Posts Tagged ‘mileage’

This was not the plan at all but I ended up with a spankin’ new weekly mileage PR.

As you know, my running schedule these days is very loosey goosey but I do have a general idea of how I want the week to go.  What’s nice is that since it’s all “just running” I can switch it around to suit the weather or work or how I’m feeling that day.  So the week was planned to be 85 miles.  On Friday I did a 15 miler.  That left me with Saturday and Sunday to get 24 in.

Since today (Sunday) was supposed to be thunderstorms, I went 14 yesterday so I’d only have to do 10 today.  Turns out the thunderstorms were delayed and when I got out there, I felt pretty damn good!  So I just kept going.

I should mention that my paces this week are slower in general but not from the mileage increase.  The heavy-legged days turned out to be the same story as last month…PMS.  But unlike last month, it didn’t linger beyond the expected timeframe, so if iron was the culprit as I suspect it was, the supplementation and beef I’ve been eating have in fact helped.

The other slowdown was a purposeful choice made over the last couple days.  Not that I was denying myself any sub8 runs – I wasn’t feeling that peppy this weekend, but I’m trying to be careful about potential hazards that could come with pushing the mileage envelope (or I should say, the singles envelope because that’s what makes it a bit tricky).  I think there’s a potential for injury from clumping together a 15, 14 and 15 on consecutive days, at least while I’m in this “getting acquainted” stage.  So yesterday and today especially, I was trotting along at such a comfortable rate that even the suck of a dewpoint didn’t bother me one bit.  How things are changing!

The Time It Takes
I had a nice cup o’ joe yesterday with my pal Judy from the Women’s BQ Forum, she was in town and it was fun to catch up.  One thing she asked me was “How long is all this running taking you?” and when I told her 11 hours and change, she thought that was a lot (as I’m sure lots of people will).  FYI: this week, with the extra miles and slower paces, came out to 12:37, but the norm will be closer to 11:30.  Anyway, here’s my take on it…

I remember in my 20s when I went to a gym a few times a week.  I’d travel to the gym, change clothes, do a 1½ hour step class or “cardio” and then the machines, take a shower, get dressed and travel back home.  That had to have taken over 3 hours total.

Now I know a lot of you guys go to a gym in addition to your running or you get massages or spend a lot of time stretching or maybe you cross-train in the pool or cycle, etc.  All I do is run, so comparatively, it’s not really that much time spent.  And of course, I have no people commitments and my work is on my own terms, which makes it easier still.

Back To Beef
I’m on a huge mushroom burger kick now and what makes it particularly satisfying is that, thanks to the amount of running I’m doing, I can shove more food into my pie hole.  Ordinarily, if I was to eat a home-cooked burger, I wouldn’t have a starchy side dish with it because the burger and bread alone would comprise a good amount of calories.  But I was wandering down the frozen foods aisle of Whole Foods a couple weeks ago and on a whim, bought a bag of Alexia Spicy Sweet Potato Fries.

Oh My God!  They are now my favorite side dish in the whole wide world.  They’re frozen fries that bake up crispy in the oven or toaster oven (my weapon of choice) in 20 minutes.  The non-spicy ones are also very tasty, but these are my fave.  Best part is they’re not calorically dense or deep-fried like normal fries and are actually good for you!

Dinner at The Blue Hovel has improved a lot lately; I’m cooking more now.  Gone are the boxed dinners from Trader Joes I was so tethered to during my weight-loss phase last year.  Not that I’ve stopped shopping at Trader Joes…

One of my favorite T.Js items are their bags of 4 chicken breasts; I cook ‘em all at once and then add some to salads, quesadillas (another new addiction), etc. for the next few days.  It’s also handy to have some chicken in the fridge for right after a run when you need a bit of protein for recovery.

But what makes T.J.s bags of chicken so special isn’t the price (which is great) or the chicken itself (which is very tasty), but the packaging.  Gone is the usual styrofoam tray with that stinky diaper pad at the bottom – it’s just a bag.

