I’m trying to determine which is a harder concept to define/capture; confidence or motivation. In my last post I mentioned gaining confidence and fitness. It’s true, I have been gaining confidence, but it seems like such a slippery concept. If I build my weekly mileage for weeks on end and include a couple workouts each week, my confidence will build over that timeframe. However, miss one workout or catch a slight cold and confidence starts to slip. Meanwhile, motivation can be just as elusive. This really occurred to me last weekend when it I entered a 25K race with the intention of running 5K easy, then 20K at MP. It was typical April weather in Minnesota, meaning, 40 degrees and light rain. I thought nothing of the weather and went out and executed my plan. Where motivation comes in is when I compare this to a low-key 4-mile race last 4th of July. After getting my packet I went to my car where it started raining – keep in mind it was probably 75 degrees. After sitting there for a few minutes, I talked myself out of racing, started my car and went home. The point is, motivation was definitely lacking in July, but it’s currently very high.
Looking
at a recap of week #8 below, you’ll see a lot of easy days after my 10-mile
race. My friend Evan and I have debated this over the years. He adheres to the
rule of no workouts after a race for the number of days equal to the number of
miles raced. Therefore, a 10-mile race would be followed by 10 days without a
hard workout. My rule is slightly more lenient. No workouts after a race for the
number of days equal to half the number of kilometers raced. Therefore, 10
miles equals 16K divided by 2 equals 8 days without a hard workout.
I
think both formulas work. The key being that you take time after a race to
really recover. Honestly, that can be very hard to do when you’re in the middle
of a training cycle and just coming off a great race. The first instinct is to get
back out there and keep working hard – especially when your pre-set plan doesn’t
know you raced, and it already has workouts slotted for the following week. It
takes discipline to skip those workouts and just run easy.
Here's
a little bit about the Ron Daws 25K. If you’re not familiar with Daws, he was a
1968 Olympian in the marathon. He wrote a couple of classic books; Self-made
Olympian and Running Your Best. He was from Minnesota and the claim
is that he used to train on this 25K route as preparation for Boston. It’s a
multi-loop course that includes two rather significant hills. One you go up 4
times and the twice on the other one. The main reason I bring this up is that
it’s difficult to get consistent splits on this course. My 20K at MP ended up
being anywhere from 7:35 – 8:13 per mile. In the end, I averaged 7:48 pace or
roughly 3:24 for the marathon. While I think I can run faster than that, it was
a very good test run after -back-to-back high mileage weeks. Also, after
checking splits on the first couple of miles, I just ran by feel and was pleasantly
pleased with the results.
That
means I’m halfway through this training cycle and still feeling confident,
motivated and ready for more.
WEEK #8
RECAP OF WEEK 4/2 – 4/8
Sunday – 13 miles, including Goldy’s 10-mile race in
1:10:59
Monday – AM: Strength, PM: 4 easy miles
Tuesday – 4 easy miles
Wednesday – 6 miles
Thursday – 5 miles
Friday – 7 miles w/ 12 x :20 strides
Saturday – 20-mile-long run w/ Derek
Summary: 59 miles and 1 strength training
WEEK #9
RECAP OF WEEK 4/9 – 4/15
Sunday – 4 easy miles
Monday – AM: Strength, NOON: 7.5-mile Structured Fartlek,
PM: 3-mile shakeout during track practice
Tuesday – 6-mile foundations run
Wednesday – 6.5-mile foundations run
Thursday – AM: Strength + 3-mile shakeout, NOON: 6 miles,
including 8 x 1:00 HILLS w/ 2:00 jog
Friday – 7-mile foundations run w/ Scott
Saturday – 17 miles total, including Ron Daws 25K (5K
easy at 8:40 pace, 20K at MP ~7:48 pace)
Summary: 60 miles of running and 2 strength training
Quote of the day;
“It isn’t what we say or think that defines us, but what we do.” – Jane Austen
2 comments:
People say as an older runner you need to rest more. The challenge is if you want to practice the dark arts of marathoning and beyond you have to consider how to keep the mileage high. For me I'm going to probably only take one day off a month. Otherwise the totals aren't acceptable to me. That's my own bias.
I also have experienced as an older craftsman of the hobby of power jogging that I can't get on top of it. We are all going to experience this, be it age, infirmaries, or old war injuries. And because of this I don't tucker myself out as much as the past. I should be charged and ready to hammer in as little as 2-3 days. I start tapering 3 weeks out, but the bulk of the resting happens in the last 10 days for me. I find myself wanting to turn the burners on the last couple weeks because if you ain't blastin' you ain't lastin'.
I think one thing that's really helping me this time around is that I've been taking a lot more naps lately. I'll take a 20-40 minute nap during lunch on the days I don't have a workout planned, plus Sat. and Sun.
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