Getting Back on Track (Read 1075 times)

I have been repeatedly frying my energy reserves. You have  2 1/2 weeks, man. 

Bales of hay in the barn!

Shit brewing on the compost heap!

Anyway.  If I ditched runs based on how I felt after 1-2 miles, I'd ditch a lot of runs.  Particularly after a race, it takes a few miles to feel "right".  But feel right I do.  (and yes, a too quick run a day after a half might not be wise)  Bottom line, it's taper time.  I guess it comes down to how you are feeling and what you mean by "wasted".  I get my energy back faster through active recovery... slow runs and walking... hella better than I do from sitting on the couch and wondering how to get back on track.  Unless I feel like a body part is about to come off or I'm about to be hit by lightning, I'm not going to ditch an easy run at 2.  I might stop and walk. I might just run slower.  I might stop for lemon pie. But I will keep going.  NOW... if I still feel like poo at M5, I might ditch it.

Unless you are dinged/injured, in which case I suggest running some intervals.

But, seriously, it is taper.  Running some is better than not running, but it is still taper.  Think of all the good training you did... it'll be there for you at Bay State.  You have time to get the mojo back.  All is not lost.

I thought the general rule of thumb is 1 day of recovery for every 3K of race.  Now, that's not sitting around, but active recovery, easy jogging. 

I agree with SRL and give yourself more than 1 or 2 miles before you bag the run. Sometimes it takes me3 or 4 miles before I start feeling good during a run. I certainly wouldn't bag a run after 1 mile unless there was a _bad_ pain. 

So, I guess the consensus was to run, not take a day off. I went out and jogged 8.5 slow miles. I felt like a rag doll but got it done and feel no worse for the wear.

I feel like my last year of running has been a big education. I'm constantly learning. This weekend I learned to suffer at a new level and this week I'm learning the consequences of that suffering. Sometime in the future I'll be wasted for days after a race. Instead of freaking out I'll just know that I didn't leave anything on the table.

MAN -- your training is complete -- your just waiting for race day at this point.......SURE, you raced a HALF a couple of days ago and now you feel a little waisted (what did you expect when you toe'd the line).......You have a solid running base and all you need are a few days to recover from your HALF..

Couple of days and you'll be right on track...........I cant imagine you have much to worry about...........relax...OMMMMMM OMMMMMMM

You'll be fine....

You ran a 1:22 half, dude, you're no longer allowed to ask questions in Running 101.  That's how it works.  You're an expert now.

Good answer Mike

You ran a 1:22 half, dude, you're no longer allowed to ask questions in Running 101.  That's how it works.  You're an expert now.

All due respect, hate to say, but I would say that he ran 1:22 DESPITE what he does.  It’s amazing how many “fast” people give such “crap-shooting” advice – no wonder people get confused.  

So you ran 1:20, though slow, 3 days after you “raced a hard half marathon (dammit!)” because you felt embarrassed you could only jogged 2 miles the day before?  Ignoring your body’s vital sign and trying to push it through just because it’s more manly that way is certainly not a smart way to train.

I don’t know where you heard or read to race a half marathon damn hard 3 weeks before the target marathon – maybe some fast “crap-shooting” runner might have given that “toughening up” training regime but, personally, I wouldn’t do that big of an effort so close to the target marathon.  It is not like running a hard 3k 2 weeks before your target 10k; longer races take so much more pounding and, hence, so much more muscle trauma.  Usually a recommendation would be; about 3 weeks out, you do a long run (most probably the longest run of the program) of upward of 3-hours; or do a close to MP at relatively long run (somewhere around 1:30 or, for some people, half marathon distance); or a good solid effort of 5k or 5 miles; or even 10k for an experienced and well-conditioned runner.  Sure, Frank Shorter ran a PR 10k only a week before the most important marathon (and, granted, he even ran another PR a few days before this 10 effort) but he had been running 150 miles a week for a several weeks.  I don’t know how much of a PR (I’m assuming it was your PR) but, from the sound of it, you obviously had a very good effort for this half.  Tom mentioned “easy day to each 3k you’ve raced” but it’s actually easy day for each mile you’ve raced (Jack Foster rule); and easy day would usually be a couple of miles of easy jog.  And your plan is actually to push hard this week?  That is probably the last thing you would want to do; you’d be much better off if you listen to your body and take it easy for as long as it’s necessary to recover from the hard effort.  You just can’t bring in several different rules and try to put them all together; if you want to follow one “rule”, stick with it. 

If your original training plan right through to your targeted BQ marathon already included a hard-effort half marathon 3 weeks out, fine; you had executed it well but then I would assume it also includes a good amount of recovery afterwards.  If not, that training plan was not worth the paper it was written on; it was just a random scribble (crap-shooting) and you just happened to run well in one race but have no idea if you would again in 3 weeks time.  Having a training schedule is one thing; and to run a damn hard effort half marathon is another.  You MAY be able to survive doing both but most likely you don’t.  Putting them both together and mix them all up and hope for the best, to me, is not a smart approach and, least of all, regardless of how swift you may be, nowhere in a position to advise anybody else.  So with this Lydiard Interactive Training Program I’m working on, quite a few people (guinea-pigs ;o)) had come back to me and complained that there’s not enough races within the program.  Well, for a full marathon, we have quite a few tempo type of a run (we don’t call them “tempo run” though) and these are easily replaceable with some longer races such as a half marathon.  However, the pace is ALWAYS carefully controlled.  I’m working on 1500m, 5k and 10k program and, with these, you’ll have races or time trials (run at very good effort) every week in the final 6 weeks.  That is actually how it’s put together in the original Lydiard program and these are very important.  However, the pace/effort is ALWAYS very carefully controlled.  In fact, we almost specify what times these races should be run.  You could say these are almost predictions too.  The thing is; you cannot expect to run at your best BEFORE you are fully developed and get yourself in a racing shape.  You try to do that then you’ll screw up your peak form or get yourself in a stress situation and would take much longer to recover from it.  I mean, what do you expect?  PR every time you step out to race?  On what basis do you think you can do that every time you race?  Yet, far too many people, by applying a crap-shooting method, try to run (or race) hard, hard, hard all the time and they may have a great PR here and there but completely miss out their peak form on the day that counts most.  So what would they do?  They go back and try to train harder (instead of smarter).  This is what I’ve meant (somewhere before); “Nobody trains harder than a poor athlete and nobody gets more disappointed than a poor athlete himself.”  

I thought, if anything, people might have taken a notice when Kristen, wannaberunner, had a fairly good run a few weekends ago.  Yes, she only ran one 18-miler to prepare and she didn’t run much a few weeks leading up to that marathon.  People quickly pointed out “Wow, she’s very talented” which I didn’t like.  It actually would have been nice if she did one 20-miler or did some hill training or some pace workouts.  And she probably could have easily done some of those workouts despite whatever the issue she might have had.  But the simple fact is; she shouldn’t have, so she didn’t.  She could have easily (well, maybe not that easy) and tried to do 3 X 20-milers so many people just love to do.  But then what would have happened if she did?  She probably would have kissed BQ a good-bye; or worse yet, she most probably couldn’t have even finished her first marathon.  I’m sure some of the readers here are thinking; “That was me.  I did everything I had to do and, by the time I toed the start line, I was stuffed…”  What looks good and impressive on a training log and what you should be doing or what needs to be done are COMPLETELY different things.  So you just need to ask yourself a simple question; do you want to have an impressive training log (including some impressive PR along the way) that you can show off to people, or do you want to perform well on the target race?