I’ve been doing some thinking about my training lately. I’m trying to decide if 80 mpw is “good enough” or if I should continue to venture upward. If I stay in the 80 mpw-range, I’m pretty confident that I could add in a tempo-type run once a week. If I venture upward, I think I’d have to keep the pace pretty easy until I get used to the mileage. Given that Boston is still 5 months away and given that I’m more interested in long-term development than just that one race, it seems to make sense to keep building.
Obviously, in order to build mileage, I have to figure out where to add the miles. At 80 mpw in singles, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday are pretty much maxed out. This week I ran 11, 14 and 11. I could probably go 12, 15 and 12. Monday and Friday, I’ve been cutting back to 8 miles in order to recover. I don’t know if I could bump these to 10 miles and still call them recovery runs or not – even if I kept the pace easy, they’d still be roughly 85 minutes of running. That leaves the weekend. Right now my long run is only 17 miles, so I’m sure I could bump that and Saturdays could probably stay in the 14-15 mile-range.
Then there’s the whole idea of adding in a second run. I’ve done it in the past and I’m sure I could do it again. However, I really like this ‘one run a day’ thing. I get up early, run, and I’m done for the day. No worries about squeezing in a second run or about getting enough sleep.
I guess I’ll just play it by ear.
Today was a nice easy 8 miles with some strides along the way.
Quote of the day;
“As time has gone on I have learned to appreciate all the experiences I have had as a result of my running and am honored to have been in the sport as it began to blossom.” - Janis Klecker
So true - you get up, run, and there's nothing that needs to be done for the rest of day.
ReplyDeleteChad, I think what your doing now seems about right. If your weekend runs continue to get longer you'll be closer to 85-90. As you get closer to Boston (Feb, March) if you’re feeling good you can then amp up the mileage and run more two a days.
ReplyDeleteflii
ReplyDeletechad, I kind of like what bill had to say. Ultimately you need to figure out what works for you. Look at Pete Gilman and Kurt Keiser...they did 110+ miles a week and I know Kurt did all that on singles! That is not for everybody but just an example of what might work. Now is a good time of the year to play with milage and see if you can find the "happy medium". If it doesn't work, you will have plenty of time to change it up. Good Luck!
I didn't mean to call you "flii chad". some of the letters from your word verification got in the way when I posted. sorry, but who knows, maybe you are more "fly" than I think? Peace
ReplyDeleteBill, good point. With a long run of 17, I should just focus on increasing that.
ReplyDeleteGreg, Pete and Kurt are in a different league. They can probably run 100 miles in the time it takes me to run 80 miles.