Because living in a city apartment where they only collect garbage once a week, those chicken diapers start to smell like dead people after a couple days even if you rinse it out thoroughly – which is a disgusting exercise unto itself.  No longer must I walk the city streets in search of a dumpster or municipal trash bin to stealthily dispose of my smelly chicken wrappings.  Quality of life has been restored.

The Week In Running
My toe finally stopped hurting on Monday – I thought that was never gonna end!  And I had a bit of weirdness on Friday’s run when I stopped to adjust my shoe and soon after got a wicked side stitch that had me starting and stopping about 6 times until it finally abated.  Saturday was a nice rainy run and temps for the week were mostly mid-70s.

Monday: 9@8:15
Tuesday: 12@8:18
Wednesday: 14@8:10
Thursday: 11@9:02
Friday: 15@8:30
Saturday: 14@8:20
Sunday: 15@8:20
Total: 90 mi (avg pace 8:25)

I’ve been back in self-coaching mode since Carlsbad (as you can tell by my crazy goings-on), but I posed a question to Coach Adam/A Muse the other day and his answer, unbeknownst to him, struck a wildly resounding chord in me.  I had asked him how Elites manage to keep improving as the years progress.

The question arose because, even though I’m finally seeing improvements, I’m still trying to understand that long plateau I went through.  Why was I stuck so early in my running life when these people, who’ve been running for so long and are trained to the Nth power, are able to keep on an upward trajectory for so long?

In no way am I discounting their incredible genetic gifts which clearly bring them to a certain level, but to keep improving when they’re already so insanely kick-ass, well…that’s gotta be something to do with training.  I was liking this idea because, while the methods may never be available to me (no one’s inviting me to Mammoth anytime soon) it’s a fresh bit of hopefulness in the time vs. improvement continuum.

The magic thing Adam said (aside from personality traits that drive them beyond normal folk) is that these people have developed a massive aerobic foundation.  Massive aerobic foundation.  Wow.  In one phrase, he clarified something so important and simple and that is also what I assuredly do not have.  BUT…

It is something that us newcomers can improve upon to a dramatic degree.  Granted, a “massive” engine will never be in my future, I started about 35 years too late for that, but room for growth?  Shit yeah!  I’ve got tons of space available in that department.

In a timely find, I just read this quote from the great Arthur Lydiard, confirming the point, “Your aerobic development is a gradual thing. It takes years and years of marathon-type training to develop your aerobic capacity to the fullest.”

So for all you late-starters, former couch potatoes and fellow plateau sufferers, take heart that aerobic fitness is an ongoing process and it’s within our abilities to improve for a good clump of time.  Now, I misspoke in the last post saying it’s a given, of course it isn’t, but I’m beginning to think that with the right physiological recipe, there’s no reason why the oft-repeated “7-10 years of improvement no matter the age you start” wouldn’t be true.

But here’s the catch: you have to figure out what you need and then you have to work for it.  Hitting a new mileage peak for race prep is helpful but to run increased mileage over a long period of time, well dat is da true bomb.  Or if you never did speedwork and tempos, then perhaps those are your magic weapons.

I know that for me, it’s a hell of a lot more fun and easy to add a bunch more miles than to bust my ass with hard workouts.  Which is not to say I won’t get back to the tough stuff, I will!  Before the Fall arrives, I’ll be back at it with vim, vigor and a fresh attitude because by that time, I’m bound to be a stronger runner and that makes the hard stuff way more fun to handle.

But had I not switched gears with this base work, I’d probably still be stuck in the plateau moaning about how I never got my 7-10 years and that it must be my age working against me.  Ridiculous, now that I think about it.

Then again, maybe I shouldn’t speak so soon, I’m not out of the woods yet, but here’s a fun fact: my weekly volume has increased by about 52%.  Aerobic development, here I come.

Speaking of Lydiard…
I’m not following the Lydiard program by any means, but there are methods of his teaching that I find myself drawn to.  Currently, of course, is the mileage build (he was the original “run more miles” guy with his runners routinely doing 100mpw).

But one thing that is commonly and incorrectly attributed to Lydiard is the term “Long Slow Distance”.  Many people, when thinking of Lydiard, are under the impression that his runners ran tons of slow mileage, that his long runs were joggerly Sunday outings.  This couldn’t be farther from the truth.

