Smaller By The Day
Here's the situation. I have a FLAT marathon on November 2nd. I live in a FLAT part of Indiana. If I have a 17 mile run, and find over 100 feet of elevation gain, then I found the "hilly" route.
This weekend will be the first time I've been able to get out, and see one of my nephew's football games. He started as a freshman last year, and the entire family watched online. His dad is coming in from California, and I'm driving in from Indiana. It should be great. The problem is that he's in Rapid City, South Dakota. I looked at google maps, and that place looks like the surface of a raisin on google maps.
My plan calls for a long run with about 44 minutes at tempo pace. If I can't find at least a flat loop, I have a feeling that the only time I'll hit tempo pace is when I'm running downhill. Besides that, even LTH was talking about how long it takes to recover from this particular workout. Now, take a flat lander and put him in the mountains, and my fear is that I'll thrash my legs completely.
Here's my question. If I can't find a flat place to run this workout, should I just run the 19 or so miles on the hills and consider that enough quality. I realize that hills, and threshold are not the same thing, but would this be a good compromise?
Improvements
Weight 100 pounds lost
5K 31:02 Sept. 2012 / 23:36 Sept. 2013 (Same Course)
10K 48:59 April 2013
HM 2:03:56 Nov. 2012 / 1:46:50 March 2013
MARATHON 3:57:33 Nov. 2013
Take a deep breath. Use the Measure Route function in RA. Start from Canyon Lake and take the bike path thing along Jackson Blvd into that next park. Looks like plenty of flat places for you to play. There are far too many weeks between now and Nov 2 for you to be tweaking already.
Come all you no-hopers, you jokers and roguesWe're on the road to nowhere, let's find out where it goes
I didn't know that existed. Thanks!
Will run for scenery.
Keep in mind that I am not any kind of expert on this, but I'm bored, so I'll chime in. Two things pop into my mind here :
1) You are going to be in a hilly area. You are going to run. So you will be running hills. (OTOH, 44 minutes on a TM might not be fatally boring...)
2) Running hills is excellent training, even for running on the flats. The one thing you probably do not want to do is go bombing downhill at high speed. The eccentric contractions involved with that will cause DOMS, and thus interfere with your subsequent training.
I would recommend that on the uphills you go by feel, not by pace. Shorten your stride a tad, keep your cadence up, and just try to keep your heart rate or effort level at something that feels right. Don't forget to keep your back straight; think about leaning forward at your ankles, not your hips !
On the downhills, keep your stride somewhat shorter than normal and go easy. If you feel like you're not getting enough of a workout, just wait and take it out on the next uphill. Think of it as interval training.
Overall, your goal should be to get in enough training to keep your fitness improvements on track without screwing anything up. It might not be identical to the workout in you training plan, but plans are meant to be modified.
Stupid feet!
Stupid elbow!
I am training for a flat race by running the Boston Marathon hills which I love but i digress. 1 week is not going to throw a wrench in your marathon plan. I think that it's great that you can get the long run in while on vacation.
Other than running, it's a pretty lazy vacation. We'll be at a campground, sleeping in a tent with one football game thrown in for good measure. So, I'll have plenty of time to run.
I do tempo runs on hills and I just try to adjust to the hills... So my goal "T" pace might be 8:15. I figure if I'm hitting 8:30-8:45 on the uphill portion and making it up by running 7:45-8:00 on the downhill portion then I'm more or less getting the benefit of the workout, plus the benefit of hill training. This is not ideal if you're trying to dial in a race pace, but is pretty good otherwise. Other than that: Find a flat path, or a flat section (I've been known to find the flattest section of my hilly loop and do mile repeats back and forth on that section) or take it to a TM if you have one available.
Sometimes effort is as good as pace depending on the circumstances, e.g. running at tempo effort on hills as opposed to running at tempo pace on a flat surface.
What marathon you runnin'?
Indianapolis Monumental Marathon. It's November 2nd, and I've been training since May. I'm losing my damn mind LRB. I'm losing it.
Sheeit, you have not missed a workout. That is impressive!
Thanks LRB.
Former Bad Ass
You will NOT lose your mind.
If you can find flat, better. If not, do as LRB recommenda.
Damaris
The hills even out quite a bit on the east side of Rapid City. You can make a pretty flat loop even just going around downtown.
I was out there over the summer for a race. It's a nice place. There's some flatter stuff out towards the college as well.
Trail and Ultra Running User Group
Drink up moho's!!
Go out and embrace the hills as they are strength training in disguise. You might be slower but you will get a good workout and will benefit you on your flat race.
And if you are doing Monumental on Nov 2nd, those hills will help on that course as the full isn't flat but still not a hilly bitch either. The back half has some elevation to deal with.