Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Training Balance

Ed -

I try to keep a good feel for my body.

Oh please, get your mind out of the gutter, perv!  I mean I pay attention to how I feel.  What aches, what feels good, what I'm doing or did to cause it.  All that stuff.  It helps me think through and plan my training.

For instance I knew on Sunday night my legs were still very sore from working on my back porch over the weekend.  I did a lot of hauling buckets of debris and emptying them into a dumpster, then carrying 4x8 sheets of treated 3/4" plywood from the front yard to the back for the sub-floor work. A ton (quite literally) of heavy lifting.  This is work my legs don't often do, so I was really sore all Sunday and still was when I got in bed.  I went ahead and set my alarm to get up and run on Monday morning, but knew that if I woke up still feeling it then I should rest one more day to let my legs heal.

The alarm went off at 5:30, I got out of bed and my hammies and butt were still tender.  Back to bed.

Rest is an important part of exercise.

Last night, though, I felt better and woke up this morning ready to run.  I had on my schedule to run 5 at sub 8 pace because I need to get more of these longer fast runs in to build my stamina.  It was a good run and I did about 5 and a quarter in 39:46.

However, what I felt exposed another short coming in my training:  I carried some "gaggage" to the finish with me this morning.  I don't have the stamina I need to run fast for a long distance.

Based on my experience and "feel" I buy into what Greg McMillan has to say about three parts to training: Endurance, Stamina and Speed.  Since my focus is on shorter stuff like the 1500 and maybe 5K's I tend to work more on Speed but I need all of them to do it well.  The problem I run into is working it all in!  I need 8 or 9 days in each week for Pete's sake.

My Coach when I started back running a couple of years ago is fast as all get out, and she said that when she's really into intense phases of training she does a two week schedule to get all the right stuff in.  I haven't tried that yet because I'm caught in the old habit of doing everything by the week.  As if that period is something magical for our bodies just because it's the way our work lays out.

The thing I'm shooting for is to build my sub-8 long runs from 5 miles to 10 miles, keep a short hill workout or speed work on the track every 5 days or so, and then rotate 12 and 16 miles runs in every 7 days.  While resting enough to recover and not get the "dead leg."  I'm just not sure how to do all of it right now.

So I keep discovering shortcomings in my training and keep trying to respond and improve with the belief I can keep doing just that: improve.

3 comments:

  1. So bro... why not try the two week training schedule... it couldn't hurt to mix it up. Love the blog. Hugs from Rio, the older Sis.

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  2. I like the term "gaggage". I have always enjoyed when Ed has to hork or nearly hork during a workout. It means he is working hard, plus he is faster than me so the horkage makes me feel better about myself.

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  3. I'm going to work on a two week program and try it over the next several months to see how that works out. And I'll put together a Thesaurus just for "PUKE."

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