Stupid me... I ran too fast (Read 846 times)

I just was wondering 1.) why I just can't resist the urge to run faster when it comes... 2.) what do you folks do after such an occurance...

1. I rarely resist that urge myself. 2. I typically make my next run something easy.

Ok... I went out and ran faster than easy but slower than tempo on monday... and I'm not fully recovered. Yoga yetsterday go me loose but I am still sore... DUH...

My HS cross country coach used to stress avoiding this pace range. Specifically, he said something like "medium miles are wasted miles." Meaning that at this "medium" pace between easy and speed, you get only the detriments of having run a fast workout, and almost none of the benefits. That being said, sometimes you need to feed the beast within even if it goes against your better judgment. Sometimes though, not all the time. Like Marcus said, making the next something easy is the way to go. You may be able to flip some days around in your schedule to that you can get one more easy day in and still complete you're planned run. Reputation to the contrary, I'm not a slave to my heart rate monitor. But one of the reasons I like wearing one is that I have a hard time following my own (and my coach's) advice and often run too fast on easy days. Using an HRM helps me keep myself in check on easy/recovery runs.

Here's something I do when I feel the urge to push it on my easy days. Instead of increasing the pace, I throw 50-100M striders into the run. After 5 or 6 of these, I've satisfied the urge to run faster but still keep it an EZ day. If I were you, I would not do a rest day and instead run 3-4 miles slow tomorrow. If you still feel shot after that, then do the same thing the next day. If you can find grass to run on all the better. I actually run on the tree lawns as much as I can on my recovery days. Not only do I run on a soft surface but it helps my pace slow down a lot because I watch every footfall so I don't turn an ankle.