Archive for March 29th, 2011

Last night I started messing around with how I want the next couple months to look and came up with something fun that makes a bit of sense, too.

Here’s the thought behind it:
1. I’ve been thinking about getting up to 70mpw again but my most important consideration is keeping it fun.
2. I don’t do doubles, I’m a singles gal all the way, which means hitting 70 in a 6-day week requires a string of longer runs.  Doing this weekly would not be fun, it would most definitely become a grind and at this point in time, I’m vehemently anti-grind.  This schedule gives me variety, mileage and works the legs in a couple different combinations (longer runs in 6 days vs a 13-day stretch of shorter).  Good for brain and body.

So starting yesterday:
Week 1: Off,12,9,12,9,13,10 (65mi – basic week)
Week 2: Off,12,10,12,10,14,12 (70mi – longer runs)
Week 3: Off,8,10,7,8,12,9 (54mi – recovery week, shorter runs)
Week 4: 8,10,9,12,9,14,10 (72mi – no rest day but shorter runs achieve the mileage)

This is actually a sublimely easy schedule with room to grow – if  I get the urge in May, I’ll raise the mileage on the lower days.

Now in the past, my highest mileage weeks were a few 82s I hit while marathon training which included 3 workouts/week, so this is a walk in the park.  However, that was 7 days of running with an actual Long Run (20-23) which means the bulk of the other runs were shorter.  This makes Week 2 a slight challenge in its own way, though without quality runs in the mix I can go as slow as I need, so no biggie.

Speaking of, I’m remaining on a hiatus from quality work indefinitely.  I’ll continue with a mix of pacing, but “moderate pace” will continue to be my mainstay.  When I do re-introduce quality workouts, I have my eye on Steady State runs (between Marathon and Half pace…a common training pace before tempos became de rigueur).  Sure, it’s not as effective or efficient as tempos, but it sounds fun and that’s my buzzword for the season.

Oh, one you’ll notice is a seemingly big gap between the recovery week of 54 and the next week of 72, but you have to look at that section as day-to-day, not as weekly amount.  Day-to-day it’s actually a very even 2-week stretch.  Had to clarify since I could see that getting some raised eyebrows.

No Long Runs
The past couple months I was disinterested in reading about running but I’m happily back to my quasi-researching antics.  My mainstay is LetsRun.com where I search through old forum posts to investigate whatever assorted subjects are floating in my head – the latest being mileage and Long Runs.

If you’re marathon training, Long Runs are important – they’re the closest you’ll come to the race time/distance without ever actually getting to 26.2.  But for those of us targeting shorter and who have some mileage already in the pocket, you really don’t win points going overdistance.  That’s not to say 14 will be my absolute longest run from this point forward, I’m sure I’ll go longer for one of 3 reasons: 1. variety, 2. because I’m feeling kick-ass and it’s a beautiful day and 3. to grow the mileage.  But even then, 15-17 is as far as I’d go; what Pfitzinger calls a Mid Long Run, it doesn’t even qualify as a Long Run…eh, semantics.

So anyway, this is the framework that’ll take me through May.  And even though it’s kind of nothing, just an order to some mileage, seeing it laid out gives me a little thrill…like I’m beginning again.