Wednesday, February 08, 2012

BROKEN RULES

I’ve always said that my body doesn’t necessarily follow the man-made 7 day week. Often it’s convenient to break our training into 7-day cycles or multiples thereof – for example, the approach to building a base that I mentioned in my last post. I have had success with building for 3 weeks before backing off for a week. However, lately my body, actually probably more so, my mind, is telling me I need to back off. Now!


Could I make it through till Sunday before backing off? Yeah, probably. But I’m also reminded of a few things; 1) it’s still early February, 2) I just ran a half marathon 1.5 weeks ago, 3) I’ve been building rather steadily since the end of November, and 4) as one of my old/wise training partners said on Saturday, you gotta have patience.

So what are the signs that I need a break? Like I mentioned yesterday, that I was first day where I felt like I needed a break. Then today I scheduled a tempo run. Throughout the workout I gradually talked myself into doing a shorter and shorter tempo. I started by thinking that I wouldn’t go as fast as last time, but I’d do 6 miles instead of 5. Then I thought, what if I just do the same pace as last time but only do 4 miles? Finally, I settle on running slightly faster (6:48 pace), but for only 3 miles.

One of the axioms of the Endless Season approach to training is staying in control of your workouts. I feel like I broke that rule today because as I kept shortening the distance of my tempo, I kept telling myself I had to go faster. By the end, it felt like I was just throwing myself along the treadmill as I tried to make up for cutting the workout short.

With all that going on, I’m going to begin my cutback “week” now and enjoy a few easy days before ratcheting things back up.

Quote of the Day;

"I did something risky today. I didn't have a rust-buster. I went straight from heavy aerobic work in Monument (Colorado) at 7000 feet, and I tried to just come down and race fast. Whether you're in middle school or high school, that's what it looks like when somebody dies in a race." – Jenny Simpson, after going out with the leaders last weekend at the New Balance 3000m


1 comment:

Andrew said...

Good listening.