Lydiard’s base training focused on high-end aerobic running: steady-state, moderate paces, etc.  Those were not slow long runs!  They’re not time trials either, but they were/are faster than the usual  “go slow!!” admonishment-laden long runs.

Just a little factoid for you, apropos of nothing, because he was on my mind today.

Fun Reading
Also unrelated to anything above, this Running Times article is quite entertaining.  They interview some of the Age Group winners from this years Boston Marathon so you can read about their race prep, mileage, etc.  Good stuff!

The Week In Running
It cracks me up seeing all these 7:5x’s – it’s certainly new and different.  As is the average pace for the week.  Considering how new I am at this volume level and that it was 75 degrees for most of the runs, I couldn’t be happier.

Monday: 12@7:54
Tuesday: 4@8:25 (toe hurt so bad, had to cut it short)
Wednesday: 11@7:58
Thursday: 14@7:53
Friday: 12@7:58
Saturday: 15@8:06
Sunday: 13.25@8:17
Total: 81.25 mi (avg pace 8:03)

As of today, I’ve had three rest days thanks to the bona fide mess that is my toe.  Aside from the original callous-cutting debacle, I forgot to mention that I also rammed it into the coffee table Wed. evening, starting the cycle all over again.  It never hurt when sitting, btw, but as soon as I bore weight on it or put it in a shoe, any shoe…ohmygod.  It simply could not have been in a worse location on my foot.

So I took Thursday and Friday off and with the help of  New Skin, Band-Aid blister bandages, a fresh tube of Neosporin, moleskin, sterile pads and medical tape (not simultaneously) I returned to the road yesterday for a wonderful, pain-free run.  But when I got home, I looked down and saw a touch of blood on my shoe – the bandage had shifted, opening it right back up again.  Grrrr.

Today, I expected a normal run, it felt and looked much better and seemed fine while I walked around the house – I figured a single band-aid would do the trick.  So I go outside, run 10 steps and damn if I didn’t feel it with each step, so I said “screw this” and went right back into the apartment.  I could have swaddled it up to get through another run but I’m tired of how long this is taking, I just want it to be done.

There has been one good thing about the situation; I needed a cutback week and I got one.  Here’s my weekly mileage progression starting at the beginning of February after the 2-week break to the present: 32, 43, 51, 51, 57, 60, 66, 70, 76, 71, 85 and, er…48.  I really noticed the effect of the rest days on yesterday’s run, btw, very bouncy legs.

Anyway, I still got in 315 miles for the month and May will be more, providing I don’t do anything idiotic to my feet again.

Here’s the week as it went.  Mon-Wed were 80 degrees and humid, Saturday was a lovely 64 degrees.
Monday: 9@8:28
Tuesday: 14@8:18 (ow, my toe)
Wednesday: 11@8:25 (goddam, my toe)
Thursday: Nasty toe rest day
Friday: Nasty toe rest day
Saturday: 14@7:55 (much better, my toe)
Sunday: Hopefully last  toe rest day
Total: 48 mi (avg pace 8:15)

An FE/Blogger Meet Up!

This morning was the Broad St. Run and while I had already decided not to race it (good thing, since this toe drama would have had me freaking out all week), I went to a pre-race dinner last night to finally meet a gal I’ve known online for a couple years, the inimitable Darkwave (Cristina).  She writes a wonderful blog featuring valuable information for injured runners, stuff on pool running and e-stim machines, etc.  Anyway, she arranged the dinner with about 10 runner/bloggers I didn’t know and a good time was had by all.

I blatantly ate 3 different kinds of seafood as if to say “I scoff at you, race!  You cannot control me!”  but mostly because the picture on the menu looked really good.  As for Cris, she’s one cool chick, I’m so glad we got to meet.

Girl In Motion/GIM/Flo & Darkwave/Anarcha/Cris

More Book Reviews
I don’t know how it works but within a week of reviewing Kara Goucher’s book, I got 3 more invites to review other running books from different publishers.  Maybe it’s because my Kara review landed on Google’s first page of results (thank you, Google) or maybe the publishers share info between them because it’s kinda odd, though I’m happy to get free stuff so no complaints.

