Recovery

If there is one thing that I will take away from this marathon cycle it is the importance of the recovery run. Some may refer to all this extra mileage as junk miles, but I swear by the slow, easy, runs that get my blood flowing and aid in rebuilding my body. After a hard effort like a 20 mile run I need at least 3 workouts dedicated to just recovery. This year my main goal was to become strong runner and to re evaluated the way I train based on how my body reacts to the stress of running. In the past I did way too many hard runs not leaving any time for recovery. For recovery days I have been trying to do an easy mountain bike ride the day after my long run (Saturday) followed by the next 2 days at recovery pace. Those next 2 days may include 4 workouts at this pace, but I feel that as long as I am moving, and do not put any additional strain on my body, I can recover for my Wednesday track workout. Running an easy 1 hour run in the morning and a 30 - 40 minute at night is essential to being able to train at this intensity. With 2-3 hard runs a week I try to keep my 18 plus mile long runs on a 10 day cycle so that I can recover and perform the other workouts on my training plan without risking burnout or injury. Its all about learning about how your body works and adapting a training plan to your specific needs and goals. In a couple of weeks I am going to run my last long hard 22 mile run and follow that run up with my final hard 10 mile time trial 7 days later. Note = On Wednesday night I ran my 25x200 meter workout.. During the warm up I was still a little sore, but as I started the workout I started to feel better. I am still not sure if it was the 71 miles plus mountain biking that killed me last week or the 20 mile finish fast run on Saturday. I definitely needed 3-4 days of easy running just to be able workout, I imagine I would need a full week to be able to race. I guess we will find out when the bridge run comes up the week after my final long run. At least I know I am coming down in volume a little bit before the 22 miler so I will not be so shot before during and after. We will see. This year has been quite the learning experience.

71 Miles

Its been 20 years since I have crossed the 70 mile per week line. This week after a long 3 years of slowly building my mileage back up I hit my peak mileage of 71 miles for this marathon cycle. 71 miles may not be a ton of mileage compared to what an elite athlete may run, but for this 38 year old body it is a milestone and confidence builder. One of the main reasons I quit running when I was a freshman in college was that I could not successfully maintain a mileage load without injuring myself. I was fragile, and could never get stronger no matter what I did. When I returned to running 3 years ago I swore to myself that I would build a giant base of strength before I even attempted to turn on the speed. Getting back up to 70 plus miles reassures me that I am working harder and smarter than ever before. As I finish up this marathon cycle in the next couple of weeks I will feel empowered by this week, and use that strength to push me through those last grueling miles on October 7th.

10 things I do to not fall off the edge.

Things I do to hold it together while marathon training 1. Afternoon Power nap 2. No alcohol 30 days out from event 3. Recovery drinks 4:1 ratio after all hard workouts 4. Running Doubles 5. Mountain Biking 1 day a week 6. Go to sleep early 7. 2 days a week no morning run sleep in until 7:30am 8. Eat more 9. Yoga 10. 15 minutes legs up everyday 11. Maintain a 9 day cycle of Stress day followed by 2 recovery days. 12. Get to the edge see the view and then back off.

Tweaking it.

I have been looking at my last year of training plans and trying to figure out how to close out my marathon training. I have 4 weeks of good training left before I taper for 2 to 2.5 weeks. The remainder of my training has to be more specific to my marathon pace. I took a gamble this year with how I prepared myself for this race. After my winter build up for the 25k I lowered my mileage and increased my intensity on the track. My goal of running a sub 40 minute 10k this summer got cut short by a non running related injury, but I was able to get in a good 7 weeks of speed / tempo work with a low volume of mileage. At the end of July I turned the mileage back up and began to build a stronger base, while maintaining a weekly marathon pace or tempo run. The last couple of weeks have been brutally hot and I have relied more on getting in the mileage than pushing myself to exhaustion. I get nervous when I go too long without a long hard marathon pace run. After taking into account my entire year of training I am going to lower my mileage volume for the remaining 4 weeks while upping the intensity to meet my current levels of exertion. It is my hope that if I take these next 4 weeks and focus on more marathon pace runs and less LSD running I will be able to peak with A. a shorter taper, and hopefully at the exact right moment. I am just 2 runs away from completing my first 70 plus week, and I am excited to know that I can train like this and stay healthy. The hay is almost in the barn, and I hope to get it all in there in the next 4 weeks. We will see. It a theory.

