Wednesday, July 22, 2009

NEW ONE

This may be a new one. Yesterday I woke up at 4:45 for my run. I fed the dog and took her for a walk. After we got back the skies opened up and it started to pour. I drove across town for my run and was ready to go by 5:30. The only problem was that I couldn’t make myself go. All I thought about was how tired I was during my last workout and how I didn’t want to spend the next 90 minutes in the rain. So I went back to my car and fell asleep for a good 75 minutes.

I can’t remember ever doing that before, but it felt so good!

I was able to get in a very easy 5 mile run over lunch and then another five last night while watching the Tour. Seeing Jens Voight wipe out going down a hill mountain around 50 mpw makes me glad I’m a runner. Ouch!

I ran another very easy 5 miles this morning and I’ll toe the line at tonight’s Torchlight 5K. I don’t really have any goals for this race other than to get in a hard workout in the middle of the week. It'll be interesting to see how I compare to my time (18:58) at Brian Kraft.

A little more on Brad Hudson’s book. I’ve mentioned how he talks about adapting your training based on how you’re responding. Of course, that’s easier said than done. One of the things I like is that he gives some examples of what to look for – like being able to handle distance, but struggling with hitting your speed workouts. And he also gives examples of how to correct these imbalances. I think that’s what’s missing for a lot of the books on the market. They lay out a plan and then figure you’ll just follow along as closely as possible.

Only being on my fourth week of his plan, it’s a little too early to make adjustments based on the workouts I’m struggling with. However, as someone who generally has a hard time running the fast stuff, I’ll definitely be keeping that chapter close by.

Quote of the Day;

“You are never a loser, until you quit trying.” - Mike Ditka

2 comments:

Andrew said...

Chad, what's the name of that book again? Sounds pretty good. I've been enjoying your reports on it.

By the way, what do you do when you can't do the speed work? In my case, I've been having trouble getting my hills done.

Chad said...

Andrew, the book is Run Faster: from the 5K to the Marathon by Brad Hudson and Matt Fitzgerald.

The basic answer to your question is that you take a 3 week block and focus on your weakness. You do this by adding another such workout each week, while cutting out, or at least backing off, on the things you're strong at.