SPOUTING OFF

I’ve been spouting off a lot of info I read from Ron Daws’ Running Your Best. Two of the key things during the early stages of the base building phase include; 1) evenly (for the most part) distributing your mileage across each run and 2) keeping the pace easy to moderate until you can handle the mileage. Basically, you throw the hard/easy philosophy (including long runs) out the window until you max out your mileage and then hold it there for a week or two. Then you can begin to incorporate hard/easy efforts and start bumping up your long run.

I’ve been in the base building phase for 10 weeks now. I think I did a pretty good job following Daws’ “plan” for about 8 weeks. The last two weeks, however, I’ve added more stronger aerobic runs and I’ve bumped my long run up to 18 miles. While I’m feeling great, I think I need to get to Daws’ basic principles next week if I want to continue building my mileage.

Evan had a really good post today regarding the hundred mile week. One of the things he mentions regarding “lower” mileage is that you can “get away” with a 6-mile day. However, as you approach “100 mpw your 6-mile day is purchased with even higher mileage on another day.” I like that quote. It reminds me of the focus and dedication required to reach my higher mileage goals. I can’t back off for even a day and still hope to reach my goals. Obviously, I’m talking about motivation-wise, not injury-wise.

As I commented on Evan’s blog, I'm still trying to get a feel for maintaining this higher mileage. While I like the idea of splitting up the 10 mile recovery days into 2 runs, I'm torn with just doing a single so it doesn't feel like I'm running all the time. It's more of a mental drain than a physical drain.

This morning I felt better than I thought I would (due to last night’s harder effort) as I ambled along for 8 very easy miles.