Saturday, December 11, 2010

Snow Day!

A Snow Day means I have time to blog! How bout that?

I am beginning to believe that I can run a 3:30 marathon next month. The workouts are working out and if I am to believe in my training plan, it's doable. The last time I blogged I was talking to you about 1 mile intervals and tempo runs at 5k pace. Well, since then, the training has turned more race specific. This week is my 3rd week of peak training. Next week is a recovery week, then two more weeks of hard training before the taper starts.

So, what does peak training look like for me? This week was a little skewed because I was on call last weekend and ended up working about 27 hours (in addition to the 40 hour work week). Because of that I wasn't able to get my long run in on Sunday and had to run it on Monday. In the plan there are two types of long runs. I had run 18 miles the Sunday prior, but this Sunday called for a marathon pace run.

So, on Monday, I hopped on the treadmill and ran 2 miles warm up, 8 miles at 8:06 and then 2 miles cool down. Then on Wednesday I ran mixed intervals. 3k at 7:48 pace, 2 minutes active recovery (ar), 2k at 7:25 pace, 2 minutes ar, 1k at 7:08 pace, 2 minutes ar and finally .5 miles at 6:52 pace! And then finally, Friday night, I again hopped on the treadmill. (Notice a pattern here?) My Friday workouts are my tempo runs. 1 mile warm up and 7.5 miles at 7:48 pace.

Sunday is a 20 mile run. Am I going to have to treadmill this as well? We are getting greater than 12 inches of snow today, over 7 so far, and then it's only suppose to be a high of 5 tomorrow and very windy. I don't mind running in the cold for 10 or 12 miles, but 20? With a fresh batch of snow that won't be cleared from the side of the road! I'm thinking not!

I'm looking at a few options. I may have a friend that can guest me indoors at a club with an indoor track? If that doesn't work out,  I may run some miles outside then go to the club and finish on the treadmill or I may just run it all on the treadmill.

Treadmill runs are something that has worried me some. Mostly because everybody says that it is easier to run at a faster pace on the treadmill. That's just doesn't seem to be the case for me. I find that I run faster, easier outside on most occasions. What I try to do is mimic outside running while I'm on the treadmill. The incline setting is set at 1% for me as a general rule, but then I decrease and increase it at certain unspecified intervals. So, for example, on Friday I ran at 1% incline for the first 3 miles with an increase to 2% for .3 miles towards the end of that 3 miles. Then I went to .5% for a mile and back to 1% for the next mile. During these times I'll make some short adjustments for a few tenths of a mile. I can feel it when I make the adjustments and find it interesting the .5 and 1% are easiest for me. I'll even have the setting at 0 from time to time to mimic downhill running.

This article has also helped alleviate my concerns about treadmill running.

On my last post, I stated that I would talk about how I go about injury prevention. Sorry that I haven't done that, but that post is in the works and I'll post it soon. It won't be a month!!!

How is your training going? Hopefully most of you are giving you bodies a break and doing other things or simple base training. Do you ever read Joe Friel's blog? He has very good info about base training right now.

6 comments:

  1. First, I am jealous you get to run in my favorite of all states (Arizona) next month. I have eyed that event (I would do the half) before so I want to hear how the course, atmosphere, etc were.

    Second, I feel your pain with trying to train for an early season event. I'm doing a du in Houston at end of Jan and finding it hard to find run time (I only run outside!!) and be motivated enough to get on the bike via wind-trainer. So, best of luck. The hardest part will be returning from Arizona!

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  2. That was storm last weekend, huh? We were in Chicago and missed the whole thing. Luckily, we weren't scheduled to fly into Minneapolis until Sunday! Great runs, btw. You are going to do amazing in your race : )

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  3. Glad I helped make your 2010 a little brighter with some free loot. I am super jealous of your new bosu ball. Enjoy it!

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  4. Happy New Year Tim! You absolutely can run a 3:30 marathon. No doubt!

    Looking forward to seeing you once the weather gets warmer.!

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  5. Hey, Tim! Hope everything is going well for you!

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