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Week Of 2/19-25


  • Monday: 2 miles -- slow
  • Tuesday: 3 miles -- slow
  • Wednesday: Off
  • Thursday: 8 miles
  • Friday: 12 miles in 1:20:28
  • Saturday: 7 mile marathon effort tempo in 41:17
  • Sunday: Off
  • TOTAL: 32 miles in 5 days
Well this week was slightly less sucky. I had made up my mind to start off this week running, and I did on Monday and Tuesday...but all I had energy for was 2 and 3 miles, respectively. I was spent after each one. But hey, when you can run in a t-shirt in February, you take advantage of it.

By Wednesday I knew I needed to be responsive and take the day off, and on Thursday I felt exponentially better. Not back to normal energy levels, but at least enough to run something of substance. Same deal with Friday.

One of the keys to establishing aerobic endurance is to alternate longer, slower days with shorter, faster days (see Lydiard explained here). That's going to be my general plan going forward, and since I had felt a kind of normalcy back in my running I wanted to put it in place this weekend. So, a longer easier run on Friday and then a shorter, faster run on Saturday. 

The Saturday run was a disaster, though. 60 minute marathon effort runs should be a staple of any runner's base training (especially when gearing up for a marathon), so I had a 10 mile loop planned out. It only took me a couple minutes to slide into that marathon effort, and initially it felt nice and smooth. But you know how when you're sick you just can't sustain more intense running? That's how I felt. After a couple miles I just had nothing left in the tank. Aerobically I felt fine, but I just didn't have any more energy. So I called it early and hitched a ride back home. Nice and humbling.

After that, I decided to listen to my body and scrap the long run on Sunday. No reason beating myself up when I just don't have the energy to sustain it. I'll plan on giving the long run a go tomorrow and adjusting from there. Hey, one of the keys to sustainable training is to listen to you body, and that's what I'm trying to do.
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