Today the alarm clock went off before I wanted it to. I ran through my head every possible reason why I should roll over and go back to sleep. None of them were very good, so I got up and went for a run. Of course, once I was done I was really glad I got my ass out of bed. Similar to last Friday, I wanted to get in a hill workout before a new batch of snow comes our way.
I managed to get in a 10 mile run with 9 hill repeats. That gives me 275 miles for the month. That’s way down from last year’s 326 miles, but I’m not too worried. As I’ve said, I’m looking to take a more conservative, but longer-range, approach this year by running fewer miles, throwing in some quality earlier in the year and keeping it rolling longer than April.
Speaking of hills, I looked at Lydiard’s schedule and he has a 4 week cycle that starts 14 weeks out from your goal marathon. I’ll have to think about that a little more in the near future.
Anyway, the weather from last night carried over to this morning’s run; 25 degrees, calm, clear skies, etc. Plus the sun is starting to come up during my run. Yay! The nice weather got me thinking about what’s the best weather for winter running. Of course anything above 40 is great, but let’s be realistic – that doesn’t happen too often around here. A few weeks ago, I was pretty pumped when it was 18 and calm. After this morning’s run, I’m not sure there’s much better weather for this time of year.
Quote of the day;
“Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered with failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows not victory or defeat.” – Theodore Roosevelt
That quote was on my fridge for years. Words to live by. Speaking of words to live by, I'm glad you're checking out Lydiard's hill schedule. Good stuff.
ReplyDeleteI don't know how closely you've followed Mike's progress with the Lydiard program. First time round he followed the schedule very closely; the next few times he cut down on the anaerobic phases after the hills. If you follow that example you could still do a full hill phase but don't have to start 14 weeks before the marathon.
ReplyDeleteMike, yeah I think Lydiard's hill bounding really helped me last year. Where I screwed up was taking Daws' advice and running the downhills pretty hard - followed by strides on a gradual downhill. This year I'll keep the bounding, but lose the hard dowhnhills.
ReplyDeleteThomas, when it comes to hills, I'm not so worried about them cuttting into the length of the anaerobic phase. I'm more concerned with not overdueing the length of the hill phase. I think a little can go a long way.