Sadly we can't keep them forever and they have to move on with their own pursuits. I hope they don't mind my bragging about them once in awhile. Christmas was a day off from running as we spent the entire day exchanging gifts, preparing meals and just laying about.Since I'm on holidays for the week and most of the family likes to sleep in late it's been easy to get the runs in lately. Tuesday called for a simple 1 hour run which was accomplished by an easy around town loop. The weather has been unusually mild here lately with this run at +3C and a light rain. We were supposed to get a winter storm but it somehow missed our area while all around, north - south - east got snow. I was comfortable with some of the new gear that Santa brought me and also nicely entertained by a podcast by Steve Runner. Total of 9 miles in 78 min.
Similiar story today with another early morning run but a bit later start around 9:30am and cooler temps of -2C with some windchill. The simple plan today was to just do about 1.5hrs with a possible speed or tempo portion during the run. Did the 1st 6 miles as an out leg into the wind and near froze some extremities with the biting wind. The turnaround was a relief and I was then able to remove some clothes with the wind at my back but couldn't do much as far as picking up the pace. The run was uneventful except for a large German shepherd dog that came out on the highway to bark and investigate me. He was quite persistent but eventually backed off when his owner noticed him but no harm done. Finished the 12 miles in about 1:38 (8:11 pace).
It's only 16 weeks to go before Boston and time to work at my training plan to develop more specific goals for speed and tempo runs. For the last 7 weeks I've been averaging 50-68 miles per week with long runs of 20-21 miles every week but nothing as far as any faster running goes. It's just been putting in the hours and miles of basebuilding. There is a very interesting discussion going on at Lydiard Mike's blog that might help me out and I'm sure Andrew will have his 2 cents on whatever I come up with. I'm just looking for someone to tell me what to do but we'll see soon enough. Wish me luck!
8 comments:
Personally, I wouldn’t do anything more but perhaps the opposite, backing off slightly on the long runs (2 hours is plenty). I find that 12 weeks is more then enough time to properly build for a marathon (without mental or physical fatigue) and with your recent steady mileage going in you’re laughing. Come the end of January I’d start with the marathon specific training.
In the meantime, consider kicking this around for the next 4-5 weeks. It comes from Gabriele Rosa, who coaches Paul Tergat. They introduce some speed work prior to the marathon specific phase something I’m game to try this time around (note that any extra mileage would but steady, easy runs).
Week #1:
Workout (1): 10–15 x 1 minute at sub-5K pace with 1 minute jog recovery
Workout (2): 4–5 x 5 minutes at sub-5K pace with 2–3 minutes jog recovery
Workout (3): 10–12 x 20–25 seconds at 5K down to mile race pace with 1 minute jog recovery
Workout (4): long run
Week #2:
Workout (1): 10–15 x 1 minute at sub-5K pace with 1 minute jog recovery
Workout (2): 5–6 x 2 minutes at sub-5K pace with 1 minute jog recovery
Workout (3): Easy Run with last 10 minutes at half marathon effort.
Workout (4): long run
Week #3:
Workout (1): 10–12 x 20–25 seconds at 5K down to mile race pace with 1 minute jog recovery
Workout (2): 6–8 x 3 minutes at sub-5K pace with 90 seconds jog recovery
Workout (3): 10–15 x 1 minute at sub-5K pace with 1 minute jog recovery
Workout (4): long run
Week #4:
Workout (1): 10–12 x 20–25 seconds at 5K down to mile race pace with 1 minute jog recovery
Workout (2): 4–5 x 5 minutes at sub-5K pace with 2–3 minutes jog between
Workout (3): Easy Run with last 10 minutes at half marathon effort
Workout (4): long run
Glad the Christmas was a good one for you and your family.
Boston approaches... looking forward to reading about your preperation.
Thanks BC Michael! I think that's very doeable and will get my legs moving a little faster than all the steady paced stuff. I like instructions that just tell me what to do...now what the heck is my 5k pace?
Wow, not only do we get to read what you're doing, but hear advice as well. Blogs are great!
Enjoy your family around, good kids are a blessing.
Nice family, enjoy them while you can. I don't mind the bragging go right ahead!!!
You still have plenty of time, and I have the feeling Andrew will start making those long runs hurt a bit more in the coming months. Staying injury-free is the most important thing in my book, and by dedicating a fair amount of time to base building I'd say you're probably getting pretty injury resistant. I don't see any problem with continuing with the longer long runs, as long as they don't leave you crawling the rest of the week.
Isn't it great to have your kids home for Christmas! Great family pic.
Best of luck planning for Boston. We'll be right there with you, enjoying every step.
Good luck with all that mileage. I made a revision to the spreadsheet that should help with your question about multiple workouts.
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