Thursday, April 1, 2010

Week 3 - "Sin of the Runner"

Today I committed the training plan sin I alluded to yesterday. In my current marathon plan, I am not to run consecutive days in a row. The reason being is that each workout is a key run and you need to be fresh for that particular run and also each key run fries your legs setting you up for a possible injury.
With Easter weekend upon us I wanted to schedule the my runs around Sunday since this day is typically a long run day for me.
I ran a hard track workout yesterday, lifted weights (legs) at lunch and swam at the “other pool” this morning. I planned to run the 6-mile tempo run at 10:30AM today to make sure I had enough energy to get through it, but also late enough so I could recoup and eat from the swim.
The workout this morning in the “other pool” was perfect:
100M warm up
50M catch-up
50M right/left
100M Kick
Repeat
4 X 300M on the 5’s
600M pulls
16 X 25M’s descending in time
200M cool down
I swam with Hans and Trey. They both are stronger swimmers than me so it was not too long, but challenging enough. I was in and out and sitting in my office chair by 6:45AM. I am liking the new schedule and pool.
After a few meetings I was off to the gym to run the 6 mile tempo. The weather was beautiful, warm, sunny, just a pleasant day. I ran inside. Okay, I know you are thinking, “What a nut! It has been cold and miserable outside and now we get a great day and he runs inside?!” Believe me, I did not want to run inside, but I had two reasons:
1. Looking at my logs from last year when there was a spike in the temperature I ran outside and bonked. My body had not acclimated to the change and I overheated and became dehydrated. I finished the 15 mile run that day, but struggled off the pace to finish it.
2. After running yesterday and the pace I needed to hold on this run the most viable place would have been the Greenway. If anyone has run the Alpharetta Greenway they know the town must have used extra hard cement on the trail. This trail beats my body up from my toes to my neck.
With these two factors in play, I played it safe. There are plenty of nice days ahead and I did not want to jeopardize anything for 43 minutes in the nice weather.
I hit the treadmill and got the run done. The pace was fast, I thought really fast but I maintained the run and with a 1 mile warm up and 5 mile tempo finished in 0:43:34.
Now with this run out of the way, all I have is a short 13 miler on Saturday at marathon pace to complete before starting the Easter weekend.
I was apprehensive in doing this run since I have maintained the program and to veer off only 3 weeks from the marathon put me at risk for an injury. Nevertheless, to be able to get it done with no issues, the risk was worth it to be able to spend the whole day with my daughters, Sarah and my parents.

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