So far, I’ve turned down a book on some Ultra guy (don’t care) but will be receiving Grete Waitz’s Run Your First Marathon and Chris “Macca” McCormack’s book I’m Here To Win.  The first one is timely due to Grete’s recent passing and the 2nd one sounds like a fun read, machismo mixed with hard-core training.  Anyway, expect those some time in the next few weeks.

Speaking of reviews, I wanted to add something about the little portable iPhone/iPod dock I bought/reviewed in March.  That thing has come in very handy for watching movies on the laptop in bed.  You know how laptop sound always sucks?  I just plug a cable from the dock to the laptop and voila…big, clear sound.  Anyway, that’s a tip for anyone with similar hardware.

What a crazy week.  The lethargy from last week hung on till Thursday.  I half-considered cutting back miles but decided that as long as I kept the pace under Ugh potential, I could probably keep chugging along without harm.  It worked out well.  Previously, my highest week was 82.13mi during marathon training in Oct. 2009.  Needless to say, I’m a happy girl.

My Current State
Even with the exhaustion weirdness, I am loving the way things are going.  My legs have been carrying me with only a few minor and fleeting complaints, nothing lasting more than a day or two.  And while I jot down a loose mileage schedule, more often than not I’ve been getting to the turnaround mark thinking “This feels good, I’ll keep going”.  That’s why the increase has felt so comfortable, it’s been a pretty organic process.

I do, however, have this ridiculous negative mental remnant concerning the size of my runs and my resistance to doubles, that I’m doing something wrong/bad.  But my legs feel strong (haven’t been stretching or foam-rolling) so there’s no reason to think I’m going to get injured, in fact, it seems like this consistency would have the opposite effect.

I guess it’s my good-girl guilt for eschewing training methodology’s “best practices” and letting what I see in my log – a bunch of 12s and 14s – influence me.  I suppose I’ve only to look upon Ed Whitlock’s training (2-3 hours/day of .3 mile loops in a cemetery at a “plodding” pace) or Yoshihisa Hosaka’s quality-filled 20mi/day, every day, to be reminded that people do take different routes to this running thing and that being older does not equal fragile.

Last Week’s Running (featuring a body in the river)
Monday was the sludgiest of the week.  I wore my heart rate strap to see if it my heart was being affected by this weirdness and yep, it was.

Tuesday, I ran a little after 11am and at one point, saw tons of policeman on the other side of the  river.  I also passed a guy with a  long lens camera taking photos and helicopters were flying overhead.  It totally slipped my mind till later that day when my friend Steph texted me to say they’d found a body floating in the Schuylkill.  I guess I was there about an hour after she was discovered.  Here’s the story, extremely tragic circumstances.  So now in my beautiful park, I’ve seen a dead man hanging from a tree and the aftermath of pulling out a decomposed body.  That’s a rather high ratio of death within a half-mile of each other, don’t you think?

Wednesday, I thought I might manage 14mi but when I got to the 6mi mark, reconsidered and turned around.  Wasn’t feeling 100% yet and didn’t want to chance an Ugh.

Thursday was such a tired day from the get-go.  I tried to nap but couldn’t, went to a voiceover job, did errands, was truly exhausted once home so I expected my run to be on par with Monday’s trudgery.  But no!  Once I hit the road (at 4:30, unusually late for me) I got an unexpected energy infusion and ran a handy 14-miler feeling like my old self again.  Whew, finally.

Friday was a planned 10, but with rain and thunder lurking in the forecast for the next couple days I took advantage of the dry sky, extending it to 12.  I wore my HR monitor hoping to see a more normal result and was pleased to find it in the proper ballpark again.

Saturday was an easy 10, what I consider a recovery run.  Even though I don’t have any hard workouts to recover from, I’m mindful of being chill when I need to (like after 2 “feel like my old self” runs preceded by a week of feeling like shit).

