I took an off day yesterday. I'm thinking those things might actually be good for you. I felt a bit like the tin man this morning, but none of the aches were in my calf, which I tweaked on Sunday's long run. By the end, I could feel a bit of a dull ache, but no tugging sensation, so I think I'm good to head to the track tomorrow. I haven't quite figured out what I'll do. I'm not sure I should do anything faster than HM pace. I might swap Wed and Fri and do the long threshold runs tomorrow.
Quite by accident, I've settled into Matt Fitgerald's "Brain Training" schedule. I really like what he tells you to do, but I *really* don't like the way he tells you to do it. All the pseudo-science and marketing really turns me off. The plan is basically two workouts (with lots of mixed intervals), a long run, one off day a week, optional doubles of 20-60' four days a week plus some drills and core work. The workouts get more race specific as you approach your goal race with lots of HM pace for the marathon. It's a lot like Canova and Hudson (who he co-authored a book with), but I think it targets a slow guy like me a little better. Canova uses a hypothetical 3' per km marathoner (the US has had two in history I think -- KK and Ryan Hall) and Hudson's hypothetical guy ends with running a 2:39 marathon. I know I can use the principles, but I'd like to be led a little closer to the water.
I used "base pace" to describe today's run as Fitzgerald does, but it was basically a moderate run (Daniels would call it E pace). I did 8:27 pace (146 bpm average) -- same pace as Sunday. It dawned on me that it's a little faster than I raced my first 10 miler in April 2005.
2 comments:
I've done my Brain Training stint, and even though I PRed a lot this year I won't be doing it again. Call me ungrateful, but I think there's too much speedwork in there. Your mileage may vary, of course, so to speak.
Thanks for the comment. In my heart, I'm a long slow distance guy, so coming around to anything with speedwork is kind of a dramatic change for me.
I ran all easy miles in the summer and have moved to speedwork only in the last 6 weeks or so (marathon 4.5 weeks away). I've missed all the early mile pace Brain Training stuff and only caught the more thresholdish stuff at the end, so that's probably colored my thinking. I've also weenied out on some of the harder stuff, slowing the pace and cutting it short (e.g. 2 x 3 miles at MP instead of 2 x 4.5 at HM pace).
As one who doesn't believe in periodization, I end up periodizing by waffling between LSD and multi-pace type training. Oh well. I'm improving, so I'll just be happy with that!
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