Here we go yet again. Major catch up. Although, you have not missed much, but I do have some news.
Monday – Scheduled rest day and needed it badly.
Tuesday – Felt like hot garbage all day. Legs were really beat up. This is not unusual. The day after a rest day usually takes awhile for the cowebs and stiffness to dissapate. However, as I was trading emails with Beast ahead of the team track workout, something felt familiarly unfamiliar. It was 4:30pm and I was waiting for the inevitable mental and physical rally to take place. At 5pm, I sent Beast a note that I still felt like crap. He felt the same but encouraged me to rally. I said I’ll give it 30 minutes and make a decision. 5:30 came and I decided to bag the track workout. Why? I felt the exact same as I did standing in the corrals for the DNF race … didn’t belong there. With a 4 mile race coming up on Saturday, the ABSOLUTE LAST thing I need was a another sub par workout going into race weekend. Why was I feeling like hot garbage? 10+ miles last Thursday. 4 on Friday. 10+ on Saturday. 12.5 on Sunday. Couple that with the nasty heat and humidity last week (multiple 100 degree days) and I was worn down. Rather than attempting to hammer on the track (and likely not finishing that workout), I went through mental gymnastics wrestling with whether to run at all on Tuesday. My initial thought was to either run with the team or not run at all … nut up or shut up. Given how I was feeling, the latter was the smart choice. However, Monday was a rest day. Taking off Tuesday too would mean back-to-back days off … inconceivable. Wednesday I had a day trip for work planned, so running looked unlikely for 3 days straight. Oh, heck no! Beast concurred and suggested that it might be good to just do easy short stuff in CP. I did exactly that … 3 miles at 7:40 pace … not a jog, but not a hard workout either (more on this philosophy later). I felt better for doing something.
Wednesday – With the aforementioned day trip planned, it was truly wishful thinking to run if my return flight wasn’t delayed, no traffic, etc. Highly doubtful. For that reason, I was even happier that I did something on Tuesday night. Still, when my flight landed at 6pm and I was in my apartment by 6:20, I took it as a sign from God that I needed to get outside and run. Similar goal as on Tuesday … not a jog, but nothing intense. Settled for 3 miles at 7:41 pace and a cool down for a total of 4.6 miles. Felt good. Usually on day trips I feel like death … 4:30am wake up, 6am flight, 10am meeting, 1pm return flight, land at 6pm. The body is not really meant to be at 35,000 feet hurdling at 400-500mph. Nonetheless, I felt shockingly normal as I went to bed. Happy.
Now for the news. Back to the 10, 4, 10, 12.5 above. I hit those miles and still missed my 1st week marathon training target by 5 miles. Plan called for 54. I did 49 and felt like hot garbage (new fav phrase) for 2+ days afterward. Not being a complete numbskull, I realized pretty quickly that the 18 week up 70 mpw plan is insanity. There is no way I can keep up that schedule (55, 58, 62 over the next 3 weeks) without junking up the workouts, getting injured and going into November dead. Beast, in his oh so subtle way, concurred and said I was going to kill myself before I even hit August (when real runners only begin to think about NYCM training). He said it’s unlikely he even hits that 70mpw mark and dude is a sub 2:50 marathoner. He is wise and a good friend. Therefore, I’m flipping the script.
I’m still going with 18 week plan, but dropping it to the 55 mile peak week. This serves to accomplish a couple of things: (1) gives me confidence that I will hit the peak week (I’ve done 53 and 51 recently) as well as all the mileage targets and most importantly (2) allows me to emphasize quality (aka speed) as opposed to worrying about mileage. I will likely add another 20+ mile run (taken from the 70mpw plan) to ensure the strength training continues.
Maybe I’m thinking too much about all of this, but there should not be as much of a disconnect between what I can do on a track vs. the roads. If I can hit a 79 for multiple 400 reps (5:16 pace) there is no reason I should running 8:30-8:45 for short distance runs (<10 miles) on the roads. None. Slow running begets slow running. Hence, the 7:40s I was doing earlier this week. I’ve done a crapload of hill sprints and even busted up the Beast on one a couple of weeks ago (hehehe, if he is reading), so the speed is there. I need to translate that into daily workouts. Therefore, anything in the 9:00s is gone forever. Done. Long runs (16+) will be 8:15 to 8:30. Everything else will be 7:xx. And the goal is to chop down those training paces over these next 17 weeks. It just has to be that way. You only go fast, if you practice going fast.