Today was a salty 16-miler, 83 degrees out but I held up well.  I started quite stupidly, going out too fast the first 4 miles (8:15-7:37? idiot).  Realizing I would pay for this later, I calmed down a ton, which is good because it was frickin’ hot. I think the energy was due to the previous night’s pigout with Fran.  We had fried calamari, pasta w/pesto cream sauce, pizza, several alcoholic beverages and tons of candy when we got home (which we decided must never happen again…it was Intervention-worthy).  I didn’t eat anything all day and ran at 3pm.  I’m still full.

Monday: 9@8:43 (HRR 65% 146)
Tuesday: 12@8:32
Wednesday: 12@8:20
Thursday: 14@8:06
Friday: 12@8:11 (HRR 68% 149…more like it)
Saturday: 10@8:21
Sunday: 16@ 8:16
Total: 85 mi (avg pace 8:20)

Iron Talk
Whatever ailed me lasted a week.  I’m not sure if it was a slight iron deficiency but suspect it was due to the timing, so I’ve been eating lots of beef and taking iron twice a day (with vitamin C for absorption) plus a multi-vitamin.

The interesting annoying thing about beef, btw, is that a 4oz burger only has about 20% of the RDA…not very much!  Same with spinach; eat a whole bag and it still won’t cover your daily requirement.  So while I plan to eat beef 2-3 times a week from here on in, I’ll also keep taking one Iron cap & Vitamin C before bed because you can’t take it with caffeine or with calcium or… Pain in the ass mineral, is iron.

I should mention that from past ferritin tests (taken when I was doing less mileage), I know I’m not in danger of iron overload.  Iron is something you have to be careful taking unsupervised (you shouldn’t) because it can be toxic so don’t you kids go taking iron willy-nilly.   End of public service announcement.  Though I did enjoy writing “willy-nilly”.

I’m still on fish oil (probably forever) but stopped taking glucosamine and msm about 3 weeks ago with no fallout.  I had a short bout of knee pain from jumping over deep puddles when I should have tromped through, but it went away after a couple days.  Gotta say, the old lady is holding up pretty darn well.

Very weird week for me physically: one high point sandwiched between some strange lows.  The first low coincided with the day before LadyTime which is usually a sub-par running day for me so no surprise there.  But once it starts, I generally run great for the next few days.  Not this week.

Now, on Wednesday, as expected, I had an incredibly vibrant run but Thursday was rough.  That night I slept 11 hours and then had to take a nap after Friday’s run (which started well, btw, but became exhausting halfway through).  Saturday was better but Sunday was another slogfest – I had expectations of doing a 15-miler but had to turn around at the 5mi mark.

I’m thinking it may be iron-related:  the last time I had red meat was 3 weeks ago and I haven’t taken multi-vitamins or iron in months.  Combined with my period and possibly the higher mileage (increased footstrike hemolysis) makes it plausible.  I also had some weird itching this week which can be another symptom of low iron.  Or maybe it’s just a bug, which is preferable since iron takes time to restore.

Anyway, I ate a ton of beef last night, am doing the same tonight and will make a point to take iron every day.

Monday: 9@8:21 (first 80 degree day of the year, was pleased with it)
Tuesday: 9@8:52 (day before LadyTime, understandable suckage)
Wednesday: 14@7:53 (great HR run! more on this below)
Thursday: 8@8:29 (ugh)
Friday: 11@8:16 (ugh)
Saturday: 10@8:09 (pouring rain but felt ok)
Sunday: 10@ 8:30 (ugh)
Total: 71mi (avg pace 8:19)

The bright spot in the week was my HR run on Wednesday.  The temperature was perfect (mid 50s), just as it was for the previous two HR checks, so a clean comparison.  Check it out.

April 13: 14@7:53, HRR 71% (155)
March 30: 11@8:10, HRR 71% (155)
March 20: 11@8:00, HRR 74% (159)

Major progress!  Shame I felt like crap the rest of the week but it doesn’t worry me, it was just a blip.

Mo’ Mileage
I’ve been thinking a lot about it, reading tons of posts and articles and am thinking that 80mpw is my new 70mpw.  In other words, my revised mileage goal is 80+ for the next few months.  It only adds about 40 extra minutes over 75mpw so it seems silly not to go for it and I’m insanely curious to see what the payoff will be.

