This week was 69 miles of running, 24 "miles" of pool-running, and 1000 yards swimming -- training log is here.
And that's the last week of big training in the books. Just two hard days this week, in keeping with the structure that seems to work best for me in marathon training. I do 3 day "mini-cycles" when marathon training - the first day is a lot of easy mileage to "pre-load" the legs with some fatigue; the second day is a hard workout on tired legs; and then the third day is a very easy day in the pool, where I absorb the training stress of the previous day. (To make this work with a 7 day week, sometimes I add an extra hybrid day, like I did on Monday of this week.)
How easy the third day is depends on how hard the day before it was. We don't improve our running from training hard; we improve it from training hard and then letting our bodies respond. So...the harder the hard day, the more space I give my body on the easy day. Hence the 21 miler on Saturday was followed by a very relaxed Sunday.
69 miles looks like the highest mileage week in this cycle, and that's because it technically was. And it also looks like a big jump from the previous week's 56 miles. But....I think that's because weekly mileage isn't the best way to measure training load, especially for someone like me who only runs between 4 and 6 days a week.
This week, I split 69 miles over 5 days of running - that's an average of 14 miles a day for each day run. Last week I split 56 miles over 4 days of running - that was also an average of 14 miles a day for each of those 4 days. The fact that I ran 56 miles on one week and 69 the other is just a quirk of where the cut-off was between weeks. Both weeks felt equally hard.
(this is why I think people who measure their training just in terms of weekly mileage and length of long run are missing some key points in their training.)
I was pretty happy with this week. While I'm not as fit as I was this fall, I'm not far off of it, and I think I have a good chance of PRing in my marathon if everything aligns (I've certainly got the course to run fast). Saturday's long run felt great - reasonable, controlled, strong. I would have liked the pace to have been faster for the given effort, but I'll blame that on the headwind coming back, plus two slow splits from a section where my Garmin often cheats me on distance (the downsides of using autolap).
I had debated doing a 5K this coming Saturday as a final tune-up, but I think I'm going to skip it. I think I'll benefit more from a Friday tempo and Sunday 16 miler then I will from a 5K, and 2+ weeks out is still far enough to be building a bit of fitness, even as I start pulling back on the workload. Tough call, as I like to race regularly to stay in practice. But hopefully January's race in Houston is close enough to One City to work.
And that's the last week of big training in the books. Just two hard days this week, in keeping with the structure that seems to work best for me in marathon training. I do 3 day "mini-cycles" when marathon training - the first day is a lot of easy mileage to "pre-load" the legs with some fatigue; the second day is a hard workout on tired legs; and then the third day is a very easy day in the pool, where I absorb the training stress of the previous day. (To make this work with a 7 day week, sometimes I add an extra hybrid day, like I did on Monday of this week.)
How easy the third day is depends on how hard the day before it was. We don't improve our running from training hard; we improve it from training hard and then letting our bodies respond. So...the harder the hard day, the more space I give my body on the easy day. Hence the 21 miler on Saturday was followed by a very relaxed Sunday.
69 miles looks like the highest mileage week in this cycle, and that's because it technically was. And it also looks like a big jump from the previous week's 56 miles. But....I think that's because weekly mileage isn't the best way to measure training load, especially for someone like me who only runs between 4 and 6 days a week.
This week, I split 69 miles over 5 days of running - that's an average of 14 miles a day for each day run. Last week I split 56 miles over 4 days of running - that was also an average of 14 miles a day for each of those 4 days. The fact that I ran 56 miles on one week and 69 the other is just a quirk of where the cut-off was between weeks. Both weeks felt equally hard.
(this is why I think people who measure their training just in terms of weekly mileage and length of long run are missing some key points in their training.)
I was pretty happy with this week. While I'm not as fit as I was this fall, I'm not far off of it, and I think I have a good chance of PRing in my marathon if everything aligns (I've certainly got the course to run fast). Saturday's long run felt great - reasonable, controlled, strong. I would have liked the pace to have been faster for the given effort, but I'll blame that on the headwind coming back, plus two slow splits from a section where my Garmin often cheats me on distance (the downsides of using autolap).
I had debated doing a 5K this coming Saturday as a final tune-up, but I think I'm going to skip it. I think I'll benefit more from a Friday tempo and Sunday 16 miler then I will from a 5K, and 2+ weeks out is still far enough to be building a bit of fitness, even as I start pulling back on the workload. Tough call, as I like to race regularly to stay in practice. But hopefully January's race in Houston is close enough to One City to work.
Dailies
Monday: 6 miles very easy (9:03), upper body weights/core, 2 miles very easy (8:41) and then 6 "miles" pool-running. Foam rolling at night
Tuesday: 7 miles very easy (9:17), yoga, and then 5.5 miles very easy (8:41), plus drills and four hill strides. Foam rolling at night.
Wednesday: 14.5 miles, including a workout of 2x3 miles in 19:24 (6:35/6:30/6:18) and 18:50 (6:21/6:25/6:04*) with 4 minute recovery between the two, followed by four "fast-but-fun" .25 mile reps in 88, 90, 91, 92 with full recovery. Followed with leg injury prevention work and 500 yards recovery swimming. Foam rolling at night.
[*suspect Garmin error on the last mile - probably closer to 6:15 pace. Also worth noting that this was a very windy morning, so some of these splits had head/cross/tail winds]
[*suspect Garmin error on the last mile - probably closer to 6:15 pace. Also worth noting that this was a very windy morning, so some of these splits had head/cross/tail winds]
Thursday: Upper body weights/core and 12 "miles" pool-running. Foam rolling at night.
Friday: 8 miles very easy (9:19), yoga, 4.5 miles very easy (9:27), drills and two strides. Foam rolling at night.
Saturday: 21 miles progressive, split as first 7 averaging 8:50, next 7 averaging 7:32, last 7 averaging 6:47. Followed with half-mile cooldown jog, leg injury prevention work and 500 yards recovery swimming. Foam rolling at night.
Saturday: 21 miles progressive, split as first 7 averaging 8:50, next 7 averaging 7:32, last 7 averaging 6:47. Followed with half-mile cooldown jog, leg injury prevention work and 500 yards recovery swimming. Foam rolling at night.
Sunday: Yoga and 6 "miles" pool-running. Foam rolling in afternoon.
No comments:
Post a Comment