DOUBLE WHAMMY

Prior to the new year, I purchased one of Lauren Fleshman’s training journals. Sure, it’s designed with women in mind, but what the hell. I thought it’d be a good tool to help me set some goals as I rededicate myself to racing this year.


At the beginning of the journal there’s a spot to write your goals for the year. In addition, there’s a spot to write down your goals for each month. Prior to January I wrote the following;

Build on December’s training by maintaining 45-60 MPW. 230 miles total.

Continue running weekly intervals, tempos, and build my long run to 2 hours.

Get my weight under 155 lbs, but the end of the month.

Run at least 1 of the 2 MDRA Grand Prix events during the month.

Well, now that January is in the books, how did I do?

My weekly totals for the month were 55, 44, 50 and 60. I ended up with 231 miles.

I ran one interval session, hill repeats once and 2 tempo runs. My long run only topped out at 1:45.

I usually only weigh myself on Saturdays. Last Saturday I was at 156 lbs.

I actually ran both Grand Prix races during the month. That means I’ve already run more races in 2012 than I did in 2011.

Overall I’m pretty happy with my progress. My biggest focus in February is going to be my weight. I’m happy that I’m down from 158 lbs, but typically, I race best around 148 lbs. I bet my friend Eric has some formula for how much 1 pound slows you down per mile. I think he’s told me it’s like 1 second per mile per pound. So if I’m carrying around 8 extra pounds for 13 miles, that’s nearly 2 minutes.

Another thing I have to work on is getting in my intervals. Looking at my past history, I’ve run my best races off of my highest mileage months. The last time I can remember being really fit is the spring of 2007. That spring I ran 17:52 (5K), 29:33 (8K), 37:47 (10K), 1:21:49 (half), and 2:57:29 (marathon). Looking at my training leading up to those races, I averaged 276 miles per month for the previous 11 months. I’m a little worried that if I don’t include my intervals, I’m not going to be doing anything different than in the past, except running lower mileage. That’s a double whammy.

Anyway, I do like where I’m at right now. In the past I’ve trained hard all winter and then run great in March and April – only to be sick of running by June. I’m trying to take a different approach and see if I can run better later in the year.

Quote of the Day;

“Running tells us the good news about ourselves!” – Dr. George Sheehan