I like to think I take my recovery very seriously – maybe even too seriously. I feel like I’ve lost a lot of fitness since Grandma’s. The week after the race I ran just once. Then the following week was spent in Canmore/Banff, Canada with my wife where we celebrated 25 years of married with about 30 miles of hiking. I managed 30 miles the week after that and even set out a 6-week plan to focus on speed before embarking on another marathon training cycle. I managed a hill workout and 2 track workouts of 400s before changing my mind.
I settled on doing 400s after listening to a podcast that suggested running 400s at 5K pace, but rather than focusing on eventually running them faster, the focus should be on running the recovery 400s faster. For example, when you first start, you’d run something like 12 x 400 @ 5K pace w/ 400 jog @ easy run pace. Eventually your recovery is done at MP, then HMP, then tempo – all while keeping the 400s @ 5K pace. Then you would extend the 400s to 500 or 600s – again at 5K pace, while adjusting your recovery pace accordingly. One other suggestion is that you can chunk the 12 reps into sets anyway you like, 3 x 4, 4 x 3, 2 x 6, etc.
It all sounded great on my headphones and looked doable on paper, but I was only able to manage 2 x 4 reps both times. And, while I thought I was running my 5K pace, it just felt too fast – like I wouldn’t be able to hold that pace for 20 minutes. “Luckily” after the second workout my hamstring was sore, so I pulled the plug on my 6-week plan. Quite honestly, I pulled the plug because I don’t really enjoy that type of training. Instead, I’m going back to the 8020 Endurance plan that I used for Grandma’s. I liked the variety of workouts in that plan and the ability to just run by feel, rather than trying to hit splits over and over on a track.
Maybe I’ll get back to the track in the future when I have a summer of shorter road races planned. For now, I’m back on the marathon horse. The start of this week puts me 18 weeks away from California International Marathon. I’ve never run a marathon later than mid-October, so I’m excited to be able to do most of my training during the fall. I just have to get through August first.
Quote of the day;
“Every part of the journey is of importance to the whole.” – Saint Teresa of Avila
