Running to the Great Wide Somewhere.

Had a rough few weeks. Had an injury that kept me from running for a week or so, went out of town the following week (did run some along the beach while I was gone!), and have had a busy week work- wise this past one. All that said, I'm trying to get back on track. I ran six miles at my long run pace today. Hit them at 13:37, 13:31, 13:20, 14:40, 13:37, and 13:31. I felt reasonably good. It was pretty hot. I hadn't planned well for fueling, so I grabbed a Fig Newton type bar and ate it at the halfway point. Not the wisest choice I've ever made. It slowed me down to eat it and hurt my belly afterward. Lesson learned on that one. Hoping to really nail things down in these last few weeks!
 
Great job on those paces! And it sucks about the fig newton but I guess training is the time to find that out and not during a race :)
 
Great job on those paces! And it sucks about the fig newton but I guess training is the time to find that out and not during a race :)
Thanks! And I agree about the Fig Newton... seemed like such a good idea at the time. Lesson learned I suppose.
 


Haven't posted in a while. I wound up not being able to run my race because of an issue with packet pick up. I was really frustrated and took a couple weeks off from running. I'm starting back now with the hope of running a full this winter, ideally at Disney (dependent on work etc.). I want to spend this summer rebuilding a good base, getting some strength gains, and losing a few pounds.
 
Interval day!

The good: a bunch of work colleagues went out this evening. I really wanted to go, as several friends are leaving in the next few weeks and I figured this was my last chance for everyone to get together. But my calendar said run... In the end, I went with everyone. Didn't drink, ordered pita and hummus, and left and went to the gym. I was pleased with myself for prioritizing exercise.

The bad: didn't leave quite early enough to complete the run in the daylight, so I went the gym/ treadmill route. I felt like my intervals were taking forever, but I attributed to the fact that I'm not used to running inside. On the last one, I realized I had set it to miles instead of kilometers. No wonder it seemed to be taking so long. Sigh.

Overall, I'm glad I ran. Something is always better than nothing.
 
Haven't posted in a while. Running has been happening but certainly less organized than I'd like. I've been working even more than usual, and it's been a struggle, but I'm figuring out strategies for getting a run in while on call. I can't get too far from my car because I have to be available to get back to work pretty quickly. This week, that included running in one mile loops and finally purchasing some shorts with pockets big enough to hold both a phone and pager. I've signed up for the Disney marathon and I'm trying to organize my running enough to be ready to start a @DopeyBadger plan next month! Really pumped for that.

Runs for this week:
Monday 2 miles at a slowish pace- splits 15:11, 14:44. Really wanted to get in 3, but it got dark too quickly.

Thursday- 400m repeats- WU mile @ 16:29; fast intervals 10:34, 10:25, 10:02; slow intervals 15:41, 15:34, 15:34. Goal was to run these at my 5K pace, and I was faster than that by about a minute. Still not great at gauging this.

Sat- 4 mile "long" run in the heat- planned on 5 but the heat just got to me. Splits 14:12, 14:31, 15:02, 14:54. Need to work on going out earlier so it's not so hot; I was a bit of a bum this morning and paid for it.
 


Haven't been posting much lately, but I've been pushing along toward my half next month and the Disney Marathon in January. Five EB miles today and seven at LR tomorrow. I've struggled during my speed runs... it's just so hot here, and I've nearly puked the last couple times even with trying to adjust for the T+D. Advice for tolerating the heat appreciated as always!
 
Advice for tolerating the heat appreciated as always!

Slow down more. Those T+D adjustments are merely suggestions. If you feel the need to go slower, then do. The goal is to run consistent splits and always feel like you could have done one more.
 
@DopeyBadger Okay! I normally slow down for my longer runs if I’m struggling but thought I needed to push through it for the speed days- otherwise they wouldn’t actually be speed days. I’m not sure how much of that feeling like I’m gonna puke i should be willing to suck it up and tolerate.
 
@DopeyBadger Okay! I normally slow down for my longer runs if I’m struggling but thought I needed to push through it for the speed days- otherwise they wouldn’t actually be speed days. I’m not sure how much of that feeling like I’m gonna puke i should be willing to suck it up and tolerate.

So the way it'll work best is to use the T+D chart first. So easy days, long run days, tempo days, speed days, essentially every day. You look at the scheduled pace, and then the pace from the T+D chart and it gives you a general idea where you should be. Then during the actual training, you use that pace, and the knowledge of what other days "felt" like to decide on today's correct pace. So sometimes it might be slower than the T+D adjusted pace. And almost on all occasions, I don't want you to go faster than the T+D adjusted pace even if it feels alight. Commonly this happens with easy days, where people take the easy days a touch harder because they can. So something like, I have to adjust hard days because they're hard, but I don't have to adjust easy days because they're easy. Commonly that makes the easy days harder than intended.

So with that out of the way. Once you know to look for an adjusted pace regardless of the type, and an effort based on previous experience, then you see what the first split is. The goal is to remain consistent across the whole workout. Avoid the fade. And at the end, if you felt like you could have done "one more", then you did it right. Speed workouts can be slower than the originally scheduled pace and still do exactly what it was intended. In fact, running a speed workout in a T+D of 150 at the original pace goal is way more likely to cause the run not to be what was intended in the first place.

When I was running mid-summer in peak training, my faster workouts were 20-40 seconds per mile slower than originally scheduled. But my effort was spot on, my HR as a secondary measure was spot on, I had consistent splits, and felt like I could have done one more. And as the summer progressed I was getting faster and stronger.

So are you completing the workout with all splits being consistent and feeling like you could have done one more? If so, then you're probably doing fine.
 

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