This, however, has to be my top limit because I can’t go any higher without doubling.  I also reserve the right to say “nah, this is too much” and dial it back if it stops being fun.  But aside from this week, it’s been hunky-dory so I think it’ll stick.  The idea that there might be a little pot of gold at the end of this rainbow is enough to keep it seriously fun.

Toe Mileage
I mentioned acquiring a “where did that come from?” purple toenail last week.  After removing my nail polish yesterday, I discovered 3 “where did those come from?” lavender toenails, too.  It’s strange that I’m getting them, my shoes feel fine and they’re the same style I’ve been wearing for ages now, plus my route is the same, it’s not like I’ve started doing some massive downhills.  Maybe those stretched out socks were the harbingers of evil (bunched up fabric).  Oh well, thank god for new socks and nail polish.

Already veering from the schedule, my last 3 days were higher than planned.  Expecting bad weather for Thursday, I went 13 on Wednesday and as it turned out, Thursday was fine, just some chilly mist so I did 10. This landed me 263.3 miles for March, my highest mileage month since last May.

Now, back to this plan talk…

More about why
There’s something I left out in the last post that I need to explain, an additional motive for the plan that goes beyond the fun factor.  It’s called Summer.

Last summer was awful.  It started with a race collapse/hospital stay that screwed with my head royally.  My paces dropped a lot more than in previous summers and I felt fragile and insecure physically, allowing myself to plod on non-workout days which became a bad habit.

I’m not saying it was purely a bust, in July I started working with Coach Adam/A muse, which was invaluable as it gave me needed direction and put me back into the game with some kick-ass workouts.  But coming off that weird race scare, I was starting from a negative space to begin with.

This year I am bound and determined to go into Summer strong and remain so till the end.  I refuse to see my paces drop off a cliff and whatever dropping does occur (inevitable with the heat) will be minor compared to last year.  How will I manage it?

1. Building mileage now so when summer hits, I’ll be comfortably stable at the new level
2. Going into it with these fresh, energized paces
3. Making hard running an afterthought, not the main thought.  This means less heat-related worries about rearranging days, dumbing down workouts or fear of ending up on the pavement.

Yes, I know that without the proper stresses (hard/easy, short/long) this doesn’t even qualify as training anymore, but that’s ok!  My instincts tell me that I am going to come out of this a better runner thanks to a happy headspace, consistency and the most important practical aspect…higher mileage.

More about mileage
I once averaged 70mpw but only for 9 weeks in marathon training – that’s what I’d call an aerobic tease.  And though I’ve had long periods in the 60s and high 50s, I find my weekly averages are less than what I imagine: 58mpw in 2009 and 54mpw in 2010.  While the difference between 54 to 70mpw isn’t huge, it’s an untapped reservoir and I’m willing to bet that changing this alone will be a valuable addition.

Back to the plan…
When I wrote it out, I was pretty conservative about the build with 65, 70, 54, 72 then repeating the next month.  but since the past 7 days were pretty much what I can expect from a 6-day week in the 70s (14, 12, 11, off, 12, 13, 10) and I’m feeling good still, I’m going to go for straight 70s now and lose that recovery week completely (Jim, you called it), taking extra rest if I need it.

I’m not even going to write out a revised plan here since my parameters are simple: 6 or 7 day weeks with 70+ miles…however that works out is how it’ll work out.

A Last Word
Prompted by some Facebook idiocy and expanded for anyone else who can’t seem to figure out that we are individuals, each with our own likes and dislikes, here goes:

I am not you, you are not me.  If I decide to do something because it sounds fun to me but it doesn’t sound fun to you, I don’t care.  I don’t run for you.

You can tell me to race more! race for fun! add more variety! or whatever brilliant idea you somehow imagine I’ve never heard or thought of, but if I don’t want to, you aren’t going to make it happen.

I think about running.  A lot.  I’m not a 14 year-old with my first issue of Runners World Magazine.  The choices I make are weighed, considered and colored by my experiences thus far.  Respect that and I’ll respect you.  Don’t, and I’ll tell you to go fuck yourself.

And with that, have a great weekend people.  Have fun, run well.