Wednesday, I ran a very slow 3 miles. It hurt. A lot. Yesterday, I ran a slow 5 miles. It hurt although not quite as badly. Today, I had planned on an easy 7. Then, one of my co-workers said, "we're going for a beer and you're welcome to join us." My immediate reaction, rather than "I'd love to but I have a 7 miler planned" was "sounds great." I thought I might drink one or two and go for a run later this evening. It took precisely one sip of the first beer for me to realize, with astounding clarity, that I wouldn't be running a damn step today. I will, however, drink several beers.
Short term goal: 17:59 5K
Mid term goal: 2:54:59 marathon
Long term goal: To say I've been a runner half my life. (I started running at age 45).
+1 but without the beer. Just didn't want to. And guess what? For once, I don't have to.
You both worked like beasts in your marathons, you both deserve a decadent recovery of little, or no, running. Enjoy!
PRs: Boston Marathon, 3:27, April 15th 2013
Cornwall Half-Marathon, 1:35, April 27th 2013
18 marathons, 18 BQs since 2010
For once, I don't have to.
That is easily the best part of the running season!
Out of curiosity, how long are your marathon recoveries? how many miles do you expect to see in the coming weeks? And then what will you be training for?
uʍop ǝpᴉsdn sǝʇᴉɹʍ ʇI
Good idea, LtH, I think I will have a few myself.
Kudos! I have not run since Sunday. Weird thing is that I have liked the off days. Gasp!
Damaris
As part of the 2024 London Marathon, I am fundraising for VICTA, a charity that helps blind and visually impaired children. My mentor while in law school, Jim K (a blind attorney), has been a huge inspiration and an example of courage and perseverance. Please consider donating.
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The old guideline about a day of recovery for every mile of a race is very accurate for me. After my first marathon in November, 2010, I ran a total of 9 miles the next week and 37 the week after. Too much. I had to take a full week off after that and it was a while before I felt "normal" again. After my 2nd in March, 2012, I took the week after the race off completely and ran 28 the next week and 38 the week after that. However, I was at 70+ the week after the 38 mile week so I was fully recovered by then.
This time around, I have put in much more mileage than I had in past cycles. I have been recovering from workouts more quickly than in the past. I know that because I have been able to do speed sessions with only one easy day between. Mind you, not a brutal session and then one easy day but at least a moderately hard speed session with one easy day in between rather than two.
I'm playing it by ear this time. Those two days earlier this week felt OK but they were slow for me. Wednesday was around a 9:15 pace and Thursday was about 8:30. My normal recovery jog is about 8:15. I probably needed today off. I may try to jog a few miles tomorrow. If I do any speed work at all next week, it will be something informal like a fartlek workout.
I have been debating what to do next. Originally, my plan was to spend next year focused on speed with a goal of trying to go under 18:00 in a 5K. However, the difficult lead up to this marathon and the adverse conditions during the race left me wondering what I could do in better conditions. I have seriously considered focusing on an early spring marathon in the hopes that I'd show up and have great training and better weather. Still, I was more than a bit tired of this marathon training cycle. I am sick of skipping things like fun with my coworkers because I can't afford to miss a run. I'm tired of 10:00 p.m. runs because I hadn't managed to run yet that day. Blech. I'm not at all sure I have it in me to go through another marathon training cycle anytime soon.
Thus, at least for now, my thinking is that I'm going to turn my focus to the 5K and try to break 18:00. I have a couple of weeks before I have to fish or cut bait so I could change my mind but we shall see.
Are we there, yet?
Recovery can be really deceptive and mileage is possibly the least effective measure. Pace and the effort needed to run a particular pace is probably a better measure. After that is the relative ease of long runs. I've found I can fairly quickly get back to my normal mileage as long as I keep all the runs about the same as my average and I keep the pace between recovery and normal easy run efforts. But if I try to go any faster, even a mild progression run or short tempo run, (don't even mention intervals), and my legs let me know they aren't ready for that yet. Ditto if I try a long run. I found it very interesting while recovering from NC24 that October was going to be my highest mileage month since March, 2008, when I ran 213 miles. But it took 3 weeks before I could barely hang in for a tempo run and 4 weeks before I ran in double digits. Meanwhile I was running 40+ miles each week by then.
2024 Races:
03/09 - Livingston Oval Ultra 6-Hour, 22.88 miles
05/11 - D3 50K 05/25 - What the Duck 12-Hour
06/17 - 6 Days in the Dome 12-Hour.
I have been debating what to do next. Originally, my plan was to spend next year focused on speed with a goal of trying to go under 18:00 in a 5K. However, the difficult lead up to this marathon and the adverse conditions during the race left me wondering what I could do in better conditions. I have seriously considered focusing on an early spring marathon in the hopes that I'd show up and have great training and better weather. Still, I was more than a bit tired of this marathon training cycle. I am sick of skipping things like fun with my coworkers because I can't afford to miss a run. I'm tired of 10:00 p.m. runs because I hadn't managed to run yet that day. Blech. I'm not at all sure I have it in me to go through another marathon training cycle anytime soon. Thus, at least for now, my thinking is that I'm going to turn my focus to the 5K and try to break 18:00. I have a couple of weeks before I have to fish or cut bait so I could change my mind but we shall see.
If the race schedules would fit, why not try a reverse to the typical marathon build up, i.e. run a HM next, then a 10K or 8K, and finally a 5K? The winter can be a tough time to work on speed unless you have access to an indoor track and don't mind training on one.
If deciding choosing to drink beer over going for a run defines being in recovery mode then I'm always in recovery.
It's hard to imagine LTH running a 9:15 pace. It's MY recovery pace.
Whatever you decide to do it will be exciting to follow your progress, Brad. I totally understand being tired of investing so much time into marathon training at the expense of other things in your life. At the same time, there is always the "Can I push the envelope a little further?" You did so well in this last race; another 5 minutes, or even just a couple of minutes, would be amazing...
George, I agree with you about mileage at easy pace being easier on the body that speedwork, after a major race. It's been 5 weeks since Chicago for me. Because I didn't push myself like Brad did, I was able to come back to training right away and managed 5 weeks of 50, 65, 70, 66 and 70 miles. I ran a ten miler at race pace two weeks ago which indicated a nice improvement over Chicago. I ran 18 miles at GMP the week before that. But for some reason, I am still totally unable to hit a decent 5k pace in my intervals. I have to do them at 10k pace instead. And even that seems really tough for me. I don't know if I should be worried, or if it's normal. But your post seems to indicate that maybe it's normal. Maybe I needed more recovery before bringing back speedwork into my training cycle after Chicago...
+1 except make it a 20: xx 5k. But considering I fucked up my marathon, thoughts started creeping in that I should go for a do-over this spring. But then I came to my senses and remembered what a miserable time I had training this cycle. It's so easy to forget. So now I'm not really sure what to do.
well deserved beers are the best. I am sure you were not drinking shlitz or PBR.
Rest is good. I am sure you will get your next goal.
”Failing to prepare is preparing to fail.”
“Whether you think you can, or you think you can't--you're right.”
Tomas