Testing the Waters

I think someone (or many ones) with running expertise once said that it is unwise to add too many new elements to your training at once. I don't know if it's an urge to spice things up while not in marathon training mode or beacuse I am just clueless when it comes to actually training specifically for shorter distances but I found myself doing a lot of new running things last week. I can't say I necessarily planned things that way because I'm in the "free mode" part of my running season when I kind of am just following what I want to do. While for some people this is a good thing and a time for rest and recovery, I'm not really sure being in "free mode" is necessarily the best for me because while I enjoy it to a degree, the bottom line is I like to run and I like to run a hard a good deal of the time, so whatever this phase of my running season is, it would be hard to call it a recovery period.

So what did I do new or different last week?

1. I ran every day, in fact through yesterday I had run 10 days in a row. That's not a big deal for most runners, particularly those who log as many miles as I do, but it's not something I have done or been willing to do for almost three years now since I first injured my hip and have added at least a day or two of cross training into my week to allow for better recovery and less pounding.

2. I continued my plan to introduce some doubles into my training. I have to admit part of the reason for it is simply convenience because I can run home 4-5 miles from work faster and more peacefully than I can walk, or by negotiating crowded subways and buses in rush hour. Running to work would never really work for me because I would be a sweaty mess and too many other logistics to work out, but running home is quite appealing and if we get hit with crazy thundershowers as we often do this time of year I don't lose my main run for the day or have to worry about postponing it/moving it to a treadmill etc. as I would if I moved my main run from the morning to the evening. So in all this week I did a double and a half for the second straight week---on Tuesday I ran 8 miles in the morning, and 4 in the PM, and Thursday I elipitcalled for an hour in the morning and ran 4.5 in the PM. I don't know what path this is headed down but perhaps as many as 3 actual doubles per week by the end of the summer or maybe I'll just bail on them.

3. Speaking of running in the PM, this was relatively new element # 3. I almost always run in the morning regardless and I like it this way for a number of reasons---mainly because life, work, and weather rarely interfere with morning runs and also because I am a morning person and get up very early and am tired by the evening. In fact almost the only reason I will run at night is because that is when my running club meets for its workouts. (As will be explored in new element # 4) I don't run workouts all that often with other people except for a Sunday group run which I used mainly for my medium long-run during marathon training, but over the course of the winter I ran a tempo run with others about an average of once every two weeks maybe a little more often. But this week I did both a track workout on Wednesday and a tempo run on Friday with a group at night. Throw in the two days I ran home from work as part of doubles and that made for four evening runs in total.

4. As hinted at in # 3, I ran speed work twice in the same week for the first time in quite a long time. At least speed work with others as I often will just do a second tempo run or something of the sort on a weekday morning when I'm feeling good and want to push the pace a bit. The 10 x 800 meter track workout I did on Wednesday night was in fact only the second or third interval workout I've done all year and it was rough. I was definitely not on the same level as many of the people I was running with who I could hang with or beat in races but who had been running intervals all spring and over the course of the last couple of years. In all I was happy with the paces in the workout as I averaged around 2:50 for my 800s (when you include the 2:38 and 2:41 I blasted out at trying to hang with people who I thought were of similar ability) but it left me feeling pretty tired and honestly a bit perplexed at how easily everyone else was able to reel off the times they did. It also left my hip feeling a little too achy and off, which is the reason I have stayed away from too many intervals for the last couple of years---for whatever reason I can run, hard, medium, slow and all kinds of workouts without much problem as long as I am not starting and stopping over and over with hard efforts. I followed this up on Friday night with a group tempo run, something I did do every other week or so throughout the winter before I hit the peak of my marathon training and started doing all of my workouts solo in the morning, which while not a shock to the system was pretty terrible run---maybe because of the heat, maybe because of track workout on Wednesdays, or maybe because my body was just in shock from all the unusual training elements I had thrown into the mix this week.

5. All of these new training elements and workouts led to the highest mileage week I have run when not in marathon training at 70 miles and without looking through my running log I am also pretty sure it is the most mileage I have run in a week without what I would consider to be a long run ("long" run was 14 miles on Sunday).

So what is my conclusion on all these new or relatively new training elements. For one, I won't throw them all into one week again anytime soon---I was dead tired during my tempo Friday and my 14 miler (with a mile or two of tempo mixed in) on Sunday and my hip was starting to act up just a bit--- though maybe I'll try to build up to it by the end of the year. But to look at things on a case by case basis:

1. While I may stick to the run more mileage as I feel like it approach in my next training cycle, running every day on most weeks is not something I am going to aspire to. My hip just needs an off day from the pounding sometimes. Period. I think I will be fine running 7 to 10 days in a row here or there but not as a regular practice, I have already made a decent jump in the last year to get from 4-5 days back up to 6 plus a day of cross training.

2. I'm going to stick with some doubles and see where they take me, as noted before it is just convenient to run home from work once or twice a week, so if it doesn't affect my training in other ways I might as well add 8-10 easy miles per week.

3. I still don't like running at night. My body and sleep patterns could adjust to it I'm sure over time, but I definitely lost some sleep this week the two nights after I did my track workout and tempo at night since I got home later, then had to shower, eat dinner and then still felt all awake from the hard running as I was going to sleep. While I'm sure one could look to the cumulative effect of all this running as to why I felt so tired and slow on my Friday night and Sunday morning runs this week, I really think this had a lot to do with it, as more than anything else it threw me out of the daily rythym and running pattern that I followed all throughout my last marathon cycle. So I will probably still keep one of the group workouts per week or at least every other week becuase I think they will ultimately help my running---and it spices things up occasionaly and makes it more fun sometimes---but I won't be doing it twice in a week anymore.

4. The conclusion in # 3, leads into the conclusion for # 4, that I won't always run two speed workouts in a week, particularly as I adjust to some doubles and eventually start to increase my long runs again. I will continue to run faster on two days most weeks, but one day will not be organized and my traditional style of hard running on a morning when I just feel good since I find this so much less stressful and easy to recover from than when I force a workout on my body on a specific day which it may or may not feel like doing. For the most part I will probably cut out the repeats and track work since I have gotten a long way in the last year just running higher mileage and tempos. I will do some though as I focus on shorter races over the course of the summer.

5. I like the higher overall mileage I reached this week without doing a long run. If I can consistently hit 65-70 miles per week without going over 13-15 miles on any run in this phase of my training, it should make hitting 80 mile weeks come marathon training season feel doable if that's the direction I want to head in. Also, even though I felt pretty tired and sore at the end of this week I also couldn't imagine running the two hard workouts I did as well as the "1.5" doubles while dealing with the wear and tear of a 20+ mile long run and I do think that running the same total mileage that I have often done in marathon training while being able to throw more speed work on top of it might serve me well, particularly at the shorter distances this summer.

So that's all, I'm taking my overdue off day today after all that running last week, which is why I had time to reflect upon it all in this post! What am I going to do to spice things up this week since I'm dialing back some of the other elements. Well it's mostly going to be an easy week but I may head to a track meet tomorrow night to run a 1500 or 800 for the first time in a very very long time, which would promise to be quite interesting. But the focus for this week is getting a little more recovered and rested so I am prepared for Sunday's 5 mile race.