The Monastic Life

I am an all or nothing kind of guy. When I make a commitment to something I am all in right from the start. When I decided that I needed to get back into shape after neglecting and abusing my body for over 10 years I knew that I was going to have to call on my obsessive super-self to be able to reach this big goal. 3 years ago I was a mess. The details are not important, but to return to being a runner took more than just lacing up a pair of shoes and trotting out the door everyday. Being a runner is much like being a monk. The repetition of tasks are like meditation. The early morning runs, strict dietary requirements, grueling track workouts, the yoga, the stretching, the weight lifting, the cross training, the lifestyle, and philosophy of being a runner in many ways becomes a religious experience. And like prayer sometimes you are able to connect and sometimes you feel like they fall on deaf ears. But in the end much in the same way as a newly reformed believer is changed by God, a convert to the monastic life of being a runner will never be the same again. Fast forward to the present day and I have been slowly and carefully building myself back to up what I consider a good starting point. I am in shape again, I am able to handle a halfway decent amount of mileage, I have the drive to work hard, I have figured out how to read my body's signals, I have returned to being a runner. From here the goal spreads out a bit. I am getting closer to 40, and my plan is to work hard to be a halfway decent age grouper as a masters runner. How serious is too serious? I currently believe that even though I am not an elite runner I can slightly modify the volume of an elite training plan and reap the benefits of the elite athlete. I currently peak at 70 miles per week and will continue to build up mileage each spring and fall training cycle until I reach the point where the volume is no longer positively affecting my performance. I love knowing that I can continue to push my mind and body to new heights and that if I continue to faithfully listen to my body, train hard with a clear mind I will reach all of my goals.

North Carolina

I have always had a hard time keeping a training plan going while on vacation. All the variables that traveling throw into the mix makes me a little bit more of a wimp when it comes to following my scheduled training plan. This past 9 days I have been either on the road or in some part of North Carolina. I am proud to say that I did not miss a run, a double day workout, or stray from my marathon training plan. My first day of traveling I ran before I got in the car and at the hotel on a shitty excuse for a treadmill. I was able to hit my 30k long run in the NC heat and humidity by doing a 5 mile loop around my parent's development. It was not the nicest or most interesting long run I have ever taken, but with temps in the 90s and humidity in the 80 it was nice to have a centralized pit area to refuel and cool off if only for a couple of minutes every 5-6 miles. This next week will be as challenging as last week. I have a 10 miler @ mp and a 20 mile long run on my plate for my two big runs. I am looking forward to my shakeout run this evening to hopefully get some of my driving kinks out of my body. Great week to come. Things are getting longer and faster. Also as a note. I took 3 days off in a row after this past hot and grueling week in NC. I allow myself to take a 3 day rest 2 times during a 12 week training session. I hope it helps me in getting through to the end.. Faster and harder to come.

Great Week

I just finished up my best week of training yet. Its not that I ran the hardest, or completed the most distance, but it was a week of well planned and well executed runs. I am finding balance in all of this madness. I was able to mtb 3 times last week on top of all this running so I know I am getting stronger. The mountain biking breaks up the monotony of running, and allows me to mask my current running specific sore muscles with some mtbing sore muscles. Taking today off from everything. Legs up, taking my vitamins and rehydrating for the grueling next two weeks to come. Starting this week we add a tempo workout to the mix, and the lsd gets up into the 18+ mile runs. Here goes nothing.

The Ups and Downs of Marathon Training

I am currently having a wonderfully strong week of training. I am not sure what it is, but I will take it. Been taking my vitamins and trying to lay off the pain killers. Replaced my trainers this week after putting way too many miles on them. I really think that running shoes have about 300 miles in them and then they should be retired. I think I pushed these shoes to about 400 miles. I am not sure I will have to look at my training logs. Whatever the case I started to get this dead feeling in my right leg, so we marched on down to our favorite running store and let go of another $100 bill. I am sure I will do this one more time before October 7th. My decision to pull my mileage back to 60 -65 miles per week seems to be working. I think that not having to run that one workout allows for me to cross train on my mountain bike and loosen up my hips and calves. Its working, so I am not going to change it. I am trying to focus on getting my hydration and my post run nutrition under control. I think I wait too long to refuel making my recovery more complicated. Running doubles a couple of times a week gets me to relax and get some easy mileage in. So, with that said.. There are 9 more weeks to go.