LEAPS AND BOUNDS

Well, it’s been awhile. I’ll blame it on springing forward for Daylight Savings.  I'm just now adjusting.


I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t frustrated with my running. I’ve talked about losing a lot of fitness last year. With that in mind, I just assume I’ll be improving by leaps and bounds this spring. But so far that isn’t happening.

A week and a half ago I ran my second indoor 5,000m race this year. After running 19:57 at the first one, I looked at Daniels’ VDOT charts and noticed that the next step in the chart corresponded with a 19:36. Again, I’m thinking I’ve got 3 solid months under my belt, I should be able to drop my times like a rock, especially now that I know what to expect with an indoor 5K. Well things were going okay for 4K. I wasn’t on 19:36 pace, but I was about 10 seconds ahead of my first race. Then I started to freak out and worry more about my finish time than focusing on just running. I blew up and my last K ended up being my slowest of the day by 10 seconds. “Sprinting” the lap was enough to keep my sub-20 string intact. I believe my final time was like 19:19.56. Hell, I still had four-tenths of a second to play with.

The weird thing with these indoor meets is that there are not a lot of people to run with. There were only 8 people at that meet. So that was my alibi for that race.

Last Sunday was the Human Race 8K. It’s my official kickoff to the spring racing season. Weather for this race can be all over the board. This year, with a start time of 1:20, it was in the mid-70s with a pretty stiff breeze. Given all the VDOT charts and WAVA calculators, I was thinking somewhere around 32:30 would be a reasonable goal. Unfortunately, none of the charts or calculators factor in the difference between an indoor 5K and a road 8K in un-acclimated conditions.

Since I was really frustrated with my last race and how much attention I placed on the finish time, I decided to run this race without my watch. Instead, I wanted to focus on just running, competing, and listening to my body. In the end, I was much more happy with the process, but not so much the results. I ran 33:27, which isn’t much faster than what I’ve been running for my tempo pace.

Because I’m following a new training plan and because of last year’s injury, I’m really not sure what to blame. Part of me says to keep the faith and continue doing what I’m doing, while another part says to scrap everything and go back to what I know works for me.

The Endless Season approach is designed to race a little slower, but for a longer period of time. That sounds great on paper, but I’m not sure I can handle a whole year of mediocre results.

I guess I have some things to think about.

Quote of the Day;

"My daughters do not care about gold medals, they want me to bring an ice cream." - Chaunte Howard after being asked what the gold medal means to her daughters

I'LL JUST WAIT

First off, be sure to check out my latest interview.

I heard about this solar storm affecting GPS units and other electronics. I thought that’s what was happening on my run this morning. My first mile was 8:06, which is pretty quick for me for an opening mile. Then I saw 7:48 and started to wonder what was going on. I eased back, but still ran 7:39. Not sure if it was the solar storm or the day off yesterday, but I seemed to be moving pretty well. I guess I’ll take it without complaints.

My only other notable run of the week was Tuesday’s 8 x 400 workout that I ended up running on the treadmill. Of course, I’d rather run these on a track, but I made the best of what I had.

I came across what I considered to be an odd statement in this article;

However, the ugly truth remains: aside from the few genetically blessed individuals, most people who run in access (sic) of 50 miles per week, must spend as much or more time focusing on injury prevention than they do running or they will end up sidelined!

Seriously, I’m supposed to spend 7-8 hours a week focusing on injury prevention? I guess I’ll just wait until I end up sidelined and get it all out of the way at once. Where do people come up with this stuff?

Quote of the Day;

“I always try to put myself in a position to do something special if I can.” - Jon Grey.

THERE'S ONLY ONE WAY

It occurred to me the other day that maybe my training as been all wrong lately. I’ve been trying to follow the Endless Season approach, which is fine. However, in one blog post I mention not being able to squeeze in all the workouts during the week and in another post I mention running 70-mile weeks with thoughts of going higher.


A closer look at the Endless Season schedule shows that the weekly mileage is typically between 55 and 60 miles. Now I’m wondering if I could squeeze in all those workouts during the week if I cut my mileage back a little – keeping in mind that all of the workouts are at a controlled pace, rather than all-out all the time. I guess there’s only one way to find out.

With the unofficial kick-off to the 2012 racing season (Human Race 8K) less than 2 weeks away, I have to remind myself that short, fast racing is the goal through July, mileage is secondary.

So that’s my “new” plan – focus on getting in an interval and tempo run each week. Mid-week runs will stay in the 10 mile range and “long” runs will be around 11-13 miles.

Finally, here's a recap of February. I ended the month with 244 miles, including a couple of tempo runs and intervals, as well as a 5K and a hill workout. I think between December, January, and February, I should have a decent base heading into the new racing season.

Quote of the Day;

“We’re all an experiment of one.” - unknown