This week was 55 miles of running, 17 "miles" of pool-running, and 3000 yards of swimming -- training log is here.
I started to get back into things with my first "real" workout on Friday - Iwo Jima hills. It's a loop course with each loop being 2/3rds of a mile. We run reasonably hard uphill (though the focus is on power not speed) for a bit less than 2 minutes, jog slowly to recover and reset, followed by a 30-35 second downhill stride to work on turnover before more downhill jogging to the start of the next loop. It's not intended to be a continuous aerobic workout, though it does have some aerobic benefit. It's more for power and speed development, as an off-season thing.
It is possible to turn this workout into an undulating tempo-ish thing by running the recoveries too fast and not varying the pace of the workout too much. However, I'm intentionally switching gears and focusing on road miles for the next two months or so. Thus, speed development is my priority, so I was careful to keep the recoveries very slow so I could focus fully on each hard/fast part, per my coach's guidance for this workout.
As part of my gear switching for the rest of the summer, with my coach's approval I'm also going to be limiting my long runs to no more than 12 miles, and avoiding marathon pace during the run. I've done a ton of marathon pace work this year, and there's really no need for me to touch on that pace again until training for CIM starts in September.
At the same time, I very rarely run at "moderate pace" (for me, that's usually 7:30-7:45-ish - I also refer to this as "aerobic" running). While my coach includes moderate running in some schedules on the day after track intervals, I've always just subbed in easy running instead (with his approval). This is not because there aren't benefits from training at moderate/aerobic pace, but rather because I've learned I can't run at that pace on a non-workout day and be recovered in time for the next workout. You can't benefit from your training if you're not recovering sufficiently.
However, I do think that there is fitness to be gained by doing some running at that pace, and if I'm not doing a long marathon training run, I can just sub in a moderate pace run of medium distance instead on that day, treating that run as one of my 2-3 workouts for the week.
Dailies
Monday: Yoga and 8.5 "miles" of pool-running in the morning, plus foam rolling.
Tuesday: 11 miles, including 8 short hill strides of 60-70 strides each, with 2:30 jogging downhill recovery. Followed with lower body injury prevention work and 1150 yards of swimming. Sports massage in afternoon.
Wednesday: 8 miles very easy (9:19) to yoga, yoga, and then another 4 miles very easy (9:14) plus drills and strides and foam rolling
Thursday: Strengthwork and core plus 8.5 "miles" of pool-running in the morning. Foam rolling at night.
Friday: 10 miles, including 6 hill repeats (~550m up, then ~200m jog, ~200m stride, and ~150m jog down to base of hill). Followed with injury prevention work and 1150 yards easy swimming. Foam rolling at night.
Saturday: 10 miles easy (9:04) plus drills, strides, and upper body weights/core. Foam rolling in the afternoon.
Sunday: 12 miles aerobic (7:43). Followed with lower body injury prevention work and 700 yards of swimming. Foam rolling at night.
Interesting. I usually do one or two moderate days a week; maybe I should back that down to one or zero. If I already have a long run, a track workout, and a tempo, I'm starting to run out of easy days! Sometimes easy days make me feel sluggish the next day, but I definitely know that super slow and easy on wednesday is good for a faster friday tempo (regardless of whether Thursday is easy or moderate).
ReplyDeleteI really think it depends on the runner. I know (and train with) several runners of my same ability who get very sluggish and stale when they run as slowly as I do on my easy days. And I dig a hole when I try to stay with them on their easy days. I think it all comes down to individual physiology.
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