With the marathon less then a week away attention has shifted from lots of running to the last minute details. Here are some of the things I've been focusing on this week.
I've been working with Rick to develop a pacing plan to allow me to hit my time goal. I start off slow to warm up, run the middle miles slightly faster and then fade a little towards the end. Rick has expressed an interest in running with me and I'm looking forward to the company. I'm hopeful that with his help I'll learn how to run a better race.
I've done a mental walk though of the course. Having the same course as last year has helped with this as well as having a video drive through. I've spent some time looking at the route and thinking about each place it passes as well as how I felt last year in those places. Hopefully I can learn from my mistakes last year and have a better event this year.
Looking at the extended forecast. As of right now it's looking warm and rainy. Not what I'd hoped for, but at least I have some time to get used to the idea of running with wet feet.
Figuring out last minute workouts. I want to keep active, but don't want to go into the event tired. Monday night Erin and I ran 3 easy miles. Tuesday we'll do some light biking. Wednesday we're going to do our last hard running workout before the marathon. Thursday we'll run with the group from the store, but only do a couple of easy miles. Friday will probably be a rest day.
Figuring out our situation with out of town guests and in town spectators. Erin's parents will be in town from Bismarck to see her first marathon. Also Erin's friend DeAnna will be coming from Bismarck as well. We've gotten the house cleaned up for the guests and we need to develop a plan of where to position them as well as my family around the course. We need to consider what items we might need along the way so that we can pick up stuff from them as we're running. Developing a plan to meet up after the event is another thing we'll need to take care of.
Nutrition is getting a little more focus this week as well. We've been trying to eat better all week as well as plan a menu that will work for both us and our guests the night before the race. We also need to make sure we have everything on hand that we'll want during the race. We also need to make sure we stay on top of hydration throughout the week.
We need to make sure clothing and gear is ready for the event. I've decided on 1 handheld for the race and Erin will probably use a couple of them, swapping them out as we pass family and friends along the course. We'll probably do a load of laundry later in the week so that all our workout gear is clean and we can make adjustments to whatever conditions we need to run in. We'll also need to pack clean clothes and shower stuff for after the race.
I'm being a lot stricter with my sleep schedule this week. Every day I'm getting up around the time I'm going to get up on Saturday so falling a sleep at night and waking up on time aren't an issue.
We're going to pickup packets and hit up the expo Thursday night so that we have more time with our guests Friday. This schedule will also help us stay off our feet the night before the race.
Sunscreen.
It's a lot to think about, but it definitely helps to be prepared going into the marathon. I'm optimistic that I've taken care of everything I can control and we'll just have to deal with the things we can't control. It's going to be a fun weekend.
Showing posts with label Training Tips. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Training Tips. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Speedwork
Here are some of my thoughts on speedwork. Most of what I learned is based on training with Rick, but I've started to take some liberties with his wisdom to create my own speedwork philosophy. This is based on my experience of training to run marathons and ultra marathons as a novice runner. If you've been running a while you've probably got your own rules. If you only want to focus on speed and not building distance your results may very with this advice.
Speedwork should be no more then 10% of your weekly mileage. If you want to run 3 fast miles during the week you'd better be running a total of 30 miles for the week. Most beginning marathoners don't run that much when they start a training program so I would recommend introducing some faster miles around halfway or two thirds of the way through a training program if things are going well. Breaking the 10% rule tends leads to injury.
Exception: After my first marathon I kept my speed work miles constant while decreasing my total weekly mileage. My body was used to the 1 fast workout a week already and I was focusing on running a fast 5k.
Tempo runs: For me a typical tempo run is 1 mile warm up, 1 mile cool down and the miles in the middle are run starting near a 10k pace and getting progressively faster until reaching around a 5k pace. The warm up can be run at any pace you want. The mile cool down is slower then your fast miles, but still at a good pace, generally a bit faster then your long run pace. You want to teach yourself to recover at a faster pace then you normally run at. This is probably the easiest workout to do, all you need to do is track how fast your last mile was and then run faster then that. Only the middle miles at the faster pace count towards your 10%.
Tempo Intervals: Typically I'll do the same 1 mile warm up followed by half mile intervals faster then a tempo run separated by a half mile of recovery run near my long run pace. I don't do this workout as often as a regular tempo run. I count both the half mile at speed and the half mile recovery towards the 10%, the warm up does not count.
Hills: Again fairly simple to do, unless you live in the middle of the flattest part of the world like I do. Fortunately overpasses work just as well. I'll do the standard 1 mile warm up then start running across the overpass. The goal is to work hard going up, and keeping the same speed(decreased effort) going down. You teach yourself to recover at faster paces and running down hills is good practice as it works different muscles then running flats of uphills. I try to do this just a bit slower then a tempo run. If you have a big hill just turn around rather then run all the way to the other side. The overpass I use is about a third of a mile from end to end. I count any miles on the hill or overpass towards the 10%, I've got a flat mile loop I use for the warm up that does not count.
Benefits: There's more to speedwork then just having fun torturing yourself by running uncomfortably fast. You lower your heart rate, improve running efficiency, improve your ability to take in oxygen and you get faster. Not many people enjoy speedwork, but the payoff is well worth the effort you put in.
Speedwork should be no more then 10% of your weekly mileage. If you want to run 3 fast miles during the week you'd better be running a total of 30 miles for the week. Most beginning marathoners don't run that much when they start a training program so I would recommend introducing some faster miles around halfway or two thirds of the way through a training program if things are going well. Breaking the 10% rule tends leads to injury.
Exception: After my first marathon I kept my speed work miles constant while decreasing my total weekly mileage. My body was used to the 1 fast workout a week already and I was focusing on running a fast 5k.
Tempo runs: For me a typical tempo run is 1 mile warm up, 1 mile cool down and the miles in the middle are run starting near a 10k pace and getting progressively faster until reaching around a 5k pace. The warm up can be run at any pace you want. The mile cool down is slower then your fast miles, but still at a good pace, generally a bit faster then your long run pace. You want to teach yourself to recover at a faster pace then you normally run at. This is probably the easiest workout to do, all you need to do is track how fast your last mile was and then run faster then that. Only the middle miles at the faster pace count towards your 10%.
Tempo Intervals: Typically I'll do the same 1 mile warm up followed by half mile intervals faster then a tempo run separated by a half mile of recovery run near my long run pace. I don't do this workout as often as a regular tempo run. I count both the half mile at speed and the half mile recovery towards the 10%, the warm up does not count.
Hills: Again fairly simple to do, unless you live in the middle of the flattest part of the world like I do. Fortunately overpasses work just as well. I'll do the standard 1 mile warm up then start running across the overpass. The goal is to work hard going up, and keeping the same speed(decreased effort) going down. You teach yourself to recover at faster paces and running down hills is good practice as it works different muscles then running flats of uphills. I try to do this just a bit slower then a tempo run. If you have a big hill just turn around rather then run all the way to the other side. The overpass I use is about a third of a mile from end to end. I count any miles on the hill or overpass towards the 10%, I've got a flat mile loop I use for the warm up that does not count.
Benefits: There's more to speedwork then just having fun torturing yourself by running uncomfortably fast. You lower your heart rate, improve running efficiency, improve your ability to take in oxygen and you get faster. Not many people enjoy speedwork, but the payoff is well worth the effort you put in.
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