, with whom I ran the first half of Grandma's, pulling away from me at halfway as he accelerated from around 6:50 pace down into the 6:30s. I later found out that he kept running faster for the entire second half, while I went from barely hanging on to slowing more and more, and finally stopping several times in the final miles. Next time I'll be better prepared.
Mo: 7
Tu: 3 x 2k averaging 6:34/mi. pace with 1 min. recoveries, then 1 x 800 in 3:02 before overheating
We: 5.5
Th: 11
Fr: 6
Sa: 6.5
Su: 15, pushing miles 3-5 (7:00, 6:42, 6:34) and 11-13 (6:34, 6:33, 6:18)
Week total: 60
I wrote last week about beginning to feel the accumulating mileage, which has now nearly doubled from the low 30s that I had been running for most of 2014 before Grandma's. The fatigue seemed to peak last weekend and in the first part of this week. In spite of (or maybe partly because of) losing what had been my one weekly off day (Wednesdays) prior to this week, I started feeling more energetic mid-week and especially by the weekend, after two short and easy days leading up to my first long run workout of this cycle. Before that, on Tuesday I did what was supposed to be a workout combining some tempo and faster paced intervals, but the humidity and heat on the track stopped me during only the second of what was supposed to be four 800s (with two minute recoveries) eventually getting under 6:00 pace. The magnified heat on the track, together with the 80 or so high school girls wandering all over the place at lacrosse camp, were enough to deter me from using the track again this summer. I'll do my remaining workouts somewhere more shaded and less busy before heading to Italy, where I'll be unlikely to have access to a track anyway. The main running event of my week, though, was Sunday's long run workout. The second tempo section in miles 11-13 was the main focus. The idea was to push when I was tired out and had some miles in my legs. My target was 6:30 pace. I took things easier on the first tempo section, because it was 98% humidity when I started, from fear of running out of gas early. But my 6:18 last tempo mile indicates that I started out a little too conservatively. It was an encouraging workout, though, and it felt good to dig deep at the end of a longish run while thinking about the last stage of a marathon. I'm all in for the marathon now, though I do miss getting the legs moving faster and was disappointed to miss an opportunity for that on Tuesday. But nothing in running compares with the feeling of running long and (relatively) fast, in my opinion. When you still feel strong, or find a second (or third) wind, after running 15 or so miles and can then actually accelerate while staying loose, gliding faster over the ground long after it seems possible to continue without tying up or just stopping - that, in my opinion, beats the exhilaration of running faster but shorter any day. I won't say that it's harder, in terms of the effort required or the pain to be endured. But both training for and execution in longer races do seem to involve more variables and thus have more opportunities for things to go wrong. I have some memory of reading Desi Davila, now Desi Linden - one of the top US marathoners - saying that in the marathon it doesn't matter how fast you can run; what matters is how fast you can run after 20 miles. I think about that a lot when running. And lately I've also been motivated by the image, seared in memory, of the guy in my running club, Rob Wolfe, with whom I ran the first half of Grandma's, pulling away from me at halfway as he accelerated from around 6:50 pace down into the 6:30s. I later found out that he kept running faster for the entire second half, while I went from barely hanging on to slowing more and more, and finally stopping several times in the final miles. Next time I'll be better prepared.
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