Rebuilding the Base

Ed -

Got another 8 and half miles in this morning just under 8 minute pace.  1:05:52.  Right where I set out to be for this run, but it seemed a little harder than I would have hoped.  That's the trouble with having trained pretty well and run a pretty fast Half Marathon.  Even though I haven't trained at all for that sort of distance I remember the 1:39 Half and beat myself up for not being able to run 7:30 pace for even half that distance now.

Lighten up, Eddie.

If I go back and look at my training for that year (yes, I kept a log and yes, it's a spread sheet) I'd see that I'm only about three months away from being in that type of shape again if I follow the same training path.  Of course I never, ever factor in me getting older.  Intellectually I know I'll get slower at some point, but I keep believing I will be able to adjust my training and just get faster at some distance.

So this is two lessons in one blog.  1) Have a goal to work towards.  In this case I'm going to be racing some 5K's and 10K's this fall so I want to train accordingly.  The longer races are part of my year long plan to be faster in the 1500 next year by building my endurance while keeping my speed over the winter so I'll move up from there in late winter and early spring.   2) Keep a log of dates, distances and times so you know where you've been, what you did and how it worked.  This will help you adjust accordingly in the future as well as give you confidence whenever you change up phases.

Here is the spreadsheet for my 2010 Half Marathon training:

		Days:
Week #	Date	Sun	Mon	Tues	Wed	Thurs	Fri	Sat	Total Miles
1	6/6/2010	Rest	Rest	Rest	3	Rest	3	Rest	6
2	6/13/2010	3	Rest	3	Rest	3	Rest	Rest	9
3	6/20/2010	4	Rest	3	Rest	4	Rest	Rest	11
4	6/27/2010	4	Rest	4	Rest	4	Rest	Rest	12
		31:39		?		31:37
5	7/4/2010	5	Rest	4	Rest	4	Rest	Rest	13
		38:52		30:56		35:07
6	7/11/2010	5	Rest	5	Rest	4	Rest	Rest	14
		39:26		40:41		31:05
7	7/18/2010	6	Rest	4	Rest	5	3	Rest	18
		48:42		30:09		41:02	23:35
8	7/25/2010	7	Rest	4	Rest	6	Rest	Rest	17
		57:59		30:58		48:30
9	8/1/2010	8	Rest	Rest	5	Rest	6	Rest	19
		63:26			40:34		49:12
10	8/8/2010	10	Rest	6	Rest	4	4	Rest	24	5 x 400	1:28, 1:20, 1:23, 1:22, 1:20
		1:22:37		48:24			31:01
11	8/15/2010	Rest	7	Rest	Rest	8	Rest	Rest	15
			60:31			67:49
12	8/22/2010	Rest	10	Rest	6	Rest	8	Rest	24
			1:23:13		46:31		63:50
13	8/29/2010	10	Rest	6	Rest	3.5	Rest	Rest	19.5	5x800	3:26, 3:26, 3:21, 3:15, 3:08
		1:18:46		46:05
14	9/5/2010	12	Rest	Rest	4	Rest	Rest	Rest	16
		1:33:33			31:57
15	9/12/2010	10	Rest	Rest	Rest	7	Rest	Rest	17
		1:18:39				56:20
16	9/19/2010	Rest	12	Rest	6	Rest	2.5	Rest	20.5	4x400	1:28, 1:30, 1:17, 1:18
			1:37:43		45:21
17	9/26/2010	Rest	3.5	lightning	8	Rest	Rest	Rest	11.5
			23:55		1:08:21
18	10/3/2010	10	Rest	6	Rest	Rest	8	Rest	24
		1:23:43		45:01			60:06
19	10/10/2010	12	Rest	Rest	6	Rest	Rest	Rest	18
		1:32:36			47:13
20	10/17/2010	12	Rest	6	Rest	Rest	Rest	3.1	21.1
		1:31:47		47:18				22:19
21	10/24/2010	Rest	8	Rest	Rest	4	Rest	6	18
			59:21			32:03		47:29
22	10/31/2010	12	Rest	Rest	4	Rest	Rest	8	24
		1:33:39			31:06			61:27
23	11/7/2010	Rest	Rest	Rest	5	Rest	Rest	5	10
					37:12			39:38
24	11/14/2010	13.1							13.1
		1:39:16
		Good pace both days.  Negative splits of 7:21 the last three miles

 I actually didn't run all that often, but it worked!