Solo Tempo

The funny (not really) thing about training is that the slightest adjustment to your schedule has a significant ripple effect.  Take back-to-school as an example.  For the last 2 weeks, I’ve been “off” in terms of being sleepy all the time.  At first I thought it was just yet another phase of marathon training … terrified, grumpy, hungry and, lately, sleepy.  After debating the potential issues with a couple of teammates, we came up with burnout (negatives of 18 week program), normal ups and downs of training, early evening darkness.  All or none of the above could be the answer.

Next, I went to my wife.  She nailed it without me even going thru the laundry list.  Back-to-school.  For the last 2 weeks, I’ve taken the early shift of walking my daughter to school (younger kids go 1 hour later initially).  Since August, I have not been running in the morning to take advantage of sleeping in longer.  The simple change of getting up 1 hour early and hustling from the second I wake up has indeed had a ripple effect.  Getting to work earlier is good, but then I would tire out at the end of the day.  My performance at workouts have not been effected because of this, but I have missed the last 2 tempos partially because I’ve felt weak.  I value tempos far too highly to be dragging at the start.  As such, I’ve rested each of the last 2 Thursday nights and done the workouts the next morning.  (In full truth, last Thursday I was working late so missed the start, but then completely bagged doing it that night because of fatigue.)

With that backdrop, I found myself faced with a dilemma: while tempos are critical, long runs are sacred. By moving the tempo to Friday morning would I have enough recovery to properly execute big long runs?  I had no choice but to roll the dice.  On the docket this week was a 3 x 2mi tempo at HMP with recoveries spliced between the intervals.  It’s bad enough just waking up when it’s pitch black outside, but to be standing in front of my building clicking the watch at 5:40am, knowing I need to really execute, is grim business.  The results:

Given the terrain (hilly during tempo portions) and early start, I’m pleased with the effort.  After pissing off shocking the body awake during the first mile, I settled into a nice rhythm.  It’s not reflected here (bc of the Garmin settings), but I negative split big time within each 2mi interval.  I’m working on pace recognition so I tended to go out at MP for the first mile and then work into HP during the second mile.  It seemed to work well. I appreciate this type of workout because if you can feel reasonably comfortable at a quicker pace, when you slow down for 26.2, it should feel less than terrible .  Leading into a big weekend long run on Sunday, this morning is another confidence booster.

The other goal for the weekend is get my body clock fixed.  There is no way I can do (or advising doing) pre-dawn tempo runs … dumb, dumb, idea as I am paying for it all day today.  Part of the solution will be my wife will retake school drop of duties (at least thru November) so I might get back to my sleepytime in the morning.  She’s the best.