Thursday, April 09, 2009

INITIAL TRADE-OFF

There is one thing I forgot to blog about last week. As I was running on the trails of Hyland Park for the first time this year it occurred to me that runners – or at least me – probably don’t realize when they are fit. However, they definitely realize when they aren’t fit. This thought came to me as I was struggling up some of the hills in the park. When I’m fit, I don’t even think about those hills. I took for granted my ability to run those trails for 2 hours in the middle of the week last year. Now 90 minutes is a struggle.

I was flipping through a book the other day – I can’t remember which one now – and I came across a line that made me feel a little better. It basically said that running a certain time in a race, year over year, is no indication of how the rest of your year will turn out. I took it to mean that just because I ran 1:40 slower than last year at the Human Race 8K, it doesn’t mean that I can’t get better results than last year as the season progresses. Granted, I have a long ways to go – but I guess that’s part of the whole ski/run experiment. Of course there’s an initial trade-off in running specific fitness, but at some point does being fresh and motivated to run counter act the effects of skiing?

Another indication that I have a long ways to go was seen with Tuesday’s workout; 9 miles with 4 at Lactate Threshold. Being my first such workout in this training cycle, I wasn’t too concerned about hitting exact paces, but I still wanted to have a ballpark idea of where I should be. I punched my 8K time into the McMillan Calculator and it spit out 6:31 to 6:48 pace for tempo runs. I was a tad slow, averaging 6:50 pace for the 4 mile stretch, but I’ll take it. It’s just a little frustrating that my marathon PR is faster than that pace. I just have to remind myself that it’s a long season and that I don’t have to be in PR shape for Grandma’s.

Yesterday I followed up my tempo run with a 12 miler and then this morning was a very easy 5 mile recovery run.

Finally, here’s my latest interview. Thanks to Adam for the suggestion.

Quote of the Day;

“Not sure I have any one fondest memory. There is a common feeling though. On the good days I feel like I have super powers – like I always have another gear I can tap into if I need it. I love those days!” - John Munger

3 comments:

Beth said...

I think your right that we fall in the trap of trying to forecast our future performance by comparing specific races early in the season. There are just too many factors over too much time to do that. Grandma's is still very far away. You'll do great!

Kirk said...

I'm glad to hear someone else say it. I couldn't race a fast race this time of year if I wanted to. There's something in not being quite fit yet and the pollen that is just starting to come out that makes me slow. If I predicted my fall times based on this time of year, I'd probably quit running!

Anonymous said...

The fitness is there. You'll round out nicely. I think you will be surprised how well your spinning workouts the last few weeks.

For what it's worth. If I felt well the last 4-5 weeks before the race, I just blasted the speed/tempo workouts. Gets you battle ready.

Double