January 2017 Running Challenge

2.25 this morning. Still not 100% yet

4.18/I don't have a new goal for January (maybe 25? 40?)

@katharmonic Sorry to hear about the lack of markings in your trail run. One thing I'll say about trail running is that you can't really have a goal pace in mind unless you run that route frequently. You just kind of have to run by feel and fo the best you can. The hills and navigating the terrain will greatly slow your times. As an example, I did a 15K trail race last year, and I won Female Masters, came in 2nd overall for females with a pace of 10:02. In my last Half Marathon (road race) I finished with a pace of 8:07. That trail race was fun, but was by far the toughest race I've done. If I can get my knee better, my goal is to do more trail racing after my marathon. If you get more practice at it (and without ice), trail running is pretty fun.

@AdrianChr92 -Yeah, I guess defining speedwork would help. In fact, thinking about it actually provided me some clarity. Your post was quite helpful. I know it flies in the face of conventional wisdom, but in this particular case, my MP is my easy training pace: 8:45-9:00. In the past, I was training for 8:25-8:30 marathon pace and I was doing my tempo runs at HM pace of around 7:30. Recently, I have been doing tempo runs around 8-8:15. When I put this all down in writing, I guess what I am doing does make sense. It just doesn't feel right because it goes against how I am used to training. I have, however, been following a training plan that probably has too many short, fast intervals. I like your advice of doing longer intervals at a slower pace. Thanks for the input.

@MNLittleFinn and @katharmonic - You both are right. Just stupid jitters. I need to relax!

@katharmonic - That trail run sounds like a bit of a nightmare, but at least you finished and it's an experience you will remember! Character builder! And, TBH, I am thinking that a snowshoe 5K sounds equally dreadful! But that is coming from someone who has never snowshoed, so...

January goal: 100 miles
1/1: 3.6 miles (m)
1/2: Downpour Day
1/3: 4.5 miles (m)
1/4: 4 miles (m)
1/5: 5 miles (m)
1/6: 4.5 miles (m)
1/7: 4 miles (m)
1/8: 6 miles (m)
1/9: Rest Day
1/10: 4.15 miles (m)
1/11: Unplanned Rest
1/12: 3.75 miles (m)
1/13: 4.5 miles (m)
1/14: 4.5 miles (m)

My Total/January: 48.5 miles
Mike's Total: 48.5 miles

Have a fabulous rest of the day!

01/01/17 - 5 miles
01/02/17 - 5 miles
01/03/17 - 3 miles

01/05/17 - 6 miles

01/07/17 - 10 miles
01/08/17 - 3.25 miles

01/10/17 - 6 miles
01/11/17 - 5.5 miles
01/12/17 - 3.25 miles
01/13/17 - 6.5 miles
01/14/17 - 5 miles

lporter229 wrote: »

I am struggling with a bit of a dilemma in my training. Because I am looking to have a slower, more comfortable marathon in April, I decided to lay back off my speedwork a bit to keep my legs fresher and avoid risking injury. The thing is, I am used to really pushing hard on my hard runs and taking it easy on the easy. Mentally, I think that has always done me good because I know that I have toughed it out and it has always given me a good feeling of preparedness. Taking it easy on myself is messing with my head a bit. It has me feeling underprepared and second guessing everything. Furthermore, at group run today, two guys were talking about speedwork and how it is so critical in marathon training. They were both crediting good speed sessions for their ability to maintain fresh legs in the late stages of the marathon. Another thing to keep me second guessing things here. I want a comfortable race, but I would still like to finish sub 4 hours. Am I asking to have my cake and eat it too? Do I stick with plan A and just let things be? I really don't want a DNF, but I also don't want a DNS...although I am not sure which would be worse, honestly. Just venting, I guess. If anyone has any words of advice from experience, please feel free to offer!

For all that I'm training for my second Boston, I'm a relative newbie to the world of marathons. While I'm not sure how much physical benefit I get from speed work, I see huge psychological benefits. Anyway, here's how my coach explains it:

We train repeats, R pace [~1 mile race pace], early in the training cycle. Do enough repeats at R, and you get tired. To maintain the pace, you are forced into good form and good running economy. The aspiration is that the good form developed by the R work carries through for the rest of the training cycle.

We do a lot at I pace [~5K race pace, faster than lactic threshold] in mid-cycle. The physiological goal is to increase lactic threshold.

We do a lot at T pace [lactic threshold] later in the training cycle to build endurance.

There isn't a lot of physiological benefit to training at MP. We train at MP to become accustomed to the pace, so it's easier to maintain on race day.

That's the Party Line on physiological benefits of why the plan I am following is structured the way it is. I'm not sure I can identify the desired benefits in myself, and I'm sure I can't break them down to which pace gives me what benefits. (I did notice that last year, my easy pace got about 15 seconds per mile faster during the training cycle. It's come back almost to that level early in the cycle this year.)

Psychological benefits that I've noticed: Interval work of all types prepares me mentally for running fast again after I've been physically compelled to slow down for recovery. It prepared me to run again after I was forced to take walking breaks after 23.5 miles of Boston.

Long tempo intervals prepare me to run faster, run slower, and run faster again. The classic tough long interval workout in my plan is 3 miles easy, 2 x (4 miles at MP, 1 mile at T), 2 miles easy. Running mile 7 at T isn't too bad; but running mile 8 at MP again after being worn down by the first 4 miles of MP and mile of T is hard. Then running mile 13 at T is very challenging. Finally, it's a mental challenge to keep running, even easy after the first 13 miles of this. Does it help physically? *shrug* I don't know. But it sure promotes mental toughness and the ability to keep going late in the marathon when I'm tired.

The other workout that really helped me mentally was 2 miles easy, 13 miles MP, 2 miles easy. That was a confidence builder showing that I could maintain MP for an extended run.

None of this has anything to do with fresh legs. Running a lot of easy and less at challenging paces helps with fresh legs, as do well placed rest days.

Bottom line is, you have to find what works for *you*. If you have to pick between the optimal plan for physical benefit and a sub-optimal physical plan with huge mental benefits, I'd go with the mental benefits. But I can't tell you what the precise plan is, because what helps you mentally might be different than what helps me.

Oh, and my two cents . . . DNF is psychologically much, much harder to take than DNS. I've done both. Even though I think intellectually that DNF at least got to the start line, and thus ranks ahead of DNS, it's still harder to cope with DNF than DNS.

@Stoshew71 I kind of convinced my mom to do thr ely marathon with me. It's 3 and a half months after my first and it's got a 18min/mile time limit so we can walk it. She is trying really hard to get into/stay in shape. She turns 60 in March and has MS she's been fully supporting my running, so if I can pace her to a marathon finish, I don't care how crazy it is....and I know own it's pretty crazy, going from not being a runner to having run 2 marathons and 2 HMS in under 2 years.

No running for me yesterday or today - probably not tomorrow either; I've got a cold :-(
I went for a 30min walk last night and 45min today, and did a little cycling yesterday and a bit of easy strength training, but as long as walking up the stairs to my apartment makes me feel dizzy and out of breath, I'll stay away from running. I figure I could make it for half an hour if I was really determined, but there's no way I'll run the 25km my training plan lists for this weekend. I'll try to be sensible and take three non-running days, hoping that way I'll get rid of the cold faster.


@katharmonic Wow, that 5k sounds like a lot of exitement! I've signed up to do a snow trail run next week, I'm hoping there will actually be snow. Since it's in the mountains and we already got lots of snow at a lower altitude, I'm hoping it won't involve icy patches and streams without bridges.

@9voice9 Congratulations on your new PR. That's a huge improvement in